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Research about southern California

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including southern California.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2026

Orientation dependence of probabilistic seismic hazard estimates from CyberShake physics-based simulations

Earthquake ground‐motion intensities, such as pseudospectral accelerations (SAs), can vary significantly with horizontal orientation. However, conducting probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) for each horizontal orientation is challenging because current ground‐motion models used in PSHA consider only a single horizontal intensity value, usually the median across all orientations, known as RotD50. To address this limitation, we employ physics‐based simulations for PSHA, which contain full waveforms from which ground‐motion intensities can be computed for all horizontal orientations to study directional seismic hazard. We apply our approach to the latest CyberShake study of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, developed by the Statewide California Earthquake Center, finding that seismic hazard at a 2475‐yr return period, a common value used for earthquake‐resistant design, varies significantly with horizontal orientation. For instance, for SAs at 3 s, the maximum seismic hazard across all horizontal orientations is, on average, 15% higher than the median RotD50 hazard, with these differences becoming more pronounced at longer periods. These observed variations can generally be attributed to physical mechanisms that polarize seismic waves, such as the radiation pattern of the earthquake source and the influence of the subsurface structure. These results may have important implications for earthquake engineering applications, particularly for long‐period structures in areas with substantial horizontal variations in seismic hazard.

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USGS2026

Site response models based on geometric parameters for southern California sedimentary basins

Site response in sedimentary basins is influenced by complex three-dimensional (3D) features, including trapping of seismic waves, focusing of seismic energy and basin resonance. Current ground motion models (GMMs) incorporate basin effects using one-dimensional parameters like V S30 and shear wave velocity isosurface depths, which are limited in capturing lateral and 3D effects. To address these limitations, we develop seismic site response models based on novel parameters that represent multi-dimensional properties of the Los Angeles Basin (LAB) geometry and shear wave velocity. We define a basin shape for the LAB using depth to subsurface geologic interfaces associated with the oldest sedimentary deposits (depth to a particular shear wave velocity horizon, i.e., 1.5 km/s - z 1.5 ) and the depth to the crystalline basement ( z cb ) which are determined using geologic cross sections and community seismic velocity model profiles. We explore a suite of geometric descriptors computed for the LAB and southern California, from which three parameters with the greatest predictive potential are selected and evaluated using empirical ground motion residual analyses in combination with the Boore et al. GMM. The results demonstrate that the zonal heterogeneity index ( ), standard deviation of the absolute difference between z 1.5 and z cb ( ) and standard deviation of z cb ( ) each provide a reduction in site-to-site variability ( ϕ S2S ) of empirical GMMs. The reduction in ϕ S2S is period-dependent, with average decreases of 3%, 26% and 6% for , , and , respectively. Although these reductions are modest from an engineering application perspective, they are statistically significant, underscoring the inherent difficulty in fully characterising complex basin effects. Collectively, these findings indicate that the inclusion of basin-specific geometric parameters yields measurable, albeit incremental, improvements in site response prediction and establishes a framework for the progressive refinement of seismic hazard characterisation within sedimentary basins.

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USGS2025

Examining the role of elevated and sustained strain in dynamically triggering earthquakes on the Anza section of the San Jacinto fault

Microearthquakes can be dynamically triggered in southern California by remote earthquakes. However, directly connecting dynamic triggering mechanisms with observational data remains challenging. One proposed failure mechanism suggests that both the amplitude and duration of cyclic fatigue caused by the passing seismic wave contribute to triggering occurrence. Here, we measure dynamic strains recorded by borehole strainmeters in the Anza section of the San Jacinto fault zone from 710 earthquakes that occurred over 300 km away between 2008 and 2017 to systematically investigate the role of elevated and sustained strain in controlling dynamic triggering. We design a suite of tests to evaluate whether specific amplitude thresholds and durations of strain can predict dynamic triggering cases. We further test whether the peak dynamic strain (PDS) can predict triggering occurrence in combination with the strain amplitude and duration. Based on these tests, there is no strain amplitude–duration threshold that can distinguish triggering occurrence in Anza. Dynamic triggering is more likely to occur if a remote earthquake causes a PDS above 100 nanostrain, though many cases were triggered at smaller PDSs. The lack of clear correlation between triggering and characteristics of the dynamic strain field suggests that the tested features of the incoming waves do not determine triggering occurrence and local fault conditions and slip processes are more important in controlling dynamic triggering in Anza.

