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Research about Los Angeles, California

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Los Angeles, California.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
USGS2014

CyberShake-derived ground-motion prediction models for the Los Angeles region with application to earthquake early warning

Real-time applications such as earthquake early warning (EEW) typically use empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) along with event magnitude and source-to-site distances to estimate expected shaking levels. In this simplified approach, effects due to finite-fault geometry, directivity and site and basin response are often generalized, which may lead to a significant under- or overestimation of shaking from large earthquakes ( M > 6.5) in some locations. For enhanced site-specific ground-motion predictions considering 3-D wave-propagation effects, we develop support vector regression (SVR) models from the SCEC CyberShake low-frequency (<0.5 Hz) and broad-band (0–10 Hz) data sets. CyberShake encompasses 3-D wave-propagation simulations of >415 000 finite-fault rupture scenarios (6.5 ≤ M ≤ 8.5) for southern California defined in UCERF 2.0. We use CyberShake to demonstrate the application of synthetic waveform data to EEW as a ‘proof of concept’, being aware that these simulations are not yet fully validated and might not appropriately sample the range of rupture uncertainty. Our regression models predict the maximum and the temporal evolution of instrumental intensity (MMI) at 71 selected test sites using only the hypocentre, magnitude and rupture ratio, which characterizes uni- and bilateral rupture propagation. Our regression approach is completely data-driven (where here the CyberShake simulations are considered data) and does not enforce pre-defined functional forms or dependencies among input parameters. The models were established from a subset (∼20 per cent) of CyberShake simulations, but can explain MMI values of all >400 k rupture scenarios with a standard deviation of about 0.4 intensity units. We apply our models to determine threshold magnitudes (and warning times) for various active faults in southern California that earthquakes need to exceed to cause at least ‘moderate’, ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ shaking in the Los Angeles (LA) basin. These thresholds are used to construct a simple and robust EEW algorithm: to declare a warning, the algorithm only needs to locate the earthquake and to verify that the corresponding magnitude threshold is exceeded. The models predict that a relatively moderate M 6.5–7 earthquake along the Palos Verdes, Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon, Elsinore or San Jacinto faults with a rupture propagating towards LA could cause ‘very strong’ to ‘severe’ shaking in the LA basin; however, warning times for these events could exceed 30 s.

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USGS2010

Emergency use of groundwater as a backup supply: Quantifying hydraulic impacts and economic benefits

Groundwater can play an important role in water‐supply emergency planning. A framework is presented for assessing the hydraulic impacts and associated costs of using groundwater as a backup supply when imported‐water deliveries are disrupted, and for quantifying the emergency benefits of groundwater management strategies that enable better response to such disruptions. Response functions are derived, which relate additional groundwater pumpage during water‐supply emergencies to impacts such as increased pumping costs, subsidence, and seawater intrusion. Monte Carlo analysis is employed to estimate the incremental costs of using groundwater as a backup supply. The emergency benefits of alternative groundwater management strategies are computed for different expected durations of imported water disruption, percentages of imported water replaced by groundwater, and threshold drawdowns for subsidence impacts. The methodology is applied to the coastal Los Angeles Basin. For this case study, emergency benefits of artificial recharge strategies are dominated by reduction of potential subsidence costs. The variance of the results also is primarily due to subsidence effects. Incorporation of probability distributions reflecting a larger expected use of groundwater during the imported‐water disruption results in higher estimated emergency benefits of artificial recharge strategies. The framework presented for quantifying incremental costs and economic benefits of using groundwater as a backup supply could be applied to a broad range of water emergency planning decisions.

