SSA: A Voice for Seismology

25 June 2025—The Society continues to maintain a close connection with U.S. policymakers on Capitol Hill, stressing the important role of seismological research in addressing national challenges and encouraging federal support of science-driven policies. The Society’s latest advocacy efforts for our science include these calls for the reauthorization and full … Continue Reading »

Impact Factors Rise for BSSA, SRL

journal pages

19 June 2025— The peer-reviewed journals of the Seismological Society of America remain at the forefront of seismological research thanks to our authors, members, editorial boards, reviewers and readers. SSA is pleased to announce this year’s impact factors according to the Clarivate Analytics 2025 Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The 2025 … Continue Reading »

The Seismic Record Now Included in Web of Science™

TSR Masthead

19 June 2025—The Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s journal The Seismic Record is now included in Clarivate’s Web of Science™ (WoS) in its Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). The journal was included in WoS after meeting a set of 28 criteria that measure editorial rigor and publication best practices, and … Continue Reading »

Environmental Seismology: Q&A With Keynote Speaker Roland Bürgmann

Roland Burgmann

16 June 2025— Roland Bürgmann, professor at the University of California, Berkeley Department of Earth and Planetary Science and the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and head of the Active Tectonics group at UC Berkeley, will deliver the opening keynote at SSA’s Environmental Seismology meeting. SSA spoke with him to hear more … Continue Reading »

Could Seismic Signals from Earthquakes Mask the Signals of an Underground Explosion?

Locations of target sources, background seismicity, and NVAR seismic array sensor locations used in study.

24 April 2025—Could the seismic signal of an underground nuclear test explosion be “hidden” by the signal generated by a natural earthquake? It’s possible, according to a new review article published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America that contradicts the conventional wisdom about explosion “masking.” The new … Continue Reading »

Submarine Telecommunications Cable Detects Road Construction Explosions

construction equipment near Cordova, Alaska

17 April 2025—Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory have been collecting seismic data from a submarine telecommunications fiber optic cable in coastal Alaska, exploring how the cable could be used to detect signals from earthquakes, ocean currents and marine mammals. Then the researchers learned about construction on an oil spill … Continue Reading »

How Wide Are Faults?

Granitic mylonites, ultramylonites and pseudotachylytes from the exhumed Pofadder Shear Zone, Orange River, South Africa, described in papers by Ben Melosh and Eric Young. Photo by Tanya Dreyer, University of Cape Town, 2011.

17 April 2025—At the Seismological Society of America’s Annual Meeting, researchers posed a seemingly simple question: how wide are faults? Using data compiled from single earthquakes across the world, Christie Rowe of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno and Alex Hatem of the U.S. Geological Survey … Continue Reading »

Lake Deposits Reveal Directional Shaking During Devastating 1976 Guatemala Earthquake

17 April 2025— Sediment cores drawn from four lakes in Guatemala record the distinct direction that ground shaking traveled during a 1976 magnitude 7.5 earthquake that devastated the country, according to researchers at the Seismological Society of America’s Annual Meeting. The earthquake, which killed more than 23,000 people and left … Continue Reading »

How Well Do Mapped Tectonic Faults Predict the Location of Surface Rupture in the Next Earthquake?

zoom image of fault mapping class

16 April 2025—In places where earthquakes rupture the Earth’s surface, scientists often try to predict the location of these future fault ruptures based on the geological fault traces created in past earthquakes. But how accurate are these fault traces in predicting the next rupture location? At the Seismological Society of … Continue Reading »

Fiber Optics Detect Crevasse Icequakes on Alpine Glacier

fiber optic cable in snow

15 April 2025—Fiber optic cable deployed on a Swiss glacier detected the seismic signals of crevasses opening in the ice, confirming that the technology could be useful in monitoring such icequakes, according to a report at the Seismological Society of America’s Annual Meeting. Crevassing is important to the stability of … Continue Reading »

Seismologists Share Early Analyses of Myanmar Earthquake

Earthquake damage in Mandalay. | China News Service/ Wikimedia Common

15 April 2025—The 28 March magnitude 7.7 Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar) earthquake caused widespread and severe damage in Myanmar and neighboring countries such as Thailand, with more than 5,000 casualties now confirmed. At the Seismological Society of America’s Annual Meeting, researchers from around the globe shared early insights into the earthquake’s … Continue Reading »

Clustering of Upper Plate and Subduction Earthquakes at New Zealand’s Southern Hikurangi Margin

photo of Wellington Fault Scarplet sign in New Zealand

1 April 2025—More than half of the earthquakes sampled at the subduction interface at the southern Hikurangi margin in Aotearoa-New Zealand cluster in time with earthquakes on three upper plate faults, according to a new analysis. The study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America will help … Continue Reading »

