Geologic Hazards Science Center
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The Geologic Hazards Science Center (GHSC), on the Colorado School of Mines campus, is home to the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), many scientists in the Earthquake Hazards Program and Landslide Hazards Program, as well as the Geomagnetism Program staff.
Earthquake Hazards Program
The Earthquake Hazards Program provides research and information products for earthquake loss reduction, including hazard and risk assessments, comprehensive real-time earthquake monitoring, and public outreach.
Earthquake HazardsLandslide Hazards Program
The National Landslide Hazards Program strives to reduce long-term losses from landslide hazards by improving our understanding of the causes of ground failure and suggesting mitigation strategies.
Landslide HazardsGeomagnetism Program
The Geomagnetism Program provides continuous records of magnetic field variations; disseminates magnetic data; and conducts research into the nature of geomagnetic variations for purposes of scientific understanding and hazard mitigation.
GeomagnetismNews
Post-Wildfire Debris Flow Awareness
Post-wildfire hazards in Colorado can be as dangerous as the fires themselves.
2019 Ridgecrest, California Earthquake Sequence Geonarrative
A new geonarrative (Esri Story Map) summarizes the USGS response and findings after the M6.4 on July 4 and M7.1 on July 6, 2019 in Searles Valley, Southern California.
Now Trending…Earthquakes
The earth isn’t the only thing shaking after an earthquake.
Publications
Modeling hydrologic processes associated with soil saturation and debris flow initiation during the September 2013 storm, Colorado Front Range
Seven days of extreme rainfall during September 2013 produced more than 1100 debris flows in the Colorado Front Range, about 78% of which occurred on south-facing slopes (SFS). Previously published soil moisture (volumetric water content) observations suggest that SFS were wetter than north-facing slopes (NFS) during the event, which contrasts...
Timilsina, Sujana; Niemann, Jeffrey D.; Rathburn, Sara L.; Rengers, Francis K.; Nelson, Peter A. Toward physics-based nonergodic PSHA: A prototype fully-deterministic seismic hazard model for southern California
We present a nonergodic framework for probabilistic seismic‐hazard analysis (PSHA) that is constructed entirely of deterministic, physical models. The use of deterministic ground‐motion simulations in PSHA calculations is not new (e.g., CyberShake), but prior studies relied on kinematic rupture generators to extend empirical earthquake rupture...
Milner, Kevin R.; Shaw, Bruce E.; Goulet, Christine A.; Richards-Dinger, Keith B.; Callaghan, Scott; Jordan, Thomas H.; Dieterich, James H.; Field, Edward H. Evaluation of simulated ground motions using probabilistic seismic demand analysis: CyberShake (ver. 15.12) simulations for Ordinary Standard Bridges
There is a need for benchmarking and validating simulated ground motions in order for them to be utilized by the engineering community. Such validation may be geared towards a specific ground motion simulation method, a target engineering application, and a specific location; the validation presented herein focuses on a bridge engineering...
Fayaz, Jawad; Rezaeian, Sanaz; Zareian, Farzin