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USGS2010

Reply to “Comment on ‘Near-surface location, geometry, and velocities of the Santa Monica fault zone, Los Angeles, California’ by R. D. Catchings, G. Gandhok, M. R. Goldman, D. Okaya, M. J. Rymer, and G. W. Bawden” by T. L. Pratt and J. F. Dolan

In a comment on our 2008 paper (Catchings, Gandhok, et al. , 2008) on the Santa Monica fault in Los Angeles, California, Pratt and Dolan (2010) (herein referred to as P&D) cite numerous objections to our work, inferring that our study is flawed. However, as shown in our reply, their objections contradict their own published works, published works of others, and proven seismic methodologies. Rather than responding to each repeated invalid objection, we address their objections by topic in the subsequent sections. In Catchings, Gandhok, et al. (2008), we presented high-resolution seismic-reflection images that showed two near-surface faults in the upper 50 m beneath the grounds of the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital (WVAH). Although P&D suggest we effectively duplicated their seismic acquisition, our survey was not a duplication of their efforts. Rather, we conducted a seismic-imaging survey over a similar profile as Pratt et al. (1998) but used a different data acquisition system and different data processing methods to evaluate methods of seismically imaging blind faults in the wake of the 17 January 1994 M 6.7 Northridge earthquake. We used an acquisition method that provides both tomographic seismic velocities and reflection images. Our combined-data approach allowed for shallower imaging (∼2.5 m minimum) than the ∼20-m minimum of Pratt et al. (1998), clearer images of the fault zone, and more accurate depth determinations (rather than time images). In processing the reflection images, we used prestack depth migration, which is generally accepted as the only proper imaging method for imaging subsurface structures with strong lateral velocity variations (Versteeg, 1993), a condition shown to exist at the WVAH site. We correlated our reflection images with refraction tomography images, borehole lithology, and velocity data, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar images, and changes in groundwater depths. Except for some minor differences, our seismic-reflection images coincide with previously published seismic-reflection images by Dolan and Pratt (1997) and Pratt et al. (1998), and a paleoseismic study by Dolan et al. (2000). Principal differences among our interpretations and those of Pratt et al. (1998) relate to the upper 20 m and the south side of the fault, which Pratt et al. (1998) did not clearly image. In contrast, our seismic images included structures on both sides of the fault zone from about 2.5 m depth to about 100 m depth at WVAH, allowing us to interpret more details.

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USGS2005

Preliminary geologic map of the Los Angeles 30' x 60' quadrangle, Southern California

This data set maps and describes the geology of the Los Angeles 30? x 60? quadrangle, southern California. Compilation of the Los Angeles quadrangle is based upon published mapping at scales of 1:12,000 and smaller, unpublished mapping at scales of 1:12,000 and smaller, with reconnaissance mapping by the compilers to resolve some edge-matching problems. The Los Angeles 30' x 60' quadrangle covers approximately 5,000 km2 including some of the most densely populated urban and suburban areas of the southern California megalopolis. It extends about 90 km E-W and about 55 km N-S, from Fillmore and Thousand Oaks in the west to Vincent in the northeast and Montebello in the southeast, and includes urban San Gabriel Valley and San Gabriel Mountain foothill communities from Monrovia to Pasadena, as well as Glendale, downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Malibu, in addition to all the communities in the San Fernando Valley, Simi Valley, and the upper Santa Clara River Valley. From the 2000 Census, the population of these urban and suburban areas totals approximately 5.6 million, and estimates of property value total hundreds of billions of dollars. Residents and transient visitors are subject to potential hazards from earthquakes, debris flows and other landslides, floods, wildfires, subsidence from ground water and petroleum withdrawal, and swelling soils; and coastal areas are exposed to flooding and erosion by storm and tsunami waves. Topographic relief ranges from about one hundred meters sub sea (in Santa Monica Bay) to more than 2,000 meters above sea level at Pacifico Mountain in the high San Gabriel Mountains. In addition to the populated area, the quadrangle includes significant areas of wilderness in the Angeles and Los Padres National Forests, in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary. The geologic map illustrates the general distribution of the rocks and surficial deposits in the area and their structural and stratigraphic relations to one another. The principal characteristics of the map units are described and are part of the database. The map provides a regional geologic framework as an aid to better evaluations of the potential for hazard from active earth processes. It synthesizes and combines studies by many earth scientists. Most of the source maps are at more detailed scales than 1:100,000, and we utilized the most detailed source materials available. We have not attempted to resolve all problems of stratigraphic correlation and nomenclature. In most areas we have retained the unit designations of source-map authors, but in some areas, particularly in the igneous-metamorphic complex of the San Gabriel Mountains, some unit designations have been changed. Hopefully, this map will stimulate further work to describe and correlate the many units within the scope of a more coherent, more accurate geologic history.