Nuclear Monitoring System Suggests Landslide Cut off Internet in West Africa

27 March 2025—Hydroacoustic signals captured by the world’s international nuclear monitoring system suggest an underwater landslide may have broken communications cables and disrupted internet traffic in west African countries for several weeks in March 2024. Researchers used data collected by hydrophones installed by the International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive … Continue Reading »

Seismic Study of Singapore Could Guide Urban Construction and Renewable Energy Development

Illustration for the geological model of Singapore and mechanism of the Sembawang hot spring

5 March 2025 — A new seismic study of Singapore could guide urban growth and renewable energy development in the coastal city nation, where 5.6 million residents live within an area of 734 square kilometers. The study, published in Seismological Research Letters, identifies areas with increased risk of ground shaking and … Continue Reading »

Keeping America Safe

SSA-logo-graphic-teal

A joint statement by SSA President Heather DeShon and President-Elect Susan Bilek 15 February 2025 — The recent termination of thousands of federal employees, including employees within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of Energy and Department of Commerce, will undermine the critical scientific expertise required to keep the … Continue Reading »

2025 SSA Board of Directors Election Results

February 13—The Seismological Society of America held its Board of Directors election on Friday, 3 January 2025. The following members were elected to a three-year term beginning 14 April 2025 at the SSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.   Ashly Cabas, Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering … Continue Reading »

Fiber Optics Identify Geohazards for Offshore Wind Projects While Tracking Whale Movements

The position of the DAS optic fiber cable after location correction.

10 January 2025—Using an existing telecommunications fiber optic cable running along the sea floor, researchers identified faults and tracked the locations of whales traveling up and down the central California coast. Their study, published in Seismological Research Letters, demonstrates the potential of distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) for visualizing the geohazards … Continue Reading »

Groundwater Depletion May Have Been Significant Trigger for 2023 Morocco Earthquake

building rubble from 2023 Al Haouz Morocco earthquake in_Tizi_NTest

24 December 2024–The rapid, decade-long depletion of groundwater in Morocco’s Haouz plain may have affected the accumulation of tectonic stress that led to the deadly 8 September 2023 magnitude 6.8 Al Haouz earthquake, according to a new study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Bhaskar Kundu … Continue Reading »

Events of 1973 Chilean Coup Captured in Historical Seismograms

11 December 2024–Military vehicles rumbling toward the presidential palace, bombs dropped by the Chilean Air Force, and an eerie quiet descending over Santiago after a curfew imposed by a military junta—a lone seismometer captured all these features of the 1973 Chilean coup d’état. In Seismological Research Letters, Sergio León-Rios of … Continue Reading »

Plugged Wells and Reduced Injection Lower Induced Earthquake Rates in Oklahoma

Difference between pre-plug back and post-plug back depth for wells that were initially injecting into the Precambrian basement or lower Arbuckle. Inset shows the location of these plugged back wells (colored triangles) and other disposal wells (grey triangles) within area of interest. Inset cross-section shows schematic of a disposal well that was plugged back out of the lowermost portion of the Arbuckle. | Skoumal et al. (2024) TSR

13 November 2024–Wastewater injection resulting from oil and gas production in Oklahoma caused a dramatic rise in seismic activity in the state between 2009 and 2015. But regulatory efforts to backfill some injection wells with cement and reduce injection volumes have been effective in lowering the state’s induced earthquake rate, … Continue Reading »

Precariously Balanced Rocks in New York, Vermont Provide Limits on Earthquake Shaking

10 September 2024–Five boulders, delivered by glacier and balancing delicately on rocky pedestals in northern New York and Vermont, can help define long-term maximum shaking intensity of earthquakes in the region. Seismologists examine the fragility of precariously balanced rocks, or PBRs, to determine the intensity of shaking would be needed … Continue Reading »

In-Building Data from Small to Moderate Earthquakes Can Help Predict Structural Response

Grenoble City Hall building

15 August 2024–Data recorded by seismic instrumentation in buildings where ground motion is weak to moderate can help engineers better understand structural responses to earthquakes, according to a new paper published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Philippe Guéguen and Ariana Astorga at Université Grenoble Alpes – … Continue Reading »

Sichuan Province Earthquake Offers Lessons for Landslide Prediction from GNSS Observations

Landslides along a river in Sichuan, China following the 2022 Luding earthquake

7 August 2024–Using data collected from a 2022 magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Luding County in China’s Sichuan Province, researchers tested whether Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations could be used for rapid prediction of earthquake-triggered landslides. In their report in Seismological Research Letters, Kejie Chen of the Southern University of … Continue Reading »

