Locations of multichannel seismic reflection profiles (in black), collected during cruise FA2020-14. The profiles are overlain on colored and shaded multibeam bathymetry, Lidar topography (green and white) and near-shore bathymetry (darker blue), and NOAA coastal relief model (light blue and white).
Uri ten Brink, PhD
My research focuses on quantifying tectonic and morphological processes and their impacts on the assessments of tsunami, landslide, and earthquake hazards. I am also interested in bridging gaps between disciplines in earth sciences. I am the Project Chief of the USGS Marine Geohazards Sources and Probability Project and in charge of the USGS Ocean Bottom Seismometers.
FIELD EXPERIENCE
41 cruises (26 as chief scientist)
3 over-ice land traverses, Antarctica (co-chief scientist)
4 Airborne magnetic, land gravity, and land seismic surveys (co-chief scientist)
Professional Experience
1991-present Research geophysicist, USGS, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
2015-2019 Editor in Chief, Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth
1999-present Adjunct Scientist, The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
2013-2016 Professor and Chairman, Department of Marine Geosciences, University of Haifa
2016-present Affiliate Professor, University of Haifa
Education and Certifications
1981-1986 Ph.D. Geological Sciences Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
1977-1980 B.Sc. Geology and Physics, The Hebrew University, Israel
1991-1996 Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford University
1987-1991 Post-doctoral scholar, Stanford University
1986-1987 Post-doctoral scholar, Tel Aviv University
Affiliations and Memberships*
Chairman, U.S.-Israel Bi-National Science Foundation panel for Earth and Atmospheric sciences, 2015
Member - Netherlands Science Foundation panel on Caribbean natural and social sciences, 2014
Member, ITU-WMO-UNESCO/IOC Joint Task Force on Submarine Cables for Tsunami Warnings and Scientific Research, 2013
Co-convenor, Workshop on landslide tsunami probability, 2011
Member, NSF panel evaluating the management structure of the ocean bottom seismometer facilities, 2011
Guest editor- Marine Geology "Assessment of tsunami hazards to the U.S. Atlantic coast", 2009
Honors and Awards
2016 – Fellow, American Geophysical Union
2010 – Senior Scientist (ST), Federal government
2007/8 – Distinguished Lecturer – Seismological Society of America/ IRIS
1996 - Fellow, Geological Society of America
1990 - Royal Society of New Zealand annual prize for Geophysics
Science and Products
Puerto Rico Natural Hazards: Earthquakes | Peligros naturales de Puerto Rico: Terremotos
Puerto Rico Natural Hazards: Tsunamis | Peligros naturales de Puerto Rico: Maremotos
Seismic Reflection and Refraction Methods
Quantifying Morphological Processes
Tectonic Processes
Significant Earthquakes on a major fault system in Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Lesser Antilles, 1500–2010: Implications for Seismic Hazard
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Models
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Stress Changes and Earthquake Hazard
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies-Tsunami Potential
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Seafloor Map
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies
Peace and Science in the Middle East
Earthquake geology inputs for the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) 2025 (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands), version 1.0
Multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data collected in the eastern Gulf of Alaska during USGS Field Activity 2016-625-FA using a Reson 7160 multibeam echosounder
Multichannel seismic-reflection and navigation data collected using SIG ELC1200 and Applied Acoustics Delta Sparkers and Geometrics GeoEel digital streamers during USGS field activity 2020-014-FA.
Multibeam and multichannel sparker seismic-reflection data between Cross Sound and Dixon Entrance, offshore southeastern Alaska, collected from 2016-05-17 to 2016-06-12 during field activity 2016-625-FA
Coastal Topography-Anegada, British Virgin Islands, 2014
Gravity maps of the Dead Sea basin
![Map of seismic research site on seafloor off Puerto Rico](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/masonry/public/thumbnails/image/Cruise_tracks_faults.jpg?itok=3AtYRt1c)
Locations of multichannel seismic reflection profiles (in black), collected during cruise FA2020-14. The profiles are overlain on colored and shaded multibeam bathymetry, Lidar topography (green and white) and near-shore bathymetry (darker blue), and NOAA coastal relief model (light blue and white).