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USGS2004

Mid-Tertiary isopach and lithofacies maps for the Los Angeles region, California: Templates for palinspastic reconstruction to 17.4 Ma

A preliminary palinspastic reconstruction is presented of the region of the Los Angeles Basin at its 17.4 Ma inception. To create this reconstruction, pertinent paleomagnetic declination data are combined with new maps of the areal extent, thickness variations, and depositional facies of the >17.4 Ma Sespe-Vaqueros Formations and their equivalents. Opening of the Neogene Los Angeles Basin began abruptly about 17.4 Ma. Extensional rifting, with local basaltic volcanism, began the process and accompanied its early stages. Crustal detachment, followed by clockwise tectonic rotation and translation of large crustal blocks has been shown by previous paleomagnetic declination measurements in the western Transverse Ranges Province northwest of the basin and by large strike-slip and dip-slip separations on several major faults transecting it. Successful palinspastic reconstruction of the region to its arrangement before 17.4 Ma depends on understanding and integration of many stratigraphic and structural components. Before 17.4 Ma, fluviatile, alluvial and floodplain deposits, interstratified in the younger part with shallow marine to deeper shelf transgressive equivalents, accumulated to thicknesses as great as several kilometers. This report maps the surface and subsurface extents, thickness variations, and facies patterns of these strata, the Sespe plus Vaqueros and Trancas Formations or equivalents. Separate southeast and northwest sectors are revealed, each with distinctive internal thickness and facies patterns, which must have been related before rifting and transrotation. Terrestrial vertebrate and marine molluscan and foraminiferal fossils, plus magnetostratigraphic profiles of other workers and a few dates of igneous rocks, provide timing for key depositional and structural events. Our preliminary reconstruction of the region brings the internal patterns of the northwest and southeast sectors toward congruity but leaves unsatisfied discrepancies that suggest important information is missing. The reconstruction focuses attention on critical elements, specific uncertainties, and defi- ciencies of prior reconstructions. It also provides a new foundation for further work.

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USGS2003

Estimated ground motion from the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake at the site of interstate 10 and La Cienega Boulevard bridge collapse, West Los Angeles, California

We have estimated ground motions at the site of a bridge collapse during the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake. The estimated motions are based on correcting motions recorded during the mainshock 2.3 km from the collapse site for the relative site response of the two sites. Shear-wave slownesses and damping based on analysis of borehole measurements at the two sites were used in the site response analysis. We estimate that the motions at the collapse site were probably larger, by factors ranging from 1.2 to 1.6, than at the site at which the ground motion was recorded, for periods less than about 1 sec.

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USGS2003

Isostatic gravity map with simplified geology of the Los Angeles 30 x 60 minute quadrangle

This isostatic residual gravity map is part of the Southern California Areal Mapping Project (SCAMP) and is intended to promote further understanding of the geology in the Los Angeles 30 x 60 minute quadrangle, California, by serving as a basis for geophysical interpretations and by supporting both geological mapping and topical (especially earthquake) studies. Local spatial variations in the Earth's gravity field (after various corrections for elevation, terrain, and deep crustal structure explained below) reflect the lateral variation in density in the mid- to upper crust. Densities often can be related to rock type, and abrupt spatial changes in density commonly mark lithologic boundaries. The map shows contours of isostatic gravity overlain on a simplified geology including faults and rock types. The map is draped over shaded-relief topography to show landforms.

