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 »

2024 Annual Meeting Travel Grants Announced

SSA announced 20 travel grants to student, early-career and international members to participate in the 2024 Annual Meeting. The travel grants are made possible by generous donations to the Kanamori Fund, Annual Meeting Travel Fund, General Fund and Joyner Fund. Student Travel Grant Recipients: Himanshu Agrawal, University of Edinburgh Sandra Donna … Continue Reading »

The Seismic Record Now Included in Elsevier’s Scopus

TSR Masthead

8 January 2024–The Seismological Society of America’s journal The Seismic Record (TSR) has been accepted in Scopus®, Elsevier’s comprehensive and multidisciplinary abstract and citation database. Scopus® includes more than 1.8 billion references dating back to 1970, including journals, trade journals, conference proceedings and books. The Scopus® Content Selection & Advisory … Continue Reading »

Morocco Earthquake Had Unusual Deep Slip, According to New Modeling

Aftermath of 2023 earthquake in Taroudant Province, Morocco. | alyaoum24/ Wikimedia Commons

14 December 2023–In their rapid characterization of the magnitude 6.8 Al Haouz earthquake in Morocco, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) suggest that the earthquake ruptured roughly 25 kilometers deep beneath the surface. The USGS source modeling, published in The Seismic Record, shows a compact … Continue Reading »

Was the Earthquake Induced or Natural? New Study Tests Frameworks to Answer the Question

The town of Peace River, Alberta, seen from the Sagitawa Lookout. | awmcphee/ Wikimedia Common

13 December 2023–Using questionnaires created to determine whether a particular earthquake is natural or induced by human activity, a panel of experts concluded that the November 2022 magnitude 5.2 Peace River earthquake sequence in Alberta, Canada was likely to be induced. The case study published in Seismological Research Letters was … Continue Reading »

BSSA Special Issue on Earthquakes in Slowly Deforming Mountain Belts

2023 Herat earthquake rescue efforts

14 November 2023–The devastating September 2023 earthquake in Morocco and the unusual series of October 2023 earthquakes in Afghanistan are painful reminders of the seismic hazard that exists even in slowly deforming mountain belts away from major plate boundaries. Earthquakes take place infrequently in these regions, but their impacts can … Continue Reading »

Helen Crowley Selected as 2024 Joyner Lecturer

Helen Crowley standing at podium

1 November 2023–The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and SSA are pleased to announce that Helen Crowley, secretary general of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation, is the 2024 recipient of the William B. Joyner Lecture Award. Crowley will deliver the Joyner Lecture at the EERI Annual Meeting to be … Continue Reading »

Prayer Book Fills Gap in Italian Earthquake History

1456 Marche earthquake MS

1 November 2023–The chance discovery of a note written in a 15th century Hebrew prayer book fills an important gap in the historical Italian earthquake record, offering a brief glimpse of a previously unknown earthquake affecting the Marche region in the central Apennines. Paolo Galli, who found the note in … 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 »

New methodology combines earthquake ground shaking and ground failure for forecasting gas pipeline damage

28 August 2023–After an earthquake strikes in an area with a buried gas pipeline network, it can be critical to identify where potential damage to the pipeline might have occurred—especially since these networks can cover hundreds of kilometers and may sometimes not be easily accessible. Forecasts of pipeline damage typically … Continue Reading »

SSA Journals Announce Author Name Change Policy and Procedures

journal pages

28 July 2023–SSA has developed an author name change policy and procedures for authors publishing in its three journals: the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), Seismological Research Letters (SRL), and The Seismic Record (TSR). There are many reasons why journal authors may change names during their publishing … Continue Reading »

Steer the Science at SSA 2024

SSA meeting session room

18 July 2023—It’s almost time to submit your session proposal for the next Annual Meeting. Learn how to get started at the SSA mentoring session on 25 July. Organizing a session for the SSA Annual Meeting is one of the best ways to make a splash in the global seismological … Continue Reading »

What Are the Characteristics of Foreshocks for Large Earthquakes?

