Publications
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Climate change and global carbon cycle: Perspectives and opportunities
The relevance of methane hydrates research to broader societal themes is often framed in terms of methane’s role in the global carbon cycle and its potential contribution to future climate change. To date, investigations of these fundamental issues have remained largely disconnected from applied studies focused on locating natural gas hydrate deposits, developing production technologies, and analy
Authors
Carolyn D. Ruppel, John W. Pohlman
Preliminary report on the 29 July 2008 Mw 5.4 Chino Hills, Eastern Los Angeles Basin, California, earthquake sequence
The 29 July 2008 Mw 5.4 Chino Hills earthquake was the largest event to occur within the greater Los Angeles metropolitan region since the Mw 6.7 1994 Northridge earthquake. The earthquake was widely felt in a metropolitan region with a population of more than 10 million people and was recorded by hundreds of broadband and strong-motion instruments. In this report we present preliminary analysis o
Authors
Egill Hauksson, Karen R. Felzer, Doug Given, Michal Giveon, Susan E. Hough, Kate Hutton, Hiroo Kanamori, Volkan Sevilgen, Shengji Wei, Alan K. Yong
Modeling rainfall conditions for shallow landsliding in Seattle, Washington
We describe the results from an application of a distributed, transient infiltration–slope-stability model for an 18 km2 area of southwestern Seattle, Washington, USA. The model (TRIGRS) combines an infinite slope-stability calculation and an analytic, one-dimensional solution for pore-pressure diffusion in a soil layer of finite depth in response to time-varying rainfall. The transient solution f
Authors
Jonathan W. Godt, William H. Schulz, Rex L. Baum, William Z. Savage
A prototype system for forecasting landslides in the Seattle, Washington, area
Empirical rainfall thresholds and related information form the basis of a prototype system for forecasting landslides in the Seattle area. The forecasts are tied to four alert levels, and a decision tree guides the use of thresholds to determine the appropriate level. From analysis of historical landslide data, we developed a formula for a cumulative rainfall threshold (CT), P3 = 88.9 − 0.67P15,
Authors
Alan F. Chleborad, Rex L. Baum, Jonathan W. Godt, Philip S. Powers
Assessing deep-seated landslide susceptibility using 3-D groundwater and slope-stability analyses, southwestern Seattle, Washington
In Seattle, Washington, deep-seated landslides on bluffs along Puget Sound have historically caused extensive damage to land and structures. These large failures are controlled by three-dimensional (3-D) variations in strength and pore-water pressures. We assess the slope stability of part of southwestern Seattle using a 3-D limit-equilibrium analysis coupled with a 3-D groundwater flow model. Our
Authors
Dianne L. Brien, Mark E. Reid
Shallow landslide hazard map of Seattle, Washington
Landslides, particularly debris flows, have long been a significant cause of damage and destruction to people and property in the Puget Sound region. Following the years of 1996 and 1997, the Federal Emergency Management Agency designated Seattle as a “Project Impact” city with the goal of encouraging the city to become more disaster resistant to landslides and other natural hazards. A major recom
Authors
Edwin L. Harp, John A. Michael, William T. Laprade
Preface
The idea for Landslides and Engineering Geology of the Seattle, Washington, Areagrew out of a major landslide disaster that occurred in the Puget Sound region at the beginning of 1997. Unusually heavy snowfall in late December 1996 followed by warm, intense rainfall on 31 December through 2 January 1997 produced hundreds of damaging landslides in communities surrounding Puget Sound. This disaster
Authors
Rex L. Baum, Jonathan W. Godt, Lynn M. Highland
The USGS Caribbean Seismic Network
Jamaica, Cuba, Turks and Caicos, Domincan Republic, Antigua-Barbuda, Grenada, Barbados, Panama, Honduras—what an itinerary! Palm trees, beaches,
iguanas and seismic stations.
Authors
Lind Gee, Dan McNamara, Jean Weaver, Harley Benz, Doug Ford, Gay Gyure
Reevaluation of the macroseismic effects of the 1887 Sonora, Mexico earthquake and its magnitude estimation
The Sonora, Mexico, earthquake of 3 May 1887 occurred a few years before the start of the instrumental era in seismology. We revisit all available accounts of the earthquake and assign Modified Mercalli Intensities (MMI), interpreting and analyzing macroseismic information using the best available modern methods. We find that earlier intensity assignments for this important earthquake were unjusti
Authors
Gerardo Suárez, Susan E. Hough
The 2005 catastrophic acid crater lake drainage, lahar, and acidic aerosol formation at Mount Chiginagak volcano, Alaska, USA: Field observations and preliminary water and vegetation chemistry results
A mass of snow and ice 400-m-wide and 105-m-thick began melting in the summit crater of Mount Chiginagak volcano sometime between November 2004 and early May 2005, presumably owing to increased heat flux from the hydrothermal system, or possibly from magma intrusion and degassing. In early May 2005, an estimated 3.8??106 m3 of sulfurous, clay-rich debris and acidic water, with an accompanying acid
Authors
J.R. Schaefer, W. E. Scott, William C. Evans, J. Jorgenson, R. G. McGimsey, B. Wang
New episodes of volcanism at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
Mid‐2007 was a time of intense activity at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii (see Figure 1). In June, the long‐lived Pu'u 'Ō'ō—Kupaianaha eruption, a dual‐vent system along the east rift zone (ERZ) that has been erupting since 1983 [Heliker et al., 2003], paused due to the outbreak of a new vent farther up the rift (see Figure 2). The Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent collapsed following that activity, and the resulting reorg
Authors
Michael P. Poland, Asta Miklius, Tim R. Orr, J. Sutton, Carl Thornber, David C. Wilson
The critical role of volcano monitoring in risk reduction
Data from volcano-monitoring studies constitute the only scientifically valid basis for short-term forecasts of a future eruption, or of possible changes during an ongoing eruption. Thus, in any effective hazards-mitigation program, a basic strategy in reducing volcano risk is the initiation or augmentation of volcano monitoring at historically active volcanoes and also at geologically young, but
Authors
R. I. Tilling