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USGS2002

Shallow seismic imaging of folds above the Puente Hills blind-thrust fault, Los Angeles, California

High-resolution seismic reflection profiles image discrete folds in the shallow subsurface (<600 m) above two segments of the Puente Hills blind-thrust fault system, Los Angeles basin, California. The profiles demonstrate late Quaternary activity at the fault tip, precisely locate the axial surfaces of folds within the upper 100 m, and constrain the geometry and kinematics of recent folding. The Santa Fe Springs segment of the Puente Hills fault zone shows an upward-narrowing kink band with an active anticlinal axial surface, consistent with fault-bend folding above an active thrust ramp. The Coyote Hills segment shows an active synclinal axial surface that coincides with the base of a 9-m-high scarp, consistent with tip-line folding or the presence of a backthrust. The seismic profiles pinpoint targets for future geologic work to constrain slip rates and ages of past events on this important fault system.

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USGS2002

Puente Hills blind-thrust system, Los Angeles, California

We describe the three-dimensional geometry and Quaternary slip history of the Puente Hills blind-thrust system (PHT) using seismic reflection profiles, petroleum well data, and precisely located seismicity. The PHT generated the 1987 Whittier Narrows (moment magnitude [ M w ] 6.0) earthquake and extends for more than 40 km along strike beneath the northern Los Angeles basin. The PHT comprises three, north-dipping ramp segments that are overlain by contractional fault-related folds. Based on an analysis of these folds, we produce Quaternary slip profiles along each ramp segment. The fault geometry and slip patterns indicate that segments of the PHT are related by soft-linkage boundaries, where the fault ramps are en echelon and displacements are gradually transferred from one segment to the next. Average Quaternary slip rates on the ramp segments range from 0.44 to 1.7 mm/yr, with preferred rates between 0.62 and 1.28 mm/yr. Using empirical relations among rupture area, magnitude, and coseismic displacement, we estimate the magnitude and frequency of single ( M w 6.5-6.6) and multisegment ( M w 7.1) rupture scenarios for the PHT.

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USGS2002

Comparison of shear-wave slowness profiles at 10 strong-motion sites from noninvasive SASW measurements and measurements made in boreholes

The spectral-analysis-of-surface-waves (SASW) method is a relatively new in situ method for determining shear-wave slownesses. All measurements are made on the ground surface, making it much less costly than methods that require boreholes. The SASW method uses a number of active sources (ranging from a commercial Vibroseis truck to a small handheld hammer for the study conducted here) and different receiver spacings to map a curve of apparent phase velocity versus frequency. With the simplifying assumption that the phase velocities correspond to fundamental mode surface waves, forward modeling yields an estimate of the sub-surface shear-wave slownesses. To establish the reliability of this indirect technique, we conducted a blind evaluation of the SASW method. SASW testing was performed at 10 strong-motion stations at which borehole seismic measurements were previously or subsequently made; if previously made, the borehole results were not used for the interpretation of the SASW data, and vice-versa. Comparisons of the shear-wave slownesses from the SASW and borehole measurements are generally very good. The differences in predicted ground-motion amplifications are less than about 15% for most frequencies. In addition, both methods gave the same NEHRP site classification for seven of the sites. For the other three sites the average velocities from the downhole measurements were only 5-13 m/sec larger than the velocity defining the class C/D boundary. This study demonstrates that in many situations the SASW method can provide subsurface information suitable for site response predictions.