map of circum-Pacific foreshocks

28 June 2023–Seismologists agree that foreshocks are the most widely identified signal of an upcoming mainshock earthquake. But do these foreshock sequences have distinctive characteristics that separate them from aftershock sequences, and could these characteristics be used to help forecast mainshocks? In a new paper in Seismological Research Letters, Nadav … Continue Reading »

How the February 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes Ruptured and Produced Damaging Shaking

map of historic and Feb 2023 Turkiye earthquakes

23 May 2023–Three studies now published in the open-access journal The Seismic Record offer an initial look at the February 6, 2023 earthquakes in south-central Türkiye and northwestern Syria, including how, where, and how fast the earthquakes ruptured and how they combined as a “devastating doublet” to produce damaging ground … Continue Reading »

Ridgecrest Faults Increasingly Sensitive to Solid Earth Tides Before Earthquakes

USGS Ridgecrest seismic station

20 April 2023–Faults in the Ridgecrest, California area were very sensitive to solid earth tidal stresses in the year and a half before the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, researchers reported at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2023 Annual Meeting. “The signal of tidal modulation becomes extremely strong” after … Continue Reading »

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Hydrophones Help Monitor Ocean Temperatures

hydroacoustic station ready for deployment 640x 358px

18 April 2023–Ocean-based hydrophones in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)’s seismoacoustic monitoring network could provide a better look at how ocean temperatures are changing over time, according to a presentation at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2023 Annual Meeting. Finding new ways to monitor ocean temperatures is important … Continue Reading »

Hundreds of Very Shallow Earthquakes Detected in California’s Long Beach and Seal Beach

SRL Yan 2023 Figure 2 of Long Beach research areas

5 April 2023–Seismic arrays deployed in California’s Long Beach and Seal Beach areas detected more than a thousand tiny earthquakes over eight months, many of them located at surprisingly shallow depths of less than two kilometers below the surface. The findings, reported in Seismological Research Letters, confirm that the region’s … Continue Reading »

Submit Abstracts for SSA 2023: Turkey Earthquake Sequence

NEW SESSION ADDED: February 2023 Earthquake Sequence in Turkey Deadline for submissions 22 March 2023 at 5:00 PM U.S. Pacific Time This late-breaking session will include oral and poster presentations related to the 6 February M7.8 and M7.5 earthquake sequence affecting southern Turkey and Syria. Topics could include but are … Continue Reading »

José A. Martinez-Cruzado Awarded 2023 Bruce Bolt Medal

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS), and the Seismological Society of America (SSA) are pleased to announce that José A. Martinez-Cruzado, professor of the civil engineering and surveying department at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez is the recipient … 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 »

Dark Fiber Helps Pick Up Acoustic Signals of Iceland Meteoroid

meteoroid

17 November 2022–Data collected by a large-N seismic array and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) in Iceland offer one of the most detailed acoustic fingerprints of a meteoroid entering and disintegrating in the atmosphere. The dense record, described in Seismological Research Letters, allowed the researchers to distinguish acoustic phases that are … Continue Reading »

Caltech Hall Is Getting Stiffer, According to Decades of Data

Caltech Hall

11 November 2022–Caltech Hall, a 55-year-old nine-story reinforced concrete building on the Caltech campus, has been getting structurally stiffer over the past 20 years, according to a new report published in The Seismic Record. Previous work by seismologists and engineers had documented the building softening—that is, decreasing in stiffness—from its … Continue Reading »

Hidden Microearthquakes Illuminate Large Earthquake-Hosting Faults in Oklahoma and Kansas

injection well head

26 August 2022–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 … Continue Reading »

Haiti’s 1860 Jour de Pâques Earthquakes May Have Released Strain in Key Fault Zone

1860 Richmond newspaper clipping

12 July 2022–Using details from historical newspaper accounts and letters, seismologists have learned more about Haiti’s 1860 Jour de Pâques (Easter Sunday) earthquake sequence, and how it might have impacted the country’s most recent devastating earthquakes. The new analysis published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America suggests … 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 »

What Can Deep Diamonds Tell Us About Deep Earthquakes?

