John R. Filson

Advanced National Seismic System delivers improved information

The Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS),an initiative begun in 1998 to integrate, expand, and modernize seismic monitoring nationwide, is providing improvements in earthquake monitoring and in the development, production, and delivery of earthquake data, information, and science. The ANSS initiative is an element of the Earthquake Hazard Program (EHP) of the U.S.Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC),an integral part of ANSS, has incorporated into its routine operations many of the developments in data processing and data products supported by the ANSS. The four principal elements of ANSS monitoring operations are, in sequence: data collection, data processing, generation of data products, and product dissemination. This article describes the current status and new developments in each of these elements, and how they have affected NEIC capabilities.

Geophysical advances triggered by 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake

A little more than 50 years ago, on 27 March 1964, the Great Alaska earthquake and tsunami struck. At moment magnitude 9.2, this earthquake is notable as the largest in U.S. written history and as the second-largest ever recorded by instruments worldwide. But what resonates today are its impacts on the understanding of plate tectonics, tsunami generation, and earthquake history as well as on the development of national programs to reduce risk from earthquakes and tsunamis.

United States National seismograph network

Abstract The USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) has planned and is developing a broadband digital seismograph network for the United States. The network will consist of approximately 150 seismograph stations distributed across the contiguous 48 states and across Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Data transmission will be via two-way satellite telemetry from the network sites to a central recording facility at the NEIC in Golden, Colorado. The design goal for the network is the on-scale recording by at least five well-distributed stations of any seismic event of magnitude 2.5 or greater in all areas of the United States except possibly part of Alaska. All event data from the network will be distributed to the scientific community on compact disc with read-only memory (CD-ROM).

Peter David Marshall, CMG, OBE (1937–2012)

Peter Marshall, extraordinary seismologist, scientific leader, mentor, colleague, and friend, died on 5 October 2012 in Basingstoke, England. Peter spent his entire scientific career working on scientific issues related to the detection, identification, and yield estimation of underground nuclear explosions. Peter David Marshall, CMG, OBE (1937–2012). Peter’s greatest strength was in the careful study and interpretation of seismic data and waveforms. Once he trusted a body of data, he would apply his intellect and experience to gleaning the new insights and understandings hidden therein. Often he would bring separate, independent sets of data to a problem to reinforce or modify his original interpretation. Peter possessed an unsurpassed ability to explain his studies and their significance to his seismological colleagues and to government officials. Peter was a sustained contributor to the literature of seismic source identification and explosion yield estimation. His last contribution was published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America in 2012. Peter spent most of his professional career with the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom (UK). Early in his career he worked on high‐explosive experiments designed to test the cavity decoupling concept developed in theoretical terms by scientists in the United States (US). …

Tom Simkin (1933–2009)

Tom Simkin, friend of volcanologists and volcanology worldwide, died on 10 June 2009 in Baltimore, Md. Tom was a stalwart of the volcanological community and leaves an unparalleled legacy of information on Earths recent volcanism.

Robert E. Wallace

On 8 January 2007, Robert E. (Bob) Wallace passed away peacefully and comfortably in Reno, Nevada. His sister, Harriet Wallace, of Savoy, Illinois, and his son, Alan, of Reno, survive him. Trudy, his wife and best friend of 60 years, died in 2005. Bob wished to be cremated with no memorial gathering. He was 90 years old. Bob was an authority on tectonics, earthquake geology, paleoseismology, engineering geology, mineral resources, and geomorphology. He was a patient teacher—a man of great modesty, rigor, and humor. He authored more than 160 technical articles, books, geologic maps, and reports on the western United States, Alaska, China, the Soviet Union, Central America, the Philippines, and Turkey. He served on scores of councils and advisory bodies to governments in California and at the national level, as well as to foreign countries and scientific societies. One of his most significant professional contributions, however, was to bring together geologists, seismologists, and earthquake engineers to try to understand the behavior and damage potential of earthquakes. ▴ Robert E. Wallace. Bobs success as a geologist was just one reflection of an immensely fertile and talented intellect. He was also a master birdwatcher, astronomer, and amateur radio operator; his excellent watercolor landscape paintings won numerous awards. Each year, an original painting graced the front of Bob and Trudys Christmas cards, the cards themselves worth keeping for the artwork alone. He also was …