Using machine learning to sift through a decade’s worth of seismic data, researchers have identified hundreds of thousands of microearthquakes along some previously unknown fault structures in Oklahoma and Kansas. The newly identified microearthquakes allowed the seismologists to map and measure earthquake clusters in the region, which has experienced unusual levels of seismicity due to […]
Seismological Society of America
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When It Comes to Eyewitness Accounts of Earthquake Shaking, Representation Matters
As scientists increasingly rely on eyewitness accounts of earthquake shaking reported through online systems, they should consider whether those accounts are societally and spatially representative for an event, according to a new paper published in Seismological Research Letters. Socioeconomic factors can play a significant if complex role in limiting who uses systems such as the […]
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Hawai’i Researchers Kept the Data Flowing During Crisis Response on Kīlauea
December 9, 2020 – The summer 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano on the Island of Hawai’i was one of the most significant in the volcano’s history, collapsing a large portion of the summit caldera, erupting massively from its flank and triggering a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the process. Through it all, scientists at the Hawaiian […]
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Smaller Earthquakes “With Ambition” Produce the Most Ground Shaking
November 4, 2020 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or larger will almost always cause strong shaking, but a new study suggests that smaller earthquakes—those around magnitude 5.5 or so–are the cause of most occurrences of strong shaking at a 60-kilometer (37-mile) distance. Small earthquakes are expected to produce relatively weak shaking, and for the most part […]
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Fiber Optics Capture Seismic Signatures of the Rose Parade
May 6, 2020 – Yes, there’s a prize for the most beautiful flower-filled float in the Rose Parade each year, but how about a prize for the most ground-shaking marching band? According to a new study, the 2020 honors go to the Southern University and A&M College, followed closely by the hometown Pasadena City College […]
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Coastal Uplift in New Zealand
January 28, 2020 – Earthquakes along a complex series of faults in the upper plate of New Zealand’s northern Hikurangi Subduction Margin were responsible for coastal uplift in the region, according to a new evaluation of local marine terraces. The findings, reported in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, could shape new evaluations […]
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Earthquake Catalog Shows Complex Rupturing During 2019 Ridgecrest Sequence
January 22, 2020 – The 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, which startled nearby California residents over the 4 July holiday with magnitude 6.4 and magnitude 7.1 earthquakes, included 34,091 earthquakes overall, detailed in a high-resolution catalog created for the sequence. The catalog, developed by David Shelly at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, was published […]
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3-D Models of Cascadia Megathrust Events Match Coastal Changes from 1700 Earthquake
October 29, 2019 – By combining models of magnitude 9 to 9.2 earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone with geological evidence of past coastal changes, researchers have a better idea of what kind of megathrust seismic activity was behind the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. The analysis by Erin Wirth and Arthur Frankel of the U.S. Geological […]
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Models Suggest Faults are Linked Through California’s Imperial Valley
June 11, 2019 – New mechanical modeling of a network of active strike-slip faults in California’s Imperial Valley suggests the faults are continuously linked, from the southern San Andreas Fault through the Imperial Fault to the Cerro Prieto fault further to the south of the valley. Although more studies are needed to understand the slip […]
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Catalog of North Texas Earthquakes Confirms Continuing Effects of Wastewater Disposal
June 11, 2019 – A comprehensive catalog of earthquake sequences in Texas’s Fort Worth Basin, from 2008 to 2018, provides a closer look at how wastewater disposal from oil and gas exploration has changed the seismic landscape in the basin. In their report published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Louis Quinones […]
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Snowmelt Causes Seismic Swarm Near California’s Long Valley Caldera
April 25, 2019 – A spring surge of meltwater, seeping through vertically tilted layers of rock, caused a seismic swarm near California’s Long Valley Caldera in 2017, according to research presented at the 2019 SSA Annual Meeting. The unusual event prompted U.S. Geological Survey researcher Emily Montgomery-Brown and her colleagues to look back through 33 […]
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Damaging Sichuan Earthquakes Linked to Fracking Operations
April 5, 2019 – Two moderate-sized earthquakes that struck the southern Sichuan Province of China last December and January were probably caused by nearby fracking operations, according to a new study published in Seismological Research Letters. The December 2018 magnitude 5.7 and the January 2019 magnitude 5.3 earthquakes in the South Sichuan Basin caused extensive […]
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California’s Current Earthquake Hiatus is an Unlikely Pause
April 2, 2019 – There have been no major ground rupturing earthquakes along California’s three highest slip rate faults in the past 100 years. A new study published in Seismological Research Letters concludes that this current “hiatus” has no precedent in the past 1000 years. U.S. Geological Survey researchers Glenn Biasi and Kate Scharer analyzed […]
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Signs of 1906 Earthquake Revealed in Mapping of Offshore Northern San Andreas Fault
March 26, 2019 – A new high-resolution map of a poorly known section of the northern San Andreas Fault reveals signs of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and may hold some clues as to how the fault could rupture in the future, according to a new study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society […]
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Toppled Train Offers Insight into 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Jan. 30, 2019 – By mathematically modeling the movements of a locomotive that toppled from the tracks north of San Francisco during the city’s infamous 1906 earthquake, researchers have calculated a lower limit on the earthquake ground motion at the spot of the tipped train. Their report in the journal Seismological Research Letters concludes that […]