blue boron diamond

22 April 2022–Diamonds that formed deep in the Earth could help seismologists answer a decades-old question: do fluids play a role in generating earthquakes at depths where high pressure should keep brittle failure from happening? Fluid-assisted faulting in subducted slabs 300 to 700 kilometers deep, in the transition zone between … Continue Reading »

Deep Lake Cores of Ancient Lake Cahuilla Could Help Define Southern San Andreas History

field work at Lake Cahuilla

22 April 2022–Sediment cores from the ancient Lake Cahuilla at Coachella in southern California could help seismologists determine whether lake filling events are connected to earthquakes on the Southern San Andreas Fault, according to a presentation at the Seismological Society of America’s Annual Meeting. Lake Cahuilla was a prehistoric lake … Continue Reading »

Researchers Move Closer to Detecting Venusquakes Using Balloons

21 April 2022–Earthbound seismologists have the luxury of deploying their seismometers on relatively peaceful ground, but scientists studying Venusquakes have had to set their sights higher. Since high temperatures and pressures on Venus’ surface make it technologically challenging to place seismometers there, researchers are working on balloon-borne instruments that detect … Continue Reading »

SSA Names 2021 Outstanding Reviewers

14 March 2022–Christopher DuRoss of the U.S. Geological Survey, Golden, Adam Ringler of the U.S. Geological Survey, Albuquerque, and Vaclav Vavrycuk of the Institute of Geophysics in the Czech Republic, are the recipients of SSA’s 2021 Outstanding Reviewer awards. In recent interviews, the recipients agreed that reviewing is an essential … Continue Reading »

3D Fault Information Improves Earthquake Alert Accuracy

HWY 302 after Nisqually earthquake

3 December 2021–Three-dimensional fault models are generally more accurate than two-dimensional line models at sending ground shaking alerts to the correct areas as part of an earthquake early warning system, according to a new study. The benefits of 3D fault models vary depending on the fault style (a strike slip … Continue Reading »

Historical Detective Work Locates Epicenter for 125-Year-Old Large Indian Earthquake

Shillong house collapse

19 November 2021–With data unearthed from seismic stations, observatories and libraries across the world, researchers have pinpointed the location of a massive earthquake that took place in India 125 years ago—one of the largest intraplate earthquakes known to history. The magnitude 8 Great 1897 Shillong Plateau earthquake, sometimes called the … Continue Reading »

David J. Wald Selected as 2022 Joyner Lecturer

David Wald

15 November 2021–The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and the Seismological Society of America (SSA) are pleased to announce that David J. Wald, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) in Golden, Colorado, is the 2022 recipient of the William B. Joyner Lecture Award. Wald … Continue Reading »

C.B Crouse Awarded 2022 Bolt Medal

CB Crouse

15 November 2021–The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS), and SSA are pleased to announce that C.B. Crouse, principal engineer at AECOM, is the recipient of the 2022 Bruce Bolt Medal. The award will be presented at the 12th National Conference … Continue Reading »

“Beach Ball” Representations Calculated for U.S. Underground Nuclear Tests Can Aid Monitoring

Nevada National Security Site

21 September 2021–Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have calculated moment tensors for 130 underground nuclear and 10 chemical test explosions that took place at the Nevada National Security test site. Often represented graphically to resemble a striped “beach ball,” moment tensors “are essentially a mathematical concept that’s used to … 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 »

Pictograms Are First Written Accounts of Earthquakes in Pre-Hispanic Mexico

T-R codex Mexico 16th century 640x358px

25 August 2021–The Codex Telleriano Remensis, created in the 16th century in Mexico, depicts earthquakes in pictograms that are the first written evidence of earthquakes in the Americas in pre-Hispanic times, according to a pair of researchers who have systematically studied the country’s historical earthquakes. Gerardo Suárez of the Universidad … Continue Reading »

Submit an SSA Session Proposal

2017 Annual Meeting poster

Organizing a technical session for SSA’s Annual Meeting is your opportunity to learn more about seismology and make new connections in our global community. Read on for advice from our members who have organized sessions in the past! Choose a Topic First things first: decide on the specific focus of … Continue Reading »

