Publications
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U.S. Geological Survey response to Hurricane Maria flooding in Puerto Rico and characterization of peak streamflows observed September 20–22, 2017
Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, as a Category 4 storm. The hurricane traversed the island from southeast to northwest and produced recorded 48-hour rainfall totals of up to 30.01 inches. Estimates of the human death toll range from 2,975 to 4,645, possibly more.The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologic monitoring network sustained substantial wind and flo
Authors
Julieta M. Gómez-Fragoso, Mark Smith, Marilyn Santiago
The Curiosity Rover’s exploration of Glen Torridon, Gale crater, Mars: An overview of the campaign and scientific results
The Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, explored the clay mineral-bearing Glen Torridon region for one martian year between January 2019 and January 2021, including a short campaign onto the Greenheugh pediment. The Glen Torridon campaign sought to characterize the geology of the area, seek evidence of habitable environments, and document the onset of a potentially global climatic transition
Authors
Kristen A. Bennett, Valerie K. Fox, Alexander Bryk, William E. Dietrich, Christopher M. Fedo, Lauren A. Edgar, Michael T. Thorpe, Amy Williams, Gregory M. Wong, Erwin Dehouck, Amy McAdam, Brad Sutter, Maeva Millan, Steven Banham, Candice C. Bedford, Thomas F. Bristow, Abigail A. Fraeman, Ashwin R. Vasavada, John P. Grotzinger, Lucy Thompson, Catherine O'Connell-Cooper, Patrick J. Gasda, Amanda Rudolph, Robert Sullivan, Ray E. Arvidson, Agnes Cousin, Briony H. N. Horgan, Kathryn M. Stack, Allan H. Treiman, Jennifer Eigenbrode, Gwenael Caravaca
Characteristics, relationships and precision of direct acoustic-to-seismic coupling measurements from local explosions
Acoustic energy originating from explosions, sonic booms, bolides and thunderclaps have been recorded on seismometers since the 1950s. Direct pressure loading from the passing acoustic wave has been modelled and consistently observed to produce ground deformations of the near surface that have retrograde elliptical particle motions. In the past decade, increased deployments of colocated seismomete
Authors
Robert E. Anthony, Josh Watzak, Adam T. Ringler, David C. Wilson
Response study of a tall San Diego, California building inferred from the M7.1 July 5, 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake motions
The shaking of a new 24-story tall building in San Diego, California, was recorded by its seismic monitoring array during the M7.1 Ridgecrest, California earthquake of July 5, 2019. The building is located ~340 km from the epicenter of the event. The building is a special moment framed (SMF) steel structure with reduced beam sections (RBS) and viscous damper systems (DS). Peak accelerations record
Authors
Mehmet Çelebi, Daniel Swensen
Planetary geologic mapping protocol—2022
The Planetary Geologic Mapping Protocol covers the idealized process of compiling a NASA-funded map product of a non-terrestrial solid surface planetary body for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) publication and summarizes technical specifications of the Mapping Process for authors and reviewers. Directed by community and programmatic recommendations, the USGS Planetary Geologic Map Coordination Group
Authors
James A. Skinner, Alexandra E. Huff, Sarah R. Black, Holly C. Buban, Corey M. Fortezzo, Tenielle A. Gaither, Trent M. Hare, Marc A. Hunter
Morphology and paleohydrology of intracrater alluvial fans north of Hellas Basin, Mars
Alluvial fans and sinuous ridges are both important records of the history of fluvial activity on Mars, and they often occur together. We present observations of alluvial fans, many of which exhibit inverted relief, in five craters in the region north of Hellas basin. The observed fans ranged in size from ~10 to 820 km2. We identified three primary fan surface morphology classes (chute, degraded,
Authors
Ryan Anderson, Rebecca Williams, Amber Gullikson, William Nelson
Enumerating plausible multifault ruptures in complex fault systems with physical constraints
We propose a new model for determining the set of plausible multifault ruptures in an interconnected fault system. We improve upon the rules used in the Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3) to increase connectivity and the physical consistency of ruptures. We replace UCERF3’s simple azimuth change rules with new Coulomb favorability metrics and increase the maximum jump di
Authors
Kevin R. Milner, Bruce E. Shaw, Edward H. Field
Mapping a magnetic superstorm: March 1989 geoelectric hazards and impacts on United States power systems
A study is made of the relationships between geomagnetic and geoelectric field variation, Earth-surface impedance, and operational interference (anomalies) experienced on electric-power systems across the contiguous United States during the March 13-14, 1989 magnetic storm. For this, a 1-minute-resolution sequence of geomagnetic field maps is constructed from magnetometer time series acquired at g
Authors
Jeffrey J. Love, Greg M. Lucas, E. Joshua Rigler, Benjamin Scott Murphy, Anna Kelbert, Paul A. Bedrosian
Surface elevation change dynamics in coastal marshes along the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: Anticipating effects of rising sea-level and intensifying hurricanes
Accelerated sea-level rise and intensifying hurricanes highlight the need to better understand surface elevation change in coastal wetlands. We used the surface elevation table-marker horizon approach to measure surface elevation change in 14 coastal marshes along the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, within five National Wildlife Refuges in Texas (USA). During the 2014–2019 study period, the mean rate
Authors
Jena A. Moon, Laura Feher, Tiffany C. Lane, William Vervaeke, Michael Osland, Douglas M. Head, Bogdan Chivoiu, David R. Stewart, Darren Johnson, James Grace, Kristine L. Metzger, Nicole M. Rankin
Luminescence sediment tracing reveals the complex dynamics of colluvial wedge formation
Paleoearthquake studies that inform seismic hazard rely on assumptions of sediment transport that remain largely untested. Here, we test a widespread conceptual model and a new numerical model on the formation of colluvial wedges, a key deposit used to constrain the timing of paleoearthquakes. We perform this test by applying luminescence, a sunlight-sensitive sediment tracer, at a field site disp
Authors
Harrison J. Gray, Christopher DuRoss, Sylvia Nicovich, Ryan D. Gold
P- and S-wave velocity estimation by ensemble Kalman inversion of dispersion data for strong motion stations in California
This study uses an ensemble Kalman method for near-surface seismic site characterization of 154 network earthquake monitoring stations in California to improve the resolution of S-wave velocity (VS) and P-wave velocity (VP) profiles—up to the resolution depth—coupled with better quantification of uncertainties compared to previous site characterization studies at this network. These stations were
Authors
Elif Ecem Bas, Elnaz Seylabi, Alan K. Yong, Hesam Tehrani, Domniki Asimaki
Comparison of Digital Terrain Models from two photoclinometry methods
We evaluate the horizontal resolution and vertical precision for digital topographic models (DTMs) of the Moon derived from image radiance information, a process known as photoclinometry (PC) or shape-from-shading (SfS). We use the implementations in two available planetary image processing software systems, single image PC in the U.S. Geological Survey Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrom
Authors
Randolph L. Kirk, David Mayer, Colin M. Dundas, Benjamin H Wheeler, Ross A. Beyer, Oleg Alexandrov