Conference Papers

We introduce the second version of the U.S. Geological Survey ShakeMap Atlas, which is an openly-available compilation of nearly 8,000 ShakeMaps of the most significant global earthquakes between 1973 and 2011. This revision of the Atlas includes: (1) a new version of the ShakeMap software that improves data usage and uncertainty estimations; (2) an updated earthquake source catalogue that include

Domestic cats have been introduced to many of the world‘s islands where they have been particularly devastating to insular wildlife which, in most cases, evolved in the absence of terrestrial predatory mammals and feline diseases. We review the effects of predation, feline diseases, and the life history characteristics of feral cats and their prey that have contributed to the extirpation and

In order to quantify earthquake risk of any selected region or a country of the world within the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) framework (www.globalquakemodel.org/), a systematic compilation of building inventory and population exposure is indispensable. Through the consortium of leading institutions and by engaging the domain-experts from multiple countries, the GED4GEM project has been working t

Avalanches resulting from glide cracks are notoriously difficult to forecast, but are a recurring problem for numerous avalanche forecasting programs. In some cases glide cracks are observed to open and then melt away in situ. In other cases, they open and then fail catastrophically as large, full-depth avalanches. Our understanding and management of these phenomena are currently limited. It is th

Wet snow avalanches pose a problem for annual spring road opening operations along the Going-to-the-Sun Road (GTSR) in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. A suite of meteorological metrics and snow observations has been used to forecast for wet slab and glide avalanche activity. However, the timing of spring wet slab and glide avalanches is a difficult process to forecast and requires new capabil

We used ground-based Tripod LiDAR (T-LiDAR) to assess the stability of two engineered structures: a bridge spanning the San Andreas fault following the M6.0 Parkfield earthquake in Central California and a newly built coastal breakwater located at the Kaumālapa`u Harbor Lana'i, Hawaii. In the 10 weeks following the earthquake, we found that the surface under the bridge shifted 7.1 cm with an addit

Time‐lapse geophysical surveys using frequency‐domain electromagnetics (FDEM) can indirectly measure time‐varying hydrologic parameters such as fluid saturation or solute concentration. Monitoring of these processes provides insight into aquifer properties and the effectiveness of constructed controls (such as leachate interceptor trenches), as well as aquifer responses to natural or induced stres

VS30, defined as the average seismic shear-wave velocity from the surface to a depth of 30 meters, has found wide-spread use as a parameter to characterize site response for simplified earthquake resistant design as implemented in building codes worldwide. VS30 , as initially introduced by the author for the US 1994 NEHRP Building Code, provides unambiguous definitions of site classes and site coe

No abstract available.

The nearshore bathymetric evolution of a high-energy beach at the mouth of San Francisco Bay, California (USA), was tracked before, during, and after the powerful El Niño winter of 2009-10 to quantify alongshore bar formation and migration as well as the magnitude and alongshore variability of cross-shore transport. The observed deep-water winter wave energy was among the highest ever recorded in

No abstract available.

Barrier islands develop through a variety of processes, including spit accretion, barrier elongation, and inlet filling. New geophysical and sedimentological data provide a means of documenting the presence of a paleoinlet within a barrier lithosome in the western Gulf of Maine, illuminating the process of backbarrier infilling and its effect on barrier and tidal inlet morphodynamics. The transpor