SSA Global Travel Grants Advance Careers and Earthquake Science

An invitation to submit a paper. International collaboration. Feedback from senior scientists. These career-changing connections happen at scientific conferences. SSA’s Global Travel Grant gives more members the opportunity to enjoy them. Now accepting applications through 31 July 2021, the grant program supports student and early-career members attendance at seismology-related conferences … 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 »

Balanced Rocks Set Ground Motion Values for New Zealand Dam

FGF at Clyde Dam

15 June 2021–For the first time, researchers have used precariously-balanced rocks to set the formal design earthquake motions for a major existing engineered structure—the Clyde Dam, the largest concrete dam in New Zealand. Mark Stirling of the University of Otago and colleagues identified and assessed the ages of these gravity-defying … Continue Reading »

SSA Announces 2021 Award Recipients

reid medal in box; Credit: SSA

1 June 2021–SSA is pleased to announce the recipients of several of the Society’s awards for 2020. The Harry Fielding Reid Medal, the Charles F. Richter Early Career Award and the Frank Press Public Service Award are among the highest honors conferred by the Society. 2021 Harry Fielding Reid Medal: … Continue Reading »

Space-Based System Can Provide Seismic Monitoring for Large Earthquakes, Tsunamis

GNSS station

11 May 2021–Researchers have developed a global earthquake monitoring system that uses the Global Navigational Satellite System (GNSS) to measure crustal deformation. The monitoring system within seconds can rapidly assess earthquake magnitude and fault slip distribution for earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 and larger, making it a potentially valuable tool in … 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 »

DeepShake Uses Machine Learning to Rapidly Estimate Earthquake Shaking Intensity

illustration of deep neural netowkrstra

23 April 2021–A deep spatiotemporal neural network trained on more than 36,000 earthquakes offers a new way of quickly predicting ground shaking intensity once an earthquake is underway, researchers report at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2021 Annual Meeting. DeepShake analyzes seismic signals in real time and issues advanced … Continue Reading »

High School Junior’s Consumer Seismometer Delivers Low-Cost Earthquake Early Warning

23 April 2021–A Southern California high school junior has built a low-cost seismometer device that delivers earthquake early warnings for homes and businesses. Costing less than $100 for her to make today, the seismometer could someday be a regular household safety device akin to a smart smoke detector, says its … Continue Reading »

Can Machine Learning improve Debris Flow Warning?

Illgraben torrent

22 April 2021–Machine learning could provide up an extra hour of warning time for debris flows along the Illgraben torrent in Switzerland, researchers report at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2021 Annual Meeting. Debris flows are mixtures of water, sediment and rock that move rapidly down steep hills, triggered … Continue Reading »

Researchers Share Strategies for Making Geosciences More Inclusive

Black in Geoscience logo

21 April 2021–Concrete efforts to bring racial equity to the geosciences are receiving significant attention in the wake of new grassroots efforts and increased awareness of social justice issues in 2020, speakers said at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2021 Annual Meeting. Last year’s Black in Geoscience Week, for … Continue Reading »

Aerial Photos Uncover an Invisible Fault in Chinese City

Datong City aerials

21 April 2021–Decades-old aerial photos of Yudong District, Datong City in Shanxi Province, Northern China have helped researchers in their search for a fault hidden underneath the city’s buildings and cement roads, researchers said at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2021 Annual Meeting. Analyzing these photos from the 1960s … Continue Reading »

Why Are There Relatively Few Aftershocks for Certain Cascadia Earthquakes?