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USGS2025

Cascading land surface hazards as a nexus in the Earth system

Earth’s surface is sculpted by numerous processes that move sediment, ranging from gradual and benign to abrupt and catastrophic. Although infrequent, high-magnitude sediment mobilization events can be hazardous to people and infrastructure, leaving topographic imprints on the landscape and remarkable narratives in the historical record. Hazardous events such as fires, storms, and earthquakes accelerate erosion and sediment transport, increasing landscape sensitivity to subsequent perturbations, thus forming a cascading hazard. Although the redistribution of sediment across Earth’s landscape can result in higher risks to vulnerable populations, cascading processes are commonly unaccounted for in hazard assessments. Cascading hazards can occur almost immediately after triggering events, such as coseismic landslides, or over months, years, or even decades after an initial perturbation, such as debris flows after wildfires or flooding in channels alluviated by volcanic debris. Sediment cascades span Earth’s surface, from mountaintops to river valleys, where erosion, deposition, and aggradation can lead to a myriad of hazardous processes, including decreased river conveyance capacity, which increases the likelihood of downstream flooding. An improved understanding of the magnitude, frequency, and persistence of cascading hazards is critical given the rapid changes in the frequency and severity of storms, fires, sea-level change, and cryospheric melting, as well as the expansion of high-population-density urban footprints in regions susceptible to solid Earth hazards. Understanding the full consequences and underlying physics of Earth’s cascading land surface hazards can help minimize future human and economic losses.

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USGS2024

Developing a range-wide sampling framework for endangered species: A case study with light-footed Ridgway’s rail

Monitoring provides the foundation for evaluating recovery of endangered species, yet many species lack monitoring programs designed to integrate a species’ unique attributes, specific monitoring objectives, and principles of statistical sampling theory. We developed a framework for monitoring and assessment of endangered light-footed Ridgway’s rails ( Rallus obsoletus levipes ) across their U.S. range, relative to multi-scale recovery goals. We created spatially explicit sample units and a sampling frame covering all potential habitat to facilitate range-wide probability sampling, and also built a model of the call-broadcast process commonly used to survey marsh birds that included heterogeneity in availability for detection and conditional detectability for each bird during each survey. We used the model to simulate 96 sampling strategies that included different levels of replication, multiple approaches for sample allocation amongst strata, and both simple random and weighted probability sampling (i.e., weights proportional to local rail abundance) of sample units within strata. Effective monitoring surveyed ≥20–30% of the sampling frame on ≥3 occasions, with weighted sample selection and more targeted sampling (50% of units) for strata that are key to species recovery. We also tested Bayesian N-mixture models for estimating abundance and show that multiple models provide reasonable estimates. This work lays the foundation for statistical sampling and multi-scale population estimation for an endangered bird, and for refinement of abundance estimation models. Moreover, this work provides a replicable process for building customized and statistically defensible sampling frameworks to assess recovery of endangered species that can used for other sensitive species.

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USGS2022

Aftershocks preferentially occur in previously active areas

The clearest statistical signal in aftershock locations is that most aftershocks occur close to their mainshocks. More precisely, aftershocks are triggered at distances following a power‐law decay in distance ( Felzer and Brodsky, 2006 ). This distance decay kernel is used in epidemic‐type aftershock sequence (ETAS) modeling and is typically assumed to be isotropic, even though individual sequences show more clustered aftershock occurrence. The assumption of spatially isotropic triggering kernels can impact the estimation of ETAS parameters themselves, such as biasing the magnitude‐productivity term, alpha, and assigning too much weight to secondary rather than primary (direct) triggering. Here we show that aftershock locations in southern California, at all mainshock–aftershock distances, preferentially occur in the areas of previous seismicity. For a given sequence, the scaling between aftershock rates and the previous seismicity rate is approximately linear. However, the total number of aftershocks observed for a given sequence is independent of background rate. We explain both of these observations within the framework of rate‐and‐state friction ( Dieterich, 1994 ).

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USGS2022

Projecting the remaining habitat for the western spadefoot (Spea hammondii) in heavily urbanized southern California