![Scientist on research vessel prepares to launch hydrophone](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/masonry/public/thumbnails/image/Image%201%20launching%20a%20device%20ten%20brink.jpg?itok=_30F9kPc)
USGS marine technician Wayne Baldwin prepares to deploy the hydrophone array during a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico on board the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
USGS marine technician Wayne Baldwin prepares to deploy the hydrophone array during a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico on board the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
![Marine technician deploy a hydrophone off Puerto Rico](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/masonry/public/thumbnails/image/Image%202%20two%20men%20and%20a%20buoy%20ten%20brink.jpg?itok=xDJ9OPMI)
USGS marine technicians Alex Nichols (L) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the hydrophone array on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
USGS marine technicians Alex Nichols (L) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the hydrophone array on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
![USGS technicians launch "sparker" used in seafloor mapping](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/masonry/public/thumbnails/image/Image%203%20three%20men%20and%20a%20cable%20ten%20brink.jpg?itok=7IxfWaol)
USGS research geologist Jason Chaytor (L) and marine technicians Alex Nichols (center) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the “sparker” sound source on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
USGS research geologist Jason Chaytor (L) and marine technicians Alex Nichols (center) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the “sparker” sound source on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
Photogrammetry of the deep seafloor from archived unmanned submersible exploration dives
Modeled flooding by tsunamis and a storm versus observed extent of coral erratics on Anegada, British Virgin Islands— Further evidence for a great Caribbean earthquake six centuries ago
Crustal structure across the central Dead Sea Transform and surrounding areas: Insights into tectonic processes in continental transforms
Late Pleistocene-Holocene age and stratigraphy of the Currituck Slide Complex, U.S. mid-Atlantic continental slope: Implications for landslide triggering
Seafloor observations eliminate a landslide as the source of the 1918 Puerto Rico Tsunami
Quantifying permanent uplift due to lithosphere-hotspot interaction
Systematic mapping of the ocean-continent transform plate boundary of the Queen Charlotte fault system, southeastern Alaska and western British Columbia—A preliminary bathymetric terrain model
Mature diffuse tectonic block boundary revealed by the 2020 southwestern Puerto Rico seismic sequence
Distributed faulting typically tends to coalesce into one or a few faults with repeated deformation. The progression of clustered medium-sized (≥Mw4.5) earthquakes during the 2020 seismic sequence in southwestern Puerto Rico (SWPR), modeling shoreline subsidence from InSAR, and sub-seafloor mapping by high-resolution seismic reflection profiles, suggest that the 2020 SWPR seismic sequence was dist
Earthquake magnitude distributions on northern Caribbean faults from combinatorial optimization models
On-fault earthquake magnitude distributions are calculated for northern Caribbean faults using estimates of fault slip and regional seismicity parameters. Integer programming, a combinatorial optimization method, is used to determine the optimal spatial arrangement of earthquakes sampled from a truncated Gutenberg-Richter distribution that minimizes the global misfit in slip rates on a complex fau
On the use of statistical analysis to understand submarine landslide processes and assess their hazard
The role of pre-magmatic rifting in shaping a volcanic continental margin: An example from the Eastern North American Margin
Numerical characterization of cohesive and non-cohesive ‘sediments’ under different consolidation states using 3D DEM triaxial experiments
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Puerto Rico Natural Hazards: Earthquakes | Peligros naturales de Puerto Rico: Terremotos
Puerto Rico Natural Hazards: Tsunamis | Peligros naturales de Puerto Rico: Maremotos
Seismic Reflection and Refraction Methods
Quantifying Morphological Processes
Tectonic Processes
Significant Earthquakes on a major fault system in Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Lesser Antilles, 1500–2010: Implications for Seismic Hazard
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Models
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Stress Changes and Earthquake Hazard
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies-Tsunami Potential
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Seafloor Map
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies
Peace and Science in the Middle East
Earthquake geology inputs for the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) 2025 (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands), version 1.0
Multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data collected in the eastern Gulf of Alaska during USGS Field Activity 2016-625-FA using a Reson 7160 multibeam echosounder
Multichannel seismic-reflection and navigation data collected using SIG ELC1200 and Applied Acoustics Delta Sparkers and Geometrics GeoEel digital streamers during USGS field activity 2020-014-FA.