HWY 302 after Nisqually earthquake

13 April 2021–In the Cascadia subduction zone, medium and large-sized “intraslab” earthquakes, which take place at greater than crustal depths within the subducting plate, will likely produce only a few detectable aftershocks, according to a new study. The findings could have implications for forecasting aftershock seismic hazard in the Pacific … Continue Reading »

SRL Top-Cited Papers for 2020

SRL

22 March 2021—Seismological Research Letters papers on the 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake sequence and papers on seismological tools and instrumentation were among the top-cited papers from the journal published in 2020. The ranking of all papers noted below reflect citation and download numbers through 31 January 2021: D.R. Shelly “A … Continue Reading »

BSSA Top-Cited Papers for 2020

BSSA

1 March 2021–Five papers from BSSA’s special section on the 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake sequence were the top-cited papers from the journal published in 2020. The ranking of all papers noted below reflect citation and download numbers through 31 January 2021: 1.DuRoss. et al. “Surface Displacement Distributions for the July … Continue Reading »

Tests Reveal Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities of Common Seismological Equipment

10 February 2021–Seismic monitoring devices linked to the internet are vulnerable to cyberattacks that could disrupt data collection and processing, say researchers who have probed the devices for weak points. Common security issues such as non-encrypted data, insecure protocols, and poor user authentication mechanisms are among the biggest culprits that … Continue Reading »

Submit Your Paper to The Seismic Record

TSR Masthead

1 February 2021–Today, the Seismological Society of America is opening submissions for its new open-access journal, The Seismic Record. It’s a thrill to be launching a high-impact, timely and inclusive journal that meets the interests of the seismological community–and we want you to be part of this launch. The Seismic Record provides an … 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 »

Magnitude Comparison Distinguishes Small Earthquakes from Explosions in U.S. West

SPE explosive

13 October 2020–By comparing two magnitude measurements for seismic events recorded locally, researchers can tell whether the event was a small earthquake or a single-fire buried chemical explosion. The findings, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, give seismologists one more tool to monitor nuclear explosions, particularly … Continue Reading »

Alaskan Seismometers Record the Northern Lights

alaska aurora

29 July 2020–Aaron Lojewski, who leads aurora sightseeing tours in Alaska, was lucky enough to photograph a “eruption” of brilliant pink light in the night skies one night in February. The same perturbations of the Earth’s magnetic field that lit up the sky for Lojewski’s camera were also captured by … 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 »

“Lettere Patenti” Help Assess Intensity of Historic Central Italian Earthquakes

Roman administrative document

13 May 2020–Three hundred-year-old administrative documents from the Roman government, granting residents permission to repair damage to their buildings, can help modern-day seismologists calculate intensities for a notable sequence of earthquakes that struck central Italy in 1703. Details gleaned from these “Lettere Patenti” offer a unique glimpse at the geographical … Continue Reading »

New in BSSA: Two Ways that Fault Segments May Connect

7 April 2020–In complex fault zones, multiple seemingly disconnected faults can potentially rupture at once, increasing the chance of a large damaging earthquake. Recent earthquakes including the 1992 Landers, 1999 Hector Mine and 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes in California, among others, ruptured in this way. But how can seismologists predict whether … Continue Reading »

Catalog Shows Complex Rupturing During 2019 Ridgecrest Sequence

USGS Ridgecrest seismic station

22 January 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, … 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 »

Extending Rupture History in Grand Tetons National Park

Glenn Thackray, Cooper Brossy, and Darren Zellman.

19 November 2019–Hand-dug trenches around Leigh Lake in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming reveal evidence for a previously unknown surface-faulting earthquake in along the Teton Fault—one occurring about 10,000 years ago. Together with evidence from the site of a second earthquake that ruptured around 5,900 years ago, the findings … Continue Reading »

Historical Earthquake Impact Affected by Seasonal Factors

6 November 2019–The season that an earthquake occurs could affect the extent of ground failure and destruction that the event brings, according to a new look at two historical earthquakes that occurred about 100 years ago near Almaty, Kazakhstan. In a paper published in Seismological Research Letters, researchers conclude that … Continue Reading »

Julian J. Bommer Selected as 2020 Joyner Lecturer

Julian Bommer

31 October 2019–The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and the Seismological Society of America (SSA) are pleased to announce that Julian J. Bommer, a Senior Research Investigator at Imperial College London, is the 2020 recipient of the William B. Joyner Lecture Award. Bommer will deliver the Joyner Lecture at the … 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 »

