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Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

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770 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
USGS2025

Submarine avalanche deposits hold clues to past earthquakes

Earthquakes and other natural events sometimes shake the seafloor near coastlines severely enough to cause underwater avalanches that rush down steep slopes, scouring the seabed and carrying sediment to greater depths. These fast-moving sediment-laden flows, called turbidity currents , have at times damaged underwater infrastructure like pipelines and communications cables, as they did, for example, in snapping transatlantic cables off the coast of Newfoundland after the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake.

EOS Transactions↗
USGS2024

Predicted exposure of communities in southeastern United States to climate-related coastal hazards

A rigorous analysis of 21st Century multi-hazard exposure for U.S. Southeast Atlantic coastal communities indicates that up to 70% of residents will be exposed daily to shallow and emerging groundwater by ~2100, 15 times higher than from surficial flooding alone. This threat further exacerbates other coastal stressors, such as flooding, subsidence, and beach erosion, that impact these vulnerable coastal communities and ecosystems under expected future climate change scenarios.

Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, ↗
USGS2025

REDPy: A Python tool for automated repeating earthquake detection and visualization

Detecting and cataloging seismic events are among the most fundamental tasks in seismology. Many standardized tools for these tasks exist, including the open‐source package repeating earthquake detector in Python (REDPy). REDPy generates an organized catalog of seismic events from continuous waveform data, in which events are automatically separated into groups (“families”) by their waveform similarity through cross‐correlation. REDPy also automatically generates various outputs that allow a user to visualize important trends in the catalog, which may be used in real time or in retrospective analyses to allow rapid identification of interesting features. The code was designed for near‐real‐time volcano monitoring but is applicable across a broad range of use cases in seismology and seismoacoustics. In this article, the utility and performance of REDPy are demonstrated on two highly seismogenic volcanic eruption sequences: the onset of the dome‐building eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington, from 2004 to 2005, and the entirety of the summit caldera collapse sequence of Kīlauea, Hawai‘i, in 2018. This article is meant to be a companion to the documentation of the code; in addition to detailing the basic required inputs, script functionality, and resulting outputs, the reasonings behind several important design decisions are also discussed.

Seismological Research Letters↗
USGS2025

Mechanics and statistics of postseismic shaking

Analysis of two weeks of continuous post-seismic shaking after the 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest, CA earthquake sequence using 4 nearby borehole seismometers reveals that continuous ground motions decay as Omori’s law in time and follow the Gutenberg-Richter distribution in logarithmic amplitude. The measured temporal decay in amplitudes agrees with predictions of the rate-and-state framework and indicates shaking amplitudes are proportional to the velocity of afterslip. Our ground motion-based statistical framework provides a basis to forecast shaking intensity in the minutes to hours after a large earthquake.

California↗
USGS2025

Observations of tear-drinking by lepidopterans on moose ( Alces alces americana ) in northeastern North America

Lepidoptera have long been known to feed on the tears of vertebrates as a presumed source of minerals or nutrients. While this unusual behavior has been observed in a variety of species, only a single previous record has been documented outside of the tropics. Here, we present the first documentation of moths visiting the eyes of a bull moose ( Alces americanus americanus ), captured via trail camera in Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont, United States. We discuss the biogeography of this behavior, how it may differ between tropical and temperate climates, and its potential impact on moose health.

Vermont↗
USGS2024

Distinguishing natural sources from anthropogenic events in seismic data

As seismic data are increasingly used to investigate a diverse range of subsurface phenomena beyond regular fast-rupturing earthquakes (Peng and Gomberg, 2010; Beroza and Ide, 2011), it is important to acknowledge that human-generated ground vibrations may be mistaken for naturally generated subsurface processes (Larose et al., 2015; Li et al., 2018). Correct discrimination of natural processes from anthropogenic noise is especially pressing given the trend in seismic detection research toward automated algorithms and machine learning methods (Yoon et al., 2015; Kong et al., 2019;Mousavi and Beroza, 2022) and the growth in seismic data collection in new environments such as urban and industry settings (e.g., Díaz et al.,2017).

