Research Projects

• Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS)
  The Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) will be a nationwide network of at least 7000 shaking measurement systems, both on the ground and in buildings that will make it possible to provide emergency response personnel with real-time earthquake information, provide engineers with information about building and site response, and provide scientists with high-quality data to understand earthquake processes and solid earth structure and dynamics.
• Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL) /Global Seismograph Network (GSN)
  The Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL) installs and maintains a global network of seismograph stations, collecting and distributing the data produced by these stations. In addition, they develop, test, and evaluate a variety of seismic instrumentation.
• Cascadia
  This project has staff working all across the nation, but primarily located in Seattle, Washington, Golden, Colorado, and Menlo Park, California. The field office in Seattle at the University of Washington was established to provide a point of contact for the public, engineers, scientists, and emergency managers for USGS information and activities in the Pacific Northwest.
• Central & Eastern U.S. Earthquakes
  This project has staff working all across the nation, but primarily located in Golden, Colorado, and at the USGS field office at Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) on the campus of The University of Memphis. The field office was established to provide a point of contact for the public, engineers, scientists, and emergency managers for USGS information and activities in the Central United States, and the New Madrid seismic zone in particular.
• Earthquake Effects/Ground Motion
  The Earthquake Effects project collects field data from seismic imaging, ground motion, and ground failure, and processes this information to yield better seismic hazard assessments and products.
• Geomagnetism
  This Program is concerned with operating and maintaining magnetic observatories located in the United States and its Territories. The observatories, which support modern digital acquisition systems, are designed to produce long time series of stable magnetometer data having high accuracy and resolution.
• Intermountain West
  This project undertakes geological and geophysical studies that contribute to a better understanding the levels of hazard and risk in the Intermountain West, particularly In the more populous areas. These studies also collect data to help evaluate the types of uncertainties that are embedded in slip rate estimates and estimates of the recurrence intervals for surface-rupturing earthquakes.
• Landslide Hazards
  This Program conducts research, gathers information, responds to emergencies and disasters, and produces scientific reports and other products for a broad-based user community. The group provides the results of investigations to private consultants in geology and geotechnical engineering, and to government planners and decision makers.
• National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC)
  The mission of the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) is to rapidly determine location and size of all destructive earthquakes worldwide and to immediately disseminate this information to concerned national and international agencies, scientists, and the general public. As World Data Center for Seismology, Denver, the NEIC compiles and maintains an extensive, global seismic database on earthquake parameters and their effects that serves as a solid foundation for basic and applied earth science research.
• National Seismic Hazard Maps
  This project produces US national maps showing earthquake ground motions that have a specified probability of being exceeded in 50 years. These ground motion values are used for reference in construction design for earthquake resistance. The ground motion values can also be used to assess relative hazard between sites, when making economic and safety decisions.