Deep Landslides Not Reactivated by 2018 Anchorage Quake

22 October 2019–Major landslides triggered by the 1964 magnitude 9.2 Great Alaska earthquake responded to, but were not reactivated by, the magnitude 7.1 Anchorage earthquake that took place  30 November 2018, researchers concluded in a new study published in Seismological Research Letters. The shaking that accompanied the 2018 earthquake was … 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 »

SRL Focus on Subduction Zone Processes in the Americas

5 September 2019–The eastern Pacific Ocean margin stretching from Mexico to southern Chile offers seismologists a “natural laboratory” in which to study and test ideas about the processes of subduction zones, which are associated with some of the world’s largest recorded earthquakes in the region, as well as phenomena such … 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 »

Deep-Sea Fish Do Not Signal Upcoming Earthquake in Japan

18 June 2019–The unusual appearance of deep-sea fish like the oarfish or slender ribbonfish in Japanese shallow waters does not mean that an earthquake is about to occur, according to a new statistical analysis. The study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America contradicts long-held Japanese folklore … Continue Reading »

SSA Announces 2019 Award Recipients

SSA logo

23 May 2019–SSA is pleased to announce the recipients of several of the Society’s awards for 2019. The Harry Fielding Reid Medal, the Charles F. Richter Early Career Award and the Frank Press Public Service Award are among the highest honors conferred by the Society. The Reid Medal recipient is Karen Fischer of … Continue Reading »

Mapping Industrial “Hum” in the U.S.

26 April 2019–Using a dense sensor network that scanned the United States between 2003 and 2014, researchers have identified areas within the country marked by a persistent seismic signal caused by industrial processes. At the 2019 SSA Annual Meeting, Omar Marcillo of Los Alamos National Laboratory said that he and … Continue Reading »

Taking a “Metamaterials” Approach to Mitigating Earthquake Damage

26 April 2019–In the past decade scientists have been experimenting with metamaterials, artificial materials designed with periodic internal structures to give them properties not found in natural materials. Depending on their internal geometry and composition, researchers have found that they can control waves propagating through some of these materials, filtering … Continue Reading »

What Does the Future of Kilauea Hold?

25 April 2019–Ever since Hawaii’s Kilauea stopped erupting in August 2018, ceasing activity for the first time in 35 years, scientists have been wondering about the volcano’s future. Its similarities to the Hawaiian seamount Lo`ihi might provide some answers, according to Jacqueline Caplan-Auerbach at Western Washington University. In her presentation … Continue Reading »

SSA 2019 Meeting Features Joint Sessions with SSJ

22 April 2019–This year’s SSA Annual Meeting includes three joint sessions with the Seismological Society of Japan, continuing a long-standing partnership with SSJ and SSA members. The three session topics—Machine Learning in Seismology, Next Generation Earthquake Early Warning Systems: Advances, Innovations and Applications and The Science of Slow Earthquakes from … Continue Reading »

Damaging Sichuan Earthquakes Linked to Fracking Operations

[讀中文] 5 April 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 … Continue Reading »

SRL Publishes Focus Section on Machine Learning

1 March 2019–With a growing wealth of seismic data and computing power at their disposal, seismologists are increasingly turning to a discipline called machine learning to better understand and predict complicated patterns in earthquake activity. In a focus section published in the journal Seismological Research Letters, researchers describe how they … Continue Reading »

Tide Gauges Capture Tremor Episodes in Cascadia

15 February 2019–Hourly water level records collected from tide gauges can be used to measure land uplift caused by episodic tremor and slip of slow earthquakes in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, according to a new report in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Global Positioning System (GPS) data … Continue Reading »

Toppled Train Offers Insight into 1906 Earthquake

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 … 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 »

Yousef Bozorgnia Selected as 2019 Bruce Bolt Medal Recipient

Yousef Bozorgnia

The Consortium of Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS), Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and SSA have selected Yousef Bozorgnia as the 2019 recipient of the Bruce Bolt Medal. Bozorgnia, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in both the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the John … Continue Reading »

SRL Focus Section Investigates 2018 Hualien Earthquake Sequence

28 December 2018–A low-cost earthquake early warning system provided a map of expected ground shaking around the epicenter of February’s magnitude 6.4 Hualien earthquake within two minutes of the mainshock’s start, according to a new study by seismologists at the National Taiwan University, which deployed the system. The predicted shake … Continue Reading »