Extensive urbanization in coastal southern California has reduced natural habitat in this biodiversity hotspot. To better conserve ecological communities, state and federal agencies, along with local jurisdictions and private stakeholders, developed regional conservation plans for southern California. Although many protected areas exist within this region, the patchwork nature of these protected areas might not provide good coverage for species that require multiple habitat components, such as amphibians with complex life histories. Because of declines in the past century, the status of the western spadefoot ( Spea hammondii ) in southern California is of concern to state and federal wildlife agencies. Species distribution models (SDMs) can aid in determining the conservation status of imperiled species by projecting where suitable habitat remains and how much is protected from further development. We built SDMs that integrated site-occupancy data from systematic pitfall trapping surveys and presence-only data from biodiversity databases and citizen science platforms to project the current distribution of western spadefoots in southern California. Western spadefoot occurrence was positively related to the cover of grassland or shrub/scrub and the % sand in the soil within a 1000 m buffer, and was negatively related to slope, elevation, and distance to ephemeral streams or vernal pools . Most of the remaining unprotected habitat for western spadefoots is in the southern half of its historical range in western San Diego and Riverside counties. A few large tracts of spadefoot habitat exist on U.S. Department of Defense lands and smaller tracts remain on ecological reserves owned by state and local government agencies. Only small patches of habitat remain in the northern half of this clade’s historical range in Ventura, Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties. Existing regional conservation plans provide ostensible spatial coverage of the majority of extant habitat for western spadefoots in southern California, but most of the habitat within the jurisdiction of these plans lacks formal protection, exposing this species to further declines as urbanization continues in the 21st century.

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USGS2021

Holocene depositional history inferred from single-grain luminescence ages in southern California, North America

Significant sediment flux and deposition in a sedimentary system are influenced by climate changes, tectonics, lithology, and the sedimentary system's internal dynamics. Identifying the timing of depositional periods from stratigraphic records is a first step to critically evaluate the controls of sediment flux and deposition. Here, we show that ages of single-grain K-feldspar luminescence subpopulations may provide information on the timing of previous major depositional periods. We analyzed 754 K-feldspar single-grains from 17 samples from the surface to ∼9 m-depth in a trench located downstream of the Mission Creek catchment. Single-grain luminescence subpopulation ages significantly overlap at least eight times since ∼12.0 ka indicating a common depositional history. These depositional periods correspond reasonably well with the Holocene intervals of wetter than average climate conditions based on hydroclimatic proxies from nearby locations. Our findings imply a first-order climatic control on sediment depositional history in southern California on a millennial timescale.

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USGS2020

Are the stress drops of small earthquakes good predictors of the stress drops of moderate-to-large earthquakes?

The stress drops of small earthquakes often exhibit spatial patterns of variability. If moderate and large earthquakes follow the same spatial patterns, the stress drops of possible future damaging earthquakes could be better predicted by considering the stress drops of nearby small events. Better stress drop predictability could reduce ground-motion uncertainty in Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) and Earthquake Early Warning (EEW). I find that for an internally consistent stress drop catalog of M1.8-3.1 events in southern California, the stress drops of the bigger earthquakes are predictable from the nearby smaller events. However, this catalog only weakly spatially correlates with another catalog of M3.0-5.8 earthquakes, and is spatially uncorrelated with five other stress drop catalogs of M≥3.4 earthquakes. For southern California events M5.5-7.5, stress drops compiled from the literature are weakly spatially correlated with the stress drops of the M1.8-3.1 events, although the correlations are not statistically significant. The lack of strong spatial correlation may be due to actual differences in the controlling factors of stress drop, for example dynamic weakening in moderate-to-large earthquakes. Alternatively, a stronger spatial correlation may exist that is obscured by methodological heterogeneity and large errors in the stress drop estimates. Either way, the stress drops of small earthquakes do not appear to be good predictors of the stress drops of nearby moderate-to-large earthquakes, at least for current techniques of stress drop estimation. If these results are representative, small-earthquake stress drops are not currently useful for substantially reducing uncertainty in PSHA and EEW.

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USGS2014

Report of the Committee on Land Erosion, 1950–1951

Activities of the Committee on Land Erosion, since the present Committee was appointed in September, 1950, have been confined mainly to correspondence among members as a means of becoming better acquainted and of deciding on a suitable program for consideration of the Committee Erosion being such a far-flung and complex phenomenon defies any small group to consider all of its many facets. It is obvious, therefore, that greatest practical results would be obtained if Committee activities were confined in the main to those investigations in which members are currently engaged. Colman and Sinclair state that one of their chief current interests is the study of possibilities for decreasing creep on steep mountain slopes in Southern California. They have reason to believe that a considerable part (the precise amount being unknown) of the debris issuing from the canyons starts its way to channels as dry sliding or other type of soil movement that takes place during the dry seasons although the actual damage occurs during wet periods. Initially they hope to obtain more information on channel accumulations and to learn more about where the material comes from and how and when it moves to the channel. With this information they expect to be in a better position to study means of decreasing debris movement. The importance of debris movement into the densely populated valleys of Southern California is of such an order that additional planning along these lines can be well justified.