Seismological Research Letters↗
USGS2025

Impact of land subsidence on housing sale values: Evidence from the San Joaquin Valley, California

This study assesses the impact of land subsidence on housing sale values in the San Joaquin Valley, California. The study utilizes home sale transactions and vertical land-surface displacement data from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar techniques. Using fine-scale fixed effects, matching, as well as a repeat-sales approach, our results indicate that land subsidence resulted in a 2.4% to 5.8% reduction in housing sale values, with the largest reductions occurring in areas where substantial subsidence occurred. Such findings may have implications for groundwater management and can potentially help inform policy design to help mitigate the causes and impacts of land subsidence.

California↗
USGS2026

pySATSI: A Python package for computing focal mechanism stress inversions

We introduce pySATSI, a Python package for computing earthquake focal mechanism stress inversions. This algorithm can handle a wide variety of types of stress inversion problems with a single script and can duplicate many capabilities of preceding methodologies. We also add new capabilities that include spatiotemporally variable inversion grids, damped stress estimates for clusters with few or no focal mechanisms, and variable fault‐plane ambiguities that the user can assign to individual events. In addition, we added the ability to use damped stress inversions with fault‐plane ambiguity probabilities that are weighted by fault instabilities. Our algorithm is computationally efficient with faster runtimes than previous algorithms, scales well for large datasets, and can be easily parallelized.

Seismological Research Letters↗
USGS2025

Measurement of in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides in fine-grained quartz from shale

In situ -produced 10 Be in quartz is widely used to constrain exposure ages and denudation rates, traditionally measured in sand-sized grains. Here we report a new method for isolating fine-grained quartz from shale and demonstrate its reliability for grain sizes down to single microns. Sequential dissolution tests and analyses of grain size separates show that meteoric 10 Be is eliminated and that recoil losses during cosmogenic nuclide production are balanced by implantation from other mineral grains. High-temperature combustion leads to diffusion of meteoric 10 Be into fine-grained quartz and must be used with caution.

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Researc↗
USGS2026

Simulated ground motion dataset in the Azores Plateau, Portugal, on rock and soil sites

Building on a previously developed bedrock dataset, this study extends the Azores Plateau ground motion simulations to include soil-amplified records and introduces a comprehensive validation framework. Soil amplification is modeled using one-dimensional soil profiles. A stochastic source-based approach is employed to generate the dataset, incorporating randomization of input-model parameters to account for the aleatory uncertainty in seismic activity. The accuracy of the dataset is verified through a comprehensive validation framework, showing that the randomization effectively captures variance and inter-period correlation observed in records. This work provides a robust dataset for advancing seismic hazard and risk assessment in the Azores Plateau.

central and eastern Azores islands↗
USGS2025

Preface to the focus section on earthquake-induced ground deformation

Ground failure due to earthquake-induced liquefaction, surface fault rupture, and landsliding has caused substantial damage in the past and continues to pose risks to critical infrastructure in the future. The consideration of ground failure is central to engineering analysis and design, ranging from site-specific engineering assessments of ground failure potential to broader regional-scale ground failure assessments of near-real-time earthquake impacts or longer-term portfolio risk. Uncertainties in all aspects of the problem complicate the prediction of earthquake-induced ground failure, including the identification of hazard-susceptible geomaterials, characterizing their spatial extent and physical properties, spatio-temporal variability in groundwater conditions, characterization of earthquake ground motions, assessing ground failure severity, and linking ground failure severity to infrastructure damage and loss.

Seismological Research Letters↗
USGS2026

Only very strong shaking can break a tree

A handful of credible accounts, both recent and historical, describe trees being broken during earthquakes. Apart from landslides and tsunamis, such accounts are uncommon, suggesting that trees break only when ground acceleration is extreme or when trees are especially vulnerable to breakage. Here, I consider the question: what ground acceleration is required to break a living tree? I present simplified first‐principles calculations, considering the properties of common trees, focusing on tall, thin trees that can be approximated as uniform vertical cantilevers. The results suggest that, possibly excepting tall trees with heavy canopies, standing trees can only be broken by shaking approaching or exceeding 1 g , as anticipated by the rarity of documented accounts of snapped trees. I briefly consider several well‐documented instances of tree damage during strong earthquakes, drawing inferences about local ground motions.