First Paul Andrew Spudich Travel Grantee Completes Scientific Journey

SSA’s newest grant program sends early-career member to Osaka, Japan Chunyang Ji, a postdoctoral scholar at North Carolina State University whose research focuses on the modeling and assessment of high-frequency ground motions, is the first SSA member to participate in a seismological meeting with the aid of a Paul Andrew … Continue Reading »

Study Takes the Seismic and Acoustic Pulse of Wind Turbines

Wind turbine on Wolfe Island, Ontario

2 May 2024–As wind power becomes a widespread and cost-effective renewable energy source at sites throughout the world, researchers are focusing on the propagation of seismic and acoustic waves that wind-harnessing turbines produce. At the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting, researchers presented simulations of turbine-driven wave propagation … Continue Reading »

Lahar Detection System Upgraded for Mount Rainier

Lahar monitoring station for Mount Rainier

2 May 2024–In the shadow of Washington State’s Mount Rainier, about 90,000 people live in the path of a potential large lahar—a destructive, fluid and fast-moving debris flow associated with volcanic slopes. At the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting, U.S. Geological Survey volcano seismologist Seth Moran described … Continue Reading »

Trees Help to Date Catastrophic Landslide Related to 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

: Harvey Kelsey (l) and Steve Angster taking a sample from the “victim” tree exhumed from the Red Lassic landslide

1 May 2024–Trees caught up in two prehistoric, devastating landslides in the Coast Ranges of northern California suggest that the landslides could be linked to major earthquakes, including the magnitude 7.9 1906 San Francisco earthquake, researchers said at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting. In the Mule … Continue Reading »

Strange Seismic Wave Arrivals Lead to Discovery of Overturned Slab in the Mediterranean

Map of seismic stations and the deep Granada earthquake. Red triangles indicate stations for studying the low velocity layer on the slab.

21 February 2024–Strange seismic wave arrivals from a 2010 earthquake under Spain were the clues that led to an unexpected discovery beneath the western Mediterranean: a subducted oceanic slab that has completely overturned. The waveforms paint a picture of a slab that descended rapidly into the Earth’s mantle and flipped … Continue Reading »

Earthquake Fatality Measure Offers New Way to Estimate Impact on Countries

Ruins of Pelileo in Ambato — after the 1949 Ambato earthquake in Ecuador

15 February 2024–A new measure that compares earthquake-related fatalities to a country’s population size concludes that Ecuador, Lebanon, Haiti, Turkmenistan, Iran and Portugal have experienced the greatest impact from fatalities in the past five centuries. The new impact measure, introduced in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America by … Continue Reading »

SSA Supports NEHRP Reauthorization Bill

NEHRP logo

18 January 2024—Through the work of our Government Relations Committee, SSA is supporting the Congressional reauthorization of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), through bipartisan legislation introduced today by U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). NEHRP is the federal government’s coordinated long-term nationwide program to reduce … Continue Reading »

SSA Launches The Paul Andrew Spudich Fund

Paul Spudich on hillside

18 September 2023–A new fund at SSA honors the life and accomplishments of Paul Andrew Spudich (1950-2019) by supporting the professional development of Society members at the beginning of their careers in seismology. Through The Paul Andrew Spudich Fund, SSA will establish the Paul Andrew Spudich Travel Grant program, which … Continue Reading »

2023 SSA Board of Directors Election Results

SSA logo teal graphic

The Seismological Society of America held its Board of Directors election on Friday, 6 January 2023. The following members were elected to a three-year term beginning 17 April 2023 at the SSA Annual Meeting in Puerto Rico:   Annemarie Baltay, research geophysicist, U.S. Geological Survey Principal fields: observational earthquake seismology, … Continue Reading »

SSA and AGU Update Position Statement on Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty

9 June 2022–In April, the Seismological Society of America (SSA) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) agreed on minor updates to their position statement, “The Capability to Monitor the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Should be Expanded, Completed, and Sustained.” The CTBT is an international agreement to ban all nuclear … Continue Reading »

SSA Receives $1.6 Million: Largest Gift in Society History

The generosity of Clarence Allen (1925-2021), SSA’s 41st president, will bring career-changing opportunities to countless scientists in our community. The Seismological Society of America (SSA) announced today that it has received a gift of nearly $1.6 million, a bequest from the estate of renowned seismologist Clarence Allen. The gift from … Continue Reading »

P. Martin Mai Named BSSA Editor-in-Chief

P. Martin Mai

16 June 2021–The Seismological Society of America (SSA) announced today the appointment of P. Martin Mai as editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA). Mai is a professor of geophysics in the Earth Science and Engineering program of the Physical Sciences and Engineering Division at KAUST. … Continue Reading »

Peggy Hellweg Elected SSA President-Elect

SSA logo teal graphic

23 April 2021–Peggy Hellweg, operations manager for the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory (BSL) at the University of California, Berkeley, was elected president-elect by the Board of the Seismological Society of America on 14 April. Hellweg previously served as SSA Secretary and co-chaired the 100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference, SSA’s joint meeting with … Continue Reading »

2021 Election Results

SSA logo teal graphic

14 January 2021–SSA announced the election results from the 8 January 2021 election, conducted by YesElections, formerly known as Election America. 