Multibeam and multichannel sparker seismic-reflection data between Cross Sound and Dixon Entrance, offshore southeastern Alaska, collected from 2016-05-17 to 2016-06-12 during field activity 2016-625-FA
Coastal Topography-Anegada, British Virgin Islands, 2014
Gravity maps of the Dead Sea basin
![Map of seismic research site on seafloor off Puerto Rico](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/masonry/public/thumbnails/image/Cruise_tracks_faults.jpg?itok=3AtYRt1c)
Locations of multichannel seismic reflection profiles (in black), collected during cruise FA2020-14. The profiles are overlain on colored and shaded multibeam bathymetry, Lidar topography (green and white) and near-shore bathymetry (darker blue), and NOAA coastal relief model (light blue and white).
Locations of multichannel seismic reflection profiles (in black), collected during cruise FA2020-14. The profiles are overlain on colored and shaded multibeam bathymetry, Lidar topography (green and white) and near-shore bathymetry (darker blue), and NOAA coastal relief model (light blue and white).
![Scientist on research vessel prepares to launch hydrophone](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/masonry/public/thumbnails/image/Image%201%20launching%20a%20device%20ten%20brink.jpg?itok=_30F9kPc)
USGS marine technician Wayne Baldwin prepares to deploy the hydrophone array during a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico on board the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
USGS marine technician Wayne Baldwin prepares to deploy the hydrophone array during a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico on board the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
![Marine technician deploy a hydrophone off Puerto Rico](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/masonry/public/thumbnails/image/Image%202%20two%20men%20and%20a%20buoy%20ten%20brink.jpg?itok=xDJ9OPMI)
USGS marine technicians Alex Nichols (L) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the hydrophone array on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
USGS marine technicians Alex Nichols (L) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the hydrophone array on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
![USGS technicians launch "sparker" used in seafloor mapping](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/masonry/public/thumbnails/image/Image%203%20three%20men%20and%20a%20cable%20ten%20brink.jpg?itok=7IxfWaol)
USGS research geologist Jason Chaytor (L) and marine technicians Alex Nichols (center) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the “sparker” sound source on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
USGS research geologist Jason Chaytor (L) and marine technicians Alex Nichols (center) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the “sparker” sound source on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.
Photogrammetry of the deep seafloor from archived unmanned submersible exploration dives
Modeled flooding by tsunamis and a storm versus observed extent of coral erratics on Anegada, British Virgin Islands— Further evidence for a great Caribbean earthquake six centuries ago
Crustal structure across the central Dead Sea Transform and surrounding areas: Insights into tectonic processes in continental transforms
Late Pleistocene-Holocene age and stratigraphy of the Currituck Slide Complex, U.S. mid-Atlantic continental slope: Implications for landslide triggering
Seafloor observations eliminate a landslide as the source of the 1918 Puerto Rico Tsunami
Quantifying permanent uplift due to lithosphere-hotspot interaction
Systematic mapping of the ocean-continent transform plate boundary of the Queen Charlotte fault system, southeastern Alaska and western British Columbia—A preliminary bathymetric terrain model
Mature diffuse tectonic block boundary revealed by the 2020 southwestern Puerto Rico seismic sequence
Distributed faulting typically tends to coalesce into one or a few faults with repeated deformation. The progression of clustered medium-sized (≥Mw4.5) earthquakes during the 2020 seismic sequence in southwestern Puerto Rico (SWPR), modeling shoreline subsidence from InSAR, and sub-seafloor mapping by high-resolution seismic reflection profiles, suggest that the 2020 SWPR seismic sequence was dist
Earthquake magnitude distributions on northern Caribbean faults from combinatorial optimization models
On-fault earthquake magnitude distributions are calculated for northern Caribbean faults using estimates of fault slip and regional seismicity parameters. Integer programming, a combinatorial optimization method, is used to determine the optimal spatial arrangement of earthquakes sampled from a truncated Gutenberg-Richter distribution that minimizes the global misfit in slip rates on a complex fau
On the use of statistical analysis to understand submarine landslide processes and assess their hazard
The role of pre-magmatic rifting in shaping a volcanic continental margin: An example from the Eastern North American Margin
Numerical characterization of cohesive and non-cohesive ‘sediments’ under different consolidation states using 3D DEM triaxial experiments
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government