Publications
Educational Publications
Educational Publications
Selected publications about earthquakes In plain language.
Filter Total Items: 2574
Grizzly Valley fault system, Sierra Valley, CA
The Grizzly Valley fault system (GVFS) strikes northwestward across Sierra Valley, California and is part of a network of active, dextral strike-slip faults in the northern Walker Lane (Figure 1). To investigate Quaternary motion across the GVFS, we analyzed high-resolution (0.25 m) airborne LiDAR data (Figure 2) in combination with six, high-resolution, P-wave, seismic-reflection profiles [Gold a
Authors
Ryan Gold, William Stephenson, Jack Odum, Rich Briggs, Anthony Crone, Steve Angster
New "Risk-Targeted" Seismic Maps Introduced into Building Codes
Throughout most municipalities of the United States, structural engineers design new buildings using the U.S.-focused International Building Code (IBC). Updated editions of the IBC are published every 3 years. The latest edition (2012) contains new "risk-targeted maximum considered earthquake" (MCER) ground motion maps, which are enabling engineers to incorporate a more consistent and better defin
Authors
Nicholas Luco, B. Garrett, J. Hayes
Probabilistic Relationships between Ground‐Motion Parameters and Modified Mercalli Intensity in California
We use a database of approximately 200,000 modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) observations of California earthquakes collected from USGS "Did You Feel It?" (DYFI) reports, along with a comparable number of peak ground-motion amplitudes from California seismic networks, to develop probabilistic relationships between MMI and peak ground velocity (PGV), peak ground acceleration (PGA), and 0.3-s, 1-s,
Authors
C.B. Worden, David J. Wald, D.A. Rhoades
Updated determination of stress parameters for nine well-recorded earthquakes in eastern North America
Stress parameters (Δσ) are determined for nine relatively well-recorded earthquakes in eastern North America for ten attenuation models. This is an update of a previous study by Boore et al. (2010). New to this paper are observations from the 2010 Val des Bois earthquake, additional observations for the 1988 Saguenay and 2005 Riviere du Loup earthquakes, and consideration of six attenuation models
Authors
David M. Boore
Basin-floor Lake Bonneville stratigraphic section as revealed in paleoseismic trenches at the Baileys Lake site, West Valley fault zone, Utah
Recent paleoseismic trenching on the Granger fault of the West Valley fault zone in Salt Lake County, Utah, exposed a nearly complete section of late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville deposits, and highlights challenges related to accurate interpretation of basin-floor stratigraphy in the absence of numerical age constraints. We used radiocarbon and luminescence dating as well as ostracode biostratigra
Authors
Michael D. Hylland, Christopher B. DuRoss, Greg N. McDonald, Susan S. Olig, Charles G. Oviatt, Shannon A. Mahan, Anthony J. Crone, Stephen Personius
Relating stick-slip friction experiments to earthquake source parameters
Analytical results for parameters, such as static stress drop, for stick-slip friction experiments, with arbitrary input parameters, can be determined by solving an energy-balance equation. These results can then be related to a given earthquake based on its seismic moment and the maximum slip within its rupture zone, assuming that the rupture process entails the same physics as stick-slip frictio
Authors
Arthur F. McGarr
Scientific basis for safely shutting in the Macondo Well after the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout
As part of the government response to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, a Well Integrity Team evaluated the geologic hazards of shutting in the Macondo Well at the seafloor and determined the conditions under which it could safely be undertaken. Of particular concern was the possibility that, under the anticipated high shut-in pressures, oil could leak out of the well casing below the seafloor. Such
Authors
Stephen H. Hickman, Paul A. Hsieh, Walter D. Mooney, Catherine B. Enomoto, Philip H. Nelson, Peter Flemings, Larry Mayer, Kathryn Moran, Thomas Weber, Marcia K. McNutt
Measuring rotational ground motions in seismological practice
No abstract available.
Authors
William H. K. Lee, John R. Evans, B. S. Huang, C. R. Hutt, C.-J. Lin, C.-C. Liu, R. L. Nigbor
Have recent earthquakes exposed flaws in or misunderstandings of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis?
In a recent Opinion piece in these pages, Stein et al. (2011) offer a remarkable indictment of the methods, models, and results of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). The principal object of their concern is the PSHA map for Japan released by the Japan Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion (HERP), which is reproduced by Stein et al. (2011) as their Figure 1 and also here as our
Authors
Thomas C. Hanks, Gregory C. Beroza, Shinji Toda
Illumination of rheological mantle heterogeneity by the M7.2 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake
Major intracontinental strike-slip faults tend to mark boundaries between lithospheric blocks of contrasting mechanical properties along much of their length. Both crustal and mantle heterogeneities can form such boundaries, but the role of crustal versus mantle strength contrasts for localizing strain sufficiently to generate major faults remains unclear. Using the crustal velocity field observed
Authors
Fred F. Pollitz, Roland Bürgmann, Wayne R. Thatcher
Stress imparted by the great 2004 Sumatra earthquake shut down transforms and activated rifts up to 400 km away in the Andaman Sea
The origin and prevalence of triggered seismicity and remote aftershocks are under debate. As a result, they have been excluded from probabilistic seismic hazard assessment and aftershock hazard notices. The 2004 M = 9.2 Sumatra earthquake altered seismicity in the Andaman backarc rift-transform system. Here we show that over a 300-km-long largely transform section of the backarc, M≥4.5 earthquake
Authors
Volkan Sevilgen, Ross S. Stein, Fred F. Pollitz
ViscoSim Earthquake Simulator
Synthetic seismicity simulations have been explored by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Earthquake Simulators Group in order to guide long‐term forecasting efforts related to the Unified California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (Tullis et al., 2012a). In this study I describe the viscoelastic earthquake simulator (ViscoSim) of Pollitz, 2009. Recapitulating to a large extent material
Authors
Fred Pollitz