Three new members will join the board for three-year terms, and one board member was re-elected to a second term:

Karen Fischer, Brown University
Zhigang Peng, Georgia Tech University
Xyoli Pérez-Campos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Carl Tape, University of Alaska Fairbanks … Continue Reading »

Supporting International Students

Travel Grant Recipients 2019

FROM BILL WALTER, PRESIDENT OF SSA 9 July 2020 — Seismology is a global endeavor, and the international scientific community benefits from a free exchange of people as well as ideas. The Administration’s recent proposal to limit participation by international students in US degree programs would be tragic, both for … Continue Reading »

SSA Seeks New BSSA Editor-in-Chief

BSSA

7 July 2020 – Today the Seismological Society of America announced its search for the next Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), its flagship, peer-reviewed international journal. The journal is key to the Society meeting its core mission to advance earthquake science worldwide and to … Continue Reading »

A Statement to Our Community

I write you as the president of SSA, a global society of Earth scientists that values the diversity of voices and backgrounds in our community. Along with the rest of the SSA leadership, I am disturbed and disheartened by the senseless killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Recent racist events … Continue Reading »

At Work: Jessica Velasquez

Jessica Velasquez

20 November 2019–The terms may seem interchangeable to a layperson, but “hazard” and “risk” mean very different things in earthquake science. A seismic hazard is a natural phenomenon such as the level of ground shaking caused by an earthquake. Seismic risk, on the other hand, refers to the probability that … Continue Reading »

At Work: Max Suter

23 October 2019–Although he grew up in Switzerland and received his Ph.D. at the University of Basel, much of Max Suter’s career has been centered on Mexico. From the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in central Mexico to the Basin and Range province of northwestern Mexico, his research has identified and characterized … Continue Reading »

At Work: Leah Salditch

Leah Salditch

16 September 2019–Earthquake faults have short memories—or at least, that’s what the traditional earthquake cycle model suggests. Based on the elastic rebound theory proposed by Harry Fielding Reid after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the traditional model assumes that each earthquake in an area occurs independently of one another, and … Continue Reading »

2020 SSA Board of Directors Election

SSA announces the 2020 election to select four new members to serve three-year terms on the Board of Directors. The seven candidates and their statements are presented below, in alphabetical order by last name; in order by last name, these candidates are Annemarie Baltay, Susan Bilek, Matthew Gerstenberger, Hiroshi Kawase, … Continue Reading »

At Work: Adam Ringler

Adam Ringler

15 August 2019–Seismic networks depend on good instrumentation. But testing sensitive seismic instruments to make sure they’re working right can be a challenge, as Adam Ringler, a physical scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, knows well. “Seismometers aren’t only sensitive to ground motion, which you want, they’re also sensitive to … Continue Reading »

At Work: Joan Latchman

15 July 2019 –Joan Latchman, a seismologist at The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, was born in Trinidad and Tobago and grew up just a 15-minute walk from the Centre – then known as the Seismic Research Unit. At the time, the Centre had a low profile, … Continue Reading »

2019 SSA Board of Directors Election Results

The Seismological Society of America held its Board of Directors election on Friday, 4 January 2019. The following nominees for Director were elected to a three-year term beginning in April 2019 at the SSA Annual Meeting in Seattle: Heather DeShon, Associate Professor, Southern Methodist University Heather DeShon’s principal fields of … Continue Reading »

SSA Board of Directors Election 2019

SSA announces the candidates for the 2019 election to add four members to the Board of Directors. The nominating committee, chaired by Jim Mori, confirmed a slate of six individuals to run for office. The committee included: Jim Mori (Kyoto University) Rachel Abercrombie (Boston University) Gail Atkinson (Western University) Ken … Continue Reading »

At Work: Hannah Mark

Hannah Mark holding a magnetometer onboard a scientific ship

16 June 2025—If plate tectonics are canon in the Earth sciences, the details of what makes up a “plate” are surprisingly tricky, says Hannah Mark. “The definition of a plate is a section of the outermost solid layer of the Earth that behaves as a rigid body, and deforms only … Continue Reading »