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USGS2010

A kinematic model of southern California

We propose a kinematic model for southern California based on late Quaternary slip rates and orientations of major faults in the region. Internally consistent motions are determined assuming that these faults bound rigid blocks. Relative to North America, most of California west of the San Andreas fault is moving parallel to the San Andreas fault through the Transverse Ranges and not parallel to the motion of the Pacific plate. This is accomplished by counterclockwise rotation of California south of the San Andreas fault and by the westward movement of central California north of the Gar lock fault. The velocities of the blocks are calculated along several paths in southern California that begin in the Mojave Desert and end off the California coast. A path that crosses the western Transverse Ranges accumulates the accepted relative North America-Pacific plate velocity, whereas paths to the north and south result in a significant missing component of motion. This implies the existence of a zone of active deformation in southern California that is interpreted to include the western Transverse Ranges and northwest trending, predominately strike-slip faults close to the coast both north and south of the Transverse Ranges. Strain on this system accounts for about a third of the total North America-Pacific plate motion.

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USGS2003

Sediment transport and deposition processes near ocean outfalls in southern California

An urbanized coastal ocean that has complex topography and large-scale atmospheric and oceanographic forcing can contain a variety of sediment and pollutant distribution patterns. For example, the central southern California Bight has two large embayments, Santa Monica and San Pedro Bays, that are connected by a short, very narrow shelf off the Palos Verdes peninsula. The complex topography causes quite different oceanographic and sediment distribution patterns in this fairly small region of the coastal ocean. In addition, three sewage outfalls discharge material over the outer shelf. A large suite of sediment cores was obtained and analyzed for contaminants, physical properties, accumulation rates, and grain sizes. Arrays of instrumented moorings that monitor currents, waves, water clarity, water density and collect resuspended materials were deployed. The data and models developed for the Palos Verdes margin suggest that a large reservoir of DDT and its byproducts exists in the coastal ocean sediment and will continue to be exhumed and transported along the shelf for a long time. On the Santa Monica shelf, very large internal waves, or bores, are generated at the shelf break. The near-bottom currents associated with these waves sweep sediment and the associated contaminants from the shelf onto the continental slope. On the San Pedro margin an initial examination of recent data collected in the coastal ocean does not suggest that bacterial contamination on local beaches is primarily caused by transport of material from the adjacent ocean outfall.

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USGS1999

Postflood persistence and recolonization of endangered tidewater goby populations

Before-and-after surveys at several southern California sites indicated that populations of endangered tidewater goby Eucyclogobius newberryi persisted through heavy flooding in 1995. This was contrary to our expectations that flooding might have led to extirpation in some smaller wetlands. There was also no significant change in tidewater goby density before and after the flooding. Several apparent recolonization events coincided with the flood, suggesting that flooding may be important for the long-term persistence of the species.

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USGS1998

The San Gabriel Mountains bright reflective zone: Possible evidence of young mid-crustal thrust faulting in southern California

During the Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE), a reflection/refraction survey was conducted along a line extending northeastward from Seal Beach, California, to the Mojave Desert, crossing the Los Angeles basin and San Gabriel Mountains. Shots and receivers were spaced most densely through the San Gabriel Mountains for the purpose of obtaining a combined reflection and refraction image of the crust in that area. A stack of common-midpoint (CMP) data reveals a bright reflective zone, 1-s thick, that dominates the stack and extends throughout most of the mid-crust of the San Gabriel Mountains. The top of this zone ranges in depth from 6 s (∼18-km depth) in the southern San Gabriel Mountains to 7.5 s (∼23-km depth) in the northern San Gabriel Mountains. The zone bends downward beneath the surface traces of the San Gabriel and San Andreas faults. It is brightest between these two faults, where it is given the name San Gabriel Mountains ‘bright spot’ (SGMBS), and becomes more poorly defined south of the San Gabriel fault and north of the San Andreas fault. The polarity of the seismic signal at the top of this zone is clearly negative, and our analysis suggests it represents a negative velocity step. The magnitude of the velocity step is approximately 1.7 km/s. In at least one location, an event with positive polarity can be observed 0.2 s beneath the top of this zone, indicating a thickness of the order of 500 m for the low-velocity zone at this location. Several factors combine to make the preferred interpretation of this bright reflective zone a young fault zone, possibly a ‘master’ decollement. (1) It represents a significant velocity reduction. If the rocks in this zone contain fluids, such a reduction could be caused by a differential change in fluid pressure between the caprock and the rocks in the SGMBS; near-lithostatic fluid pressure is required in the SGMBS. Such differential changes are believed to occur in the neighborhood of active fault zones, where ‘fault-value’ action has been postulated. Less likely alternative explanations for this velocity reduction include the presence of magma and a change in composition to serpentinite or metagraywacke. (2) It occurs at or near the brittle-ductile transition, at least in the southern San Gabriel Mountains, a possible zone of concentrated shear. (3) A thin reflection rising from its top in the southern San Gabriel Mountains projects to the hypocenter of the 1987 M 5.9 Whittier Narrows earthquake, a blind thrust-fault earthquake with one focal plane subparallel to the reflection. Alternatively, one could argue that the bends or disruptions in the reflective zone seen at the San Gabriel and San Andreas faults are actually offsets and that the reflective zone is therefore an older feature, possibly an older fault zone.