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USGS2001

Seismic images and fault relations of the Santa Monica thrust fault, West Los Angeles, California

In May 1997, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Southern California (USC) acquired high-resolution seismic reflection and refraction images on the grounds of the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital (WVAH) in the city of Los Angeles (Fig. 1a,b). The objective of the seismic survey was to better understand the near-surface geometry and faulting characteristics of the Santa Monica fault zone. In this report, we present seismic images, an interpretation of those images, and a comparison of our results with results from studies by Dolan and Pratt (1997), Pratt et al. (1998) and Gibbs et al. (2000). The Santa Monica fault is one of the several northeast-southwest-trending, north-dipping, reverse faults that extend through the Los Angeles metropolitan area (Fig. 1a). Through much of area, the Santa Monica fault trends subparallel to the Hollywood fault, but the two faults apparently join into a single fault zone to the southwest and to the northeast (Dolan et al., 1995). The Santa Monica and Hollywood faults may be part of a larger fault system that extends from the Pacific Ocean to the Transverse Ranges. Crook et al. (1983) refer to this fault system as the Malibu Coast-Santa Monica-Raymond-Cucamonga fault system. They suggest that these faults have not formed a contiguous zone since the Pleistocene and conclude that each of the faults should be treated as a separate fault with respect to seismic hazards. However, Dolan et al. (1995) suggest that the Hollywood and Santa Monica faults are capable of generating Mw 6.8 and Mw 7.0 earthquakes, respectively. Thus, regardless of whether the overall fault system is connected and capable of rupturing in one event, individually, each of the faults present a sizable earthquake hazard to the Los Angeles metropolitan area. If, however, these faults are connected, and they were to rupture along a continuous fault rupture, the resulting hazard would be even greater. Although the Santa Monica fault represents a hazard to millions of people, its lateral extent and rupture history are not well known, due largely to limited knowledge of the fault location, geometry, and relationship to other faults. The Santa Monica fault has been obscured at the surface by alluvium and urbanization. For example, Dolan et al. (1995) could find only one 200-m-long stretch of the Santa Monica fault that was not covered by either streets or buildings. Of the 19-km length onshore section of the Santa Monica fault, its apparent location has been delineated largely on the basis of geomorphic features and oil-well drilling. Seismic imaging efforts, in combination with other investigative methods, may be the best approach in locating and understanding the Santa Monica fault in the Los Angeles region. This investigation and another recent seismic imaging investigation (Pratt et al., 1998) were undertaken to resolve the near-surface location, fault geometry, and faulting relations associated with the Santa Monica fault.

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USGS2001

Report for borehole explosion data acquired in the 1999 Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE II), Southern California: Part I, description of the survey

The Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE) is a joint project of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). The purpose of this project is to produce seismic images of the subsurface of the Los Angeles region down to the depths at which earthquakes occur, and deeper, in order to remedy a deficit in our knowledge of the deep structure of this region. This deficit in knowledge has persisted despite over a century of oil exploration and nearly 70 years of recording earthquakes in southern California. Understanding the deep crustal structure and tectonics of southern California is important to earthquake hazard assessment. Specific imaging targets of LARSE include (a) faults, especially blind thrust faults, which cannot be reliably detected any other way; and (b) the depths and configurations of sedimentary basins. Imaging of faults is important in both earthquake hazard assessment but also in modeling earthquake occurrence. Earthquake occurrence cannot be understood unless the earthquake-producing "machinery" (tectonics) is known (Fuis and others, 2001). Imaging the depths and configurations of sedimentary basins is important because earthquake shaking at the surface is enhanced by basin depth and by the presence of sharp basin edges (Wald and Graves, 1998, Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, 1995; Field and others, 2001). (Sedimentary basins are large former valleys now filled with sediment eroded from nearby mountains.) Sedimentary basins in the Los Angeles region that have been investigated by LARSE include the Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley, San Fernando Valley, and Santa Clarita Valley basins. The seismic imaging surveys of LARSE include recording of earthquakes (both local and distant earthquakes) along several corridors (or transects) through the Los Angeles region and also recording of man-made sources along these same corridors. Man-made sources have included airguns offshore and borehole explosions and vibrating-truck sources onshore. The two chief LARSE transects pass near recent moderate earthquakes, including the 1971 M 6.7 San Fernando, 1987 M 5.9 Whittier Narrows, 1991 M 5.8 Sierra Madre, and 1994 M 6.7 Northridge earthquakes. The first transect extended from San Clemente Island northeastward to the Mojave Desert (Line 1, Fig. 1), passing near the epicenter of the Whittier Narrows and Sierra Madre earthquakes. The second transect extended from west of San Clemente Island northward to the western Mojave Desert (Line 2, Figs. 1, 2), passing through the epicenter of the Northridge earthquake and near the epicenter of the San Fernando earthquake. Data along Line 1 were acquired during the years 1993-1994, and data along Line 2, during the years 1994–2000. In this open-file report and that of Murphy and others (in preparation), we present the details of the October 1999 explosion survey along Line 2, which extended from Santa Monica Bay northward to the western Mojave Desert (Figs. 1, 2). This survey is referred to as LARSE II. In this survey, 93 borehole explosions were detonated along the main north-south line and along 5 auxiliary lines in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica areas. These explosions were recorded by ~1400 seismographs. A variety of seismic instrumentation was used in these imaging surveys and was obtained from collaborators from around the world, including the Geological Survey of Canada (Ottawa, Canada), IRIS/PASSCAL (Socorro, NM), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Palisades, NY), Stanford University (Stanford, CA), SCEC (Los Angeles, CA), USGS (Menlo Park, CA, and Woods Hole, MA), University of Texas at El Paso (El Paso, TX), GeoForschungsZentrum (Potsdam, Germany), University of Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe, Germany), and University of Copenhagen (Copenhagen, Denmark). The reader is referred to Table 1 for instrumentation used in LARSE II.

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USGS1999

The "LARSE" Project - Working Toward a Safer Future for Los Angeles

The Los Angeles region is underlain by a network of active faults, including many that are deep and do not break the Earth's surface. These hidden faults include the previously unknown one responsible for the devastating January 1994 Northridge earthquake, the costliest quake in U.S. history. So that structures can be built or strengthened to withstand the quakes that are certain in the future, the Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE) is locating hidden earthquake hazards beneath the region to help scientists determine where the strongest shaking will occur.

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USGS1998

The seismic response of the Los Angeles basin, California

Using strong-motion data recorded in the Los Angeles region from the 1992 ( M w 7.3) Landers earthquake, we have tested the accuracy of existing three-dimensional (3D) velocity models on the simulation of long-period (≧2 sec) ground motions in the Los Angeles basin and surrounding San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys. First, the overall pattern and degree of long-period excitation of the basins were identified in the observations. Within the Los Angeles basin, the recorded amplitudes are about three to four times larger than at sites outside the basins; amplitudes within the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys are nearly a factor of 3 greater than surrounding bedrock sites. Then, using a 3D finite-difference numerical modeling approach, we analyzed how variations in 3D earth structure affect simulated waveforms, amplitudes, and the fit to the observed patterns of amplification. Significant differences exist in the 3D velocity models of southern California that we tested (Magistrale et al. , 1996; Graves, 1996a; Hauksson and Haase, 1997). Major differences in the models include the velocity of the assumed background models; the depth of the Los Angeles basin; and the depth, location, and geometry of smaller basins. The largest disparities in the response of the models are seen for the San Fernando Valley and the deepest portion of the Los Angeles basin. These arise in large part from variations in the structure of the basins, particularly the effective depth extent, which is mainly due to alternative assumptions about the nature of the basin sediment fill. The general ground-motion characteristics are matched by the 3D model simulations, validating the use of 3D modeling with geologically based velocity-structure models. However, significant shortcomings exist in the overall patterns of amplification and the duration of the long-period response. The successes and limitations of the models for reproducing the recorded ground motions as discussed provide the basis and direction for necessary improvements to earth structure models, whether geologically or tomographically derived. The differences in the response of the earth models tested also translate to variable success in the ability to successfully model the data and add uncertainty to estimates of the basin response given input “scenario” earthquake source models.

