Publications
Educational Publications
Educational Publications
Selected publications about earthquakes In plain language.
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GEAR1: A Global Earthquake Activity Rate model constructed from geodetic strain rates and smoothed seismicity
Global earthquake activity rate model 1 (GEAR1) estimates the rate of shallow earthquakes with magnitudes 6–9 everywhere on Earth. It was designed to be reproducible and testable. Our preferred hybrid forecast is a log–linear blend of two parent forecasts based on the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) catalog (smoothing 4602 m≥5.767 shallow earthquakes, 1977–2004) and the Global Strain Rate Map
Authors
Peter Bird, David D. Jackson, Yan Y. Kagan, Corné Kreemer, Ross Stein
Seismic hazard assessment: Honing the debate, testing the models
Four workshops held in 2013–2014 at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis brought together university, government, and insurance industry scientists from countries that straddle plate boundaries and those in plate interiors. Participants were invited; the workshops’ goals involved developing tests of Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis and other e
Authors
Ross Stein, Mark W. Stirling
2014 M=6.0 South Napa earthquake triggered widespread aftershocks and stressed several major faults and exotic fault clusters
The strongest San Francisco Bay area earthquake since the 1989 Mw 7.0 Loma Prieta shock struck near Napa on 24 August 2014. Field mapping (Dawson et al., 2014; Earthquake Engineering Research Institute [EERI], 2014; Brocher et al., 2015) and seismic and geodetic source inversions (Barnhart et al., 2015; Dreger et al., 2015; Wei et al., 2015) indicate that a 15-km-long northwest-trending section of
Authors
Shinji Toda, Ross Stein
How to recognize a “Beast Quake” and a “Dance Quake”
Any good seismologist–carryball (i.e., American football) fan remembers the “beast quake” of 2011. Seahawks fans’ exuberant reactions to a Marshawn Lynch (in beast mode) run caused the stadium to shake enough to be well recorded on a strong‐motion seismograph a block away (Vidale, 2011). With the Seahawks at home for the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship playoffs, both last year and
Authors
Stephen Malone, Kelley Hall, Lynn Simmons, John Vidale
Shaking intensity from injection-induced versus tectonic earthquakes in the central-eastern United States
Although instrumental recordings of earthquakes in the central and eastern United States (CEUS) remain sparse, the U. S. Geological Survey's “Did you feel it?” (DYFI) system now provides excellent characterization of shaking intensities caused by induced and tectonic earthquakes. Seventeen CEUS events are considered between 2013 and 2015. It is shown that for 15 events, observed intensities at epi
Authors
Susan E. Hough
The role of fluid pressure on frictional behavior at the base of the seismogenic zone
To characterize stress and deformation style at the base of the seismogenic zone, we investigate how the mechanical properties of fluid-rock systems respond to variations in temperature and strain rate. The role of fluids on the processes responsible for the brittle-ductile transition in quartz-rich rocks has not been explored at experimental conditions where the kinetic competition between microc
Authors
Greg Hirth, Nicholas M. Beeler
Earthquake geology of the Bulnay Fault (Mongolia)
The Bulnay earthquake of July 23, 1905 (Mw 8.3-8.5), in north-central Mongolia, is one of the world's largest recorded intracontinental earthquakes and one of four great earthquakes that occurred in the region during the 20th century. The 375-km-long surface rupture of the left-lateral, strike-slip, N095°E trending Bulnay Fault associated with this earthquake is remarkable for its pronounced expre
Authors
Magali Rizza, Jean-Franciois Ritz, Carol S. Prentice, Ricardo Vassallo, Regis Braucher, Christophe Larroque, A. Arzhannikova, S. Arzhanikov, Shannon A. Mahan, M. Massault, J-L. Michelot, M. Todbileg
Refinements to the Graves and Pitarka (2010) Broadband Ground Motion Simulation Method
This brief article describes refinements to the Graves and Pitarka (2010) broadband ground motion simulation methodology (GP2010 hereafter) that have been implemented in version 14.3 of the SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP). The updated version of our method on the current SCEC BBP is referred to as GP14.3. Our simulation technique is a hybrid approach that combines low-‐frequency and high-‐frequenc
Authors
Robert Graves, Arben Pitarka
Point-source stochastic-method simulations of ground motions for the PEER NGA-East Project
Ground-motions for the PEER NGA-East project were simulated using a point-source stochastic method. The simulated motions are provided for distances between of 0 and 1200 km, M from 4 to 8, and 25 ground-motion intensity measures: peak ground velocity (PGV), peak ground acceleration (PGA), and 5%-damped pseudoabsolute response spectral acceleration (PSA) for 23 periods ranging from 0.01 s to 10
Authors
David Boore
Soil amplification with a strong impedance contrast: Boston, Massachusetts
In this study, we evaluate the effect of strong sediment/bedrock impedance contrasts on soil amplification in Boston, Massachusetts, for typical sites along the Charles and Mystic Rivers. These sites can be characterized by artificial fill overlying marine sediments overlying glacial till and bedrock, where the depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 80 m. The marine sediments generally consist of orga
Authors
Laurie G. Baise, James Kaklamanos, Bradford M Berry, Eric M. Thompson
Quantifying 10 years of improved earthquake-monitoring performance in the Caribbean region
Over 75 tsunamis have been documented in the Caribbean and adjacent regions during the past 500 years. Since 1500, at least 4484 people are reported to have perished in these killer waves. Hundreds of thousands are currently threatened along the Caribbean coastlines. Were a great tsunamigenic earthquake to occur in the Caribbean region today, the effects would potentially be catastrophic due to an
Authors
Daniel E. McNamara, Christa Hillebrandt-Andrade, Jean-Marie Saurel, V. Huerfano-Moreno, Lloyd Lynch
The petroleum geologist and the insurance policy
In a recent study, Hough and Page (2015) presented several lines of evidence suggesting that most of the significant earthquakes in Oklahoma during the twentieth century, including the Mw 5.7 El Reno earthquake of 9 April 1952, were likely induced by wastewater injection and possibly secondary oil recovery operations. We undertook an archival search for accounts of this event, which unearthed a ne
Authors
Susan E. Hough, Morgan T. Page