Images

Damage to local stores in downtown Lushan.

Life in a tent. Two kids singing and playing among the tents.

Oilfield waste arrives by tanker truck at a wastewater disposal facility near Platteville, Colo. After removal of solids and oil, the wastewater is injected into a deep well for permanent storage underground. This disposal process has the potential to trigger earthquakes, but very few wastewater disposal wells produce earthquakes.

Oilfield waste arrives by tanker truck at a wastewater disposal facility near Platteville, Colo. After removal of solids and oil, the wastewater is injected into a deep well for permanent storage underground. This disposal process has the potential to trigger earthquakes, but very few wastewater disposal wells produce earthquakes.

Top: The global tectonic regions modified from García et al. (2012), with each region shown in a different color. Bottom: The productivity parameter (a-value) and temporal decay parameter (p-value) for each global tectonic regime shown as a “+” with uncertainty shown by the line of matching color. Figures from Page et al. (2016).

USGS geophysicist Steve Snyder is measuring gravity, for information on geology beneath the surface, and the GPS location of this measurement in the earthquake area.

USGS geoscientists Wright Horton, Richard Harrison, and Anjana Shah (left to right) are studying an exploratory trench for possible earthquake-related deformation.

House damage in central Oklahoma from the magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Nov. 6, 2011. Research conducted by USGS geophysicist Elizabeth Cochran and her university-based colleagues suggests that this earthquake was induced by injection into deep disposal wells in the Wilzetta North field.

USGS geologist Ed Harp photographing a small rock fall from a road cut along the Blue Ridge Parkway north of Roanoke, Virginia. This is part of a study documenting landslides triggered from the 2011 magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia. Green grass beneath the rock fragments indicates that the rock fall is fresh and probably was triggered by the earthquake

Photo of chimney damage at a house in Louisa County, Virginia. This was a result from a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia on August 23, 2011.

Scientists from the USGS and the University of Rhode Island examine coastal sediment on Simeonof Island for evidence of sudden land-level change caused by earthquakes on the Aleutian megathrust.

Scientists from the USGS, University of Rhode Island, and the Alaska Dept of Geological and Geophysical Surveys dig into coastal bluffs of Simeonof Island in search of evidence for ancient beach deposits and tectonically uplifted shorelines.

Scientists from the USGS, University of Rhode Island, and the Alaska Dept of Geological and Geophysical Surveys use a hand-driven corer to sample soils and marsh sediment on Simeonof Island as part of an investigation to investigate evidence for earthquakes and tsunamis in the Shumagin Islands.

Starting around July 10, 2013, an airplane operating under contract to the USGS will be making low-level flights over a 1400-square-mile area in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. This airplane is a Cessna-180, specially modified for low-altitude geophysical surveys.

Fractures along Superstition Hills Fault formed in response to the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake. Black arrows mark matches across en echelon fractures. Centimeter rule for scale.

Damage to structures in downtown Concepcion, Chile, due to the February 27, 2010 magnitude 8.8 earthquake. 

Photograph of surface fractures along fault south of Pinto Wash; view to the northeast.

Vertical surface fractures along Ocotillo Fault. Faulting here is associated with the nearby Mw5.7 aftershock of June 14, 2010. Tape measure for scale.

Fault scarp (above change in slope) with fractures (white arrows) along Yuha Fault; view to the northwest. Yellow notebook (in center) for scale.

Surface fractures and long-term offset of features along the Imperial Fault. Right-lateral fault offset at I-8 due to recurrent movement on the Imperial Fault; view to the east.

Fresh surface fractures (black arrows) along Brawley Fault Zone and across Ralph Road in response to the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake; view to the north. Slight vertical component of slip (2 mm, up on east [right] side) more noticeable at white arrow.