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USGS1998

The San Gabriel Mountains bright reflective zone: Possible evidence of young mid-crustal thrust faulting in southern California

During the Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE), a reflection/refraction survey was conducted along a line extending northeastward from Seal Beach, California, to the Mojave Desert, crossing the Los Angeles basin and San Gabriel Mountains. Shots and receivers were spaced most densely through the San Gabriel Mountains for the purpose of obtaining a combined reflection and refraction image of the crust in that area. A stack of common-midpoint (CMP) data reveals a bright reflective zone, 1-s thick, that dominates the stack and extends throughout most of the mid-crust of the San Gabriel Mountains. The top of this zone ranges in depth from 6 s (∼18-km depth) in the southern San Gabriel Mountains to 7.5 s (∼23-km depth) in the northern San Gabriel Mountains. The zone bends downward beneath the surface traces of the San Gabriel and San Andreas faults. It is brightest between these two faults, where it is given the name San Gabriel Mountains ‘bright spot’ (SGMBS), and becomes more poorly defined south of the San Gabriel fault and north of the San Andreas fault. The polarity of the seismic signal at the top of this zone is clearly negative, and our analysis suggests it represents a negative velocity step. The magnitude of the velocity step is approximately 1.7 km/s. In at least one location, an event with positive polarity can be observed 0.2 s beneath the top of this zone, indicating a thickness of the order of 500 m for the low-velocity zone at this location. Several factors combine to make the preferred interpretation of this bright reflective zone a young fault zone, possibly a ‘master’ decollement. (1) It represents a significant velocity reduction. If the rocks in this zone contain fluids, such a reduction could be caused by a differential change in fluid pressure between the caprock and the rocks in the SGMBS; near-lithostatic fluid pressure is required in the SGMBS. Such differential changes are believed to occur in the neighborhood of active fault zones, where ‘fault-value’ action has been postulated. Less likely alternative explanations for this velocity reduction include the presence of magma and a change in composition to serpentinite or metagraywacke. (2) It occurs at or near the brittle-ductile transition, at least in the southern San Gabriel Mountains, a possible zone of concentrated shear. (3) A thin reflection rising from its top in the southern San Gabriel Mountains projects to the hypocenter of the 1987 M 5.9 Whittier Narrows earthquake, a blind thrust-fault earthquake with one focal plane subparallel to the reflection. Alternatively, one could argue that the bends or disruptions in the reflective zone seen at the San Gabriel and San Andreas faults are actually offsets and that the reflective zone is therefore an older feature, possibly an older fault zone.

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USGS1998

A method for producing digital probabilistic seismic landslide hazard maps: An example from the Los Angeles, California, area

The 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake is the first earthquake for which we have all of the data sets needed to conduct a rigorous regional analysis of seismic slope instability. These data sets include (1) a comprehensive inventory of triggered landslides, (2) about 200 strong-motion records of the mainshock, (3) 1:24,000-scale geologic mapping of the region, (4) extensive data on engineering properties of geologic units, and (5) high-resolution digital elevation models of the topography. All of these data sets have been digitized and rasterized at 10-m grid spacing in the ARC/INFO GIS platform. Combining these data sets in a dynamic model based on Newmark's permanent-deformation (sliding-block) analysis yields estimates of coseismic landslide displacement in each grid cell from the Northridge earthquake. The modeled displacements are then compared with the digital inventory of landslides triggered by the Northridge earthquake to construct a probability curve relating predicted displacement to probability of failure. This probability function can be applied to predict and map the spatial variability in failure probability in any ground-shaking conditions of interest. We anticipate that this mapping procedure will be used to construct seismic landslide hazard maps that will assist in emergency preparedness planning and in making rational decisions regarding development and construction in areas susceptible to seismic slope failure.

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