Annual Meeting Travel Grant Recipients Announced

SSA announced 21 student and international members will receive travel grants to attend the Annual Meeting in Seattle, to be held 23–26 April 2019. These travel grants are made possible by member contributions to the Kanamori Fund, the General Fund and the Student Travel Fund. Grant recipients receive complimentary conference registration and a cash stipend for transportation, food and lodging. The 21 recipients of … Continue Reading »

Allison Bent Named Editor-in-Chief of SRL

Allison Bent

SAN FRANCISCO (3 December 2018) – The Seismological Society of America (SSA) announced today the appointment of Allison Bent, a research seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, as editor-in-chief of Seismological Research Letters (SRL). Accessible by all SSA members and available in more than 1,300 academic, government and corporate institutions worldwide, … Continue Reading »

Explosion, Collapse, Earthquakes: Analysis of North Korea’s 2017 Nuclear Test

26 September 2018–The epicenter of the 3 September 2017 nuclear test explosion in North Korea occurred about 3.6 kilometers northwest of the country’s first nuclear test in October 2006, according to a new high-precision analysis of the explosion and its aftermath. The study published in Seismological Research Letters by Lian-Feng Zhao … Continue Reading »

Seasonal Reservoir Filling in India Deforms Rock, May Trigger Earthquakes

25 September 2018–The seasonal filling and emptying of reservoirs in India can cause measurable deformation of the surrounding rock, reducing the strength of nearby faults and potentially triggering earthquakes, according to two new papers published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Researchers in India used global positioning … 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 »

Urban Geophone Array Offers New Look at Los Angeles Basin

1 August 2018–Using an array of coffee-can sized geophones deployed for about a month in backyards, golf courses and public parks, researchers collected enough data to allow them to map the depth and shape of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino sedimentary basins of Los Angeles, California. Seismologists think these … Continue Reading »

SSA Announces 2018 Award Recipients

reid medal in box; Credit: SSA

14 June 2018–SSA is pleased to announce the recipients of several of the Society’s awards for 2018. The Harry Fielding Reid Medal, the Charles F. Richter Early Career Award and the Frank Press Public Service Award are among the highest honors conferred by the Society. The Reid Medal recipient is David M. … Continue Reading »

How Often Do Cascadia’s Megaquakes Occur?

Cascadia ghost forest

16 May 2018–Devastating magnitude 8.0 to 9.0 megathrust earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis appear to have hit the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Southwest Canada about every 500 years on average. But some scientists think the recurrence interval between some of these large earthquakes may be shorter—along the lines of every 300 … Continue Reading »

How Big Can a Tsunami Be in the Caribbean?

16 May 2018–The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has researchers reevaluating whether a magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake and resulting tsunami might also be a likely risk for the Caribbean region, seismologists reported at the SSA 2018 Annual Meeting. “Before 2004, we thought an earthquake of about 8.0 was about right for … Continue Reading »

Monitoring Lava Lake Levels in Congo Volcano

15 May 2018–Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is among the world’s most active volcanoes, with a persistent lava lake as one of its defining features. In a talk at the 2018 SSA Annual Meeting, Adrien Oth of the European Center for Geodynamics and Seismology discussed how he … Continue Reading »

At Work: Luis Donoso Carmona

Luis Donoso Carmona

12 March 2024–Earthquakes were part of Luis Donoso Carmona’s environment “for as long as I can remember,” growing up in northern Chile in the small city of Vallenar in the Atacama Desert, he said. His great-grandmother told stories of the destroyed ports and railway lines and overturned locomotives she had … Continue Reading »

At Work: HyeJeong Kim

13 February 2024–Oceans cover about 70% of the Earth’s surface—a fact that draws HyeJeong Kim’s scientific gaze under the sea, even as the seismologist now works on dry land as a postdoc at the University of Utah. “If you don’t have seismic stations under that massive water, it’s limiting our … Continue Reading »