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USGS1997

Triassic plutonism in southern California: Southward younging of arc initiation along a truncated continental margin

Earliest Cordilleran magmatism in the southwestern United States is recorded by a belt of Triassic plutons that intrude Proterozoic basement of the Mojave crustal province and its cratonal/miogeoclinal cover. The belt extends from the western Mojave Desert through the Transverse Ranges to the Colorado River trough. Triassic plutons are predominantly alkali-calcic, Fe- and Sr-enriched quartz monzodiorites and monzonites. The northern part of the belt is composed of two older plutonic suites (241–231 Ma) which are high K to shoshonitic; the southern part of the belt is a younger (218–213 Ma), sodic-alkalic suite. The plutonic record in southern California suggests a short-lived, southward younging continental margin arc setting for emplacement of Triassic plutons, superimposed on a continental margin modified by sinistral transform faulting. Triassic plutonism in this region was followed by a magmatic lull prior to the onset of voluminous Middle to Late Jurassic Cordilleran arc magmatism.

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USGS1997

Extensional reactivation of the Chocolate Mountains subduction thrust in the Gavilan Hills of southeastern California

The NE vergent Chocolate Mountains fault of south-eastern California has been interpreted as either a subduction thrust responsible for burial and prograde metamorphism of the ensimatic Orocopia Schist or as a normal fault involved in the exhumation of the schist. Our detailed structural analysis in the Gavilan Hills area provides new evidence to confirm the latter view. A zone of deformation is present at the top of the Orocopia Schist in which lineations are parallel to those in the upper plate of the Chocolate Mountains fault but oblique to ones at relatively deep levels in the schist. Both the Orocopia Schist and upper plate contain several generations of shear zones that show a transition from crystalloblastic through mylonitic to cataclastic textures. These structures formed during retrograde metamorphism and are considered to record the exhumation of the Orocopia Schist during early Tertiary time as a result of subduction return flow. The Gatuna fault, which places low-grade, supracrustal metasediments of the Winterhaven Formation above the gneisses of the upper plate, also seems to have been active at this time. Final unroofing of the Orocopia Schist occurred during early to middle Miocene regional extension and may have involved a second phase of movement on the Gatuna fault. Formation of the Chocolate Mountains fault during exhumation indicates that its top-to-the-NE sense of movement provides no constraint on the polarity of the Orocopia Schist subduction zone. This weakens the case for a previous model involving SW dipping subduction, while providing support for the view that the Orocopia Schist is a correlative of the Franciscan Complex.

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USGS1996

Observational constraints on earthquake source scaling: Understanding the limits in resolution

I examine the resolution of the type of stress drop estimates that have been used to place observational constraints on the scaling of earthquake source processes. I first show that apparent stress and Brune stress drop are equivalent to within a constant given any source spectral decay between ω 1.5 and ω 3 (i.e., any plausible value) and so consistent scaling is expected for the two estimates. I then discuss the resolution and scaling of Brune stress drop estimates, in the context of empirical Green's function results from recent earthquake sequences, including the 1992 Joshua Tree, California, mainshock and its aftershocks. I show that no definitive scaling of stress drop with moment is revealed over the moment range 10 19 –10 25 ; within this sequence, however, there is a tendency for moderate-sized ( M 4–5) events to be characterized by high stress drops. However, well-resolved results for recent M > 6 events are inconsistent with any extrapolated stress increase with moment for the aftershocks. Focusing on corner frequency estimates for smaller ( M < 3.5) events, I show that resolution is extremely limited even after empirical Green's function deconvolutions. A fundamental limitation to resolution is the paucity of good signal-to-noise at frequencies above 60 Hz, a limitation that will affect nearly all surficial recordings of ground motion in California and many other regions. Thus, while the best available observational results support a constant stress drop for moderate- to large-sized events, very little robust observational evidence exists to constrain the quantities that bear most critically on our understanding of source processes: stress drop values and stress drop scaling for small events.

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