The Seismic Record↗
USGS2026

Velocity-independent dry friction on mica: A realization of ideal Amontons-Coulomb friction

The Amontons-Coulomb friction law assumes that the frictional force between materials is independent of sliding velocity. However, as Coulomb noted, this is a rough approximation, and a second-order dependence of friction on the logarithm of sliding velocity is incorporated in a commonly used ‘rate- and state-dependent’ friction representation. Here we conduct shear experiments on mica, a layer-structured mineral, at temperatures ranging from 25 to 200ºC and under normal stress of 100 MPa. The friction coefficient clearly depends on the logarithmic sliding velocity at 25ºC, but rate sensitivity decreases with increasing temperature until at 200ºC, the friction coefficient is independent of sliding velocity. Our findings could initiate the development of velocity-independent frictional materials, realizing the ideal Amontons-Coulomb friction.

Physical Review Letters↗
USGS2025

S/P amplitude ratios with Distributed Acoustic Sensing and application to earthquake focal mechanisms

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), which transforms a fiber optic cable into an array of high frequency strainmeters, has the potential to help us characterize earthquakes with a dense sampling of measurements. While earthquake focal mechanisms are frequently determined using P -wave polarities and S / P amplitude ratios with inertial seismometers, the dense sampling of DAS over potentially large portions of the focal sphere can aid our solutions. Here, we consider ∼200 regional earthquakes and thousands of S / P measurements on a DAS cable colocated with a network of inertial seismometers near Arcata, California. We demonstrate the S / P ratio measurements made on DAS are similar to those made on the inertial seismometers and can be used to constrain focal mechanism solutions.

California↗
USGS2026

Low-frequency earthquakes track the motion of a captured slab fragment

Accurate tectonic models are essential for assessing seismic hazard and fault interactions. However, the plate configuration at the complex Mendocino triple junction, where the San Andreas Fault and the Cascadia subduction zone meet, remains uncertain. We analyzed fault slip associated with a recently identified zone of tectonic tremor and low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) near the southern edge of the subducting Gorda slab. Based on tidal sensitivity and P-wave first motions, we show that the LFEs are generated by dipping, strike-slip motion. This suggests that a former Farallon slab fragment, now captured by the Pacific plate, is translating northward beneath westernmost North America. This geometry effectively extends the slab interface fault, challenging prevailing interpretations of slab window formation and creating a potential unaccounted earthquake hazard in this region.

Science↗
USGS2024

GRAPES: Earthquake early warning by passing seismic vectors through the grapevine

Estimating an earthquake's magnitude and location may not be necessary to predict shaking in real time; instead, wavefield-based approaches predict shaking with few assumptions about the seismic source. Here, we introduce GRAph Prediction of Earthquake Shaking (GRAPES), a deep learning model trained to characterize and propagate earthquake shaking across a seismic network. We show that GRAPES’ internal activations, which we call “seismic vectors”, correspond to the arrival of distinct seismic phases. GRAPES builds upon recent deep learning models applied to earthquake early warning by allowing for continuous ground motion prediction with seismic networks of all sizes. While trained on earthquakes recorded in Japan, we show that GRAPES, without modification, outperforms the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system on the 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest, CA earthquake.

Shimane/HiroshimaPrefectures↗
USGS2025

Footprints of past mining in Alaska (USA) derived from high-resolution satellite imagery

Mapping the land area used for mining in the past is essential for guiding the remediation of affected landscapes and assessing the resource potential of related waste products. Despite significant recent progress delineating footprints of active and inactive mining globally, the known inventory of such mine lands remains incomplete. Here, I describe a new map dataset of footprints of land surface disturbance and waste at sites of past mining in Alaska (USA) based on visual interpretation of satellite imagery. This dataset maps 6–14 times the area of previous regional and global mine footprint maps in Alaska and is the first in the region to explicitly delineate mine waste landforms (e.g., tailings piles). The data are publicly available from the U.S. Geological Survey under a “no rights reserved” Creative Commons (CC0) license agreement.

Alaska↗
USGS2025

State shifts in the deep Critical Zone drive landscape evolution in volcanic terrains

Understanding the near-surface environment where atmospheric and solid earth processes interact, often termed the “Critical Zone,” is important for assessing resources and building resilient societies. Here, we examine a volcanic landscape in the Oregon Cascade Range, an understudied Critical Zone setting that is host to major regional water resources, pervasive silicate weathering, and significant geohazards. We leverage a bedrock age chronosequence to show that the volcanic Critical Zone undergoes a structural shift, from depth extents of >1 km to meters, over timescales of ~1 My. We map an active groundwater volume comparable to major continental lakes, stored at the Cascade Range crest. This state shift makes volcanic landscape evolution a unique probe of deep coupling between Earth systems.

PNAS↗