Susan E. Hough

Susan Hough is a scientist in the Earthquake Hazards Program.

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Women in Science - Responding to Ridgecrest, CA earthquake July 2019

USGS Pasadena Earthquake Response Coordinator surveys displaced rocks near the southern end of the surface rupture of the 5 July 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake. USGS photograph. Photo credit: Sue Hough, USGS

Women in Science - Responding to Ridgecrest, CA earthquake July 2019

USGS Pasadena Earthquake Response Coordinator Sue Hough, surveys displaced rocks near the southern end of the surface rupture of the 5 July 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake. Photo credit: Sue Hough, USGS

Seismic Monitoring in Haiti

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Earthquake Monitoring in Haiti

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Earthquake Education and Outreach in Haiti

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Earthquake Education and Outreach in Haiti

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Traditional Construction in Burma

Traditional construction throughout Burma utilizes bamboo and other lightweight building materials, resulting in structures that are not generally durable but are quite earthquake-safe. As traditional structures such as this house give way to more modern masonry buildings, seismic risk will increase.

Traditional construction throughout Burma utilizes bamboo and other lightweight building materials, resulting in structures that are not generally durable but are quite earthquake-safe. As traditional structures such as this house give way to more modern masonry buildings, seismic risk will increase.

Schwedagon Pagoda in Burma

The Schwedagon pagoda, Burma's most revered shrine, has been damaged multiple times by earthquakes throughout its long history.

The Schwedagon pagoda, Burma's most revered shrine, has been damaged multiple times by earthquakes throughout its long history.

Pagoda in Burma

The historic record documents many instances of damage to pagodas throughout Burma's cities and the countryside. These ancient and beautiful structures bear witness to a significant level of seismic hazard.

The historic record documents many instances of damage to pagodas throughout Burma's cities and the countryside. These ancient and beautiful structures bear witness to a significant level of seismic hazard.

New Construction in Burma

Burma's most populous city, Rangoon, is underlain by a thick blanket of soft sediments that will significantly amplify earthquake shaking. With a period of economic expansion on the horizon, new construction such as these buildings in the capital city will be potentially vulnerable to earthquake damage unless appropriate seismic provisions are adopted in the bu

Burma's most populous city, Rangoon, is underlain by a thick blanket of soft sediments that will significantly amplify earthquake shaking. With a period of economic expansion on the horizon, new construction such as these buildings in the capital city will be potentially vulnerable to earthquake damage unless appropriate seismic provisions are adopted in the bu

Faces of Port-au-Prince

This photo was taken by USGS seismologist Susan Hough two months after the magnitude-7 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010. Dr. Hough traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Doug Given, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey to install seismometers, which monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks.

This photo was taken by USGS seismologist Susan Hough two months after the magnitude-7 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010. Dr. Hough traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Doug Given, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey to install seismometers, which monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks.

USGS Installing Seismometers in Haiti

USGS seimologist Doug Given works with colleagues from the Bureau des Mines et de l'Energie to install a seismometer. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks. Given traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey shortly after a magnitude-7 earthquake struck on Jan. 12, 2010.

USGS seimologist Doug Given works with colleagues from the Bureau des Mines et de l'Energie to install a seismometer. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks. Given traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey shortly after a magnitude-7 earthquake struck on Jan. 12, 2010.

USGS Installing Seismometers in Haiti

The Hotel Montana, shown here, is a portable seismometer site. USGS Seismologists Doug Given, Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey traveled to Haiti shortly after the magnitude-7 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010 to install seismometers. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks.

The Hotel Montana, shown here, is a portable seismometer site. USGS Seismologists Doug Given, Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey traveled to Haiti shortly after the magnitude-7 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010 to install seismometers. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks.

USGS Installing Seismometers in Haiti

USGS seismologist Doug Given worked with colleagues from the Bureau des Mines et de l'Energie to install a seismometer. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks. Given traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J.

USGS seismologist Doug Given worked with colleagues from the Bureau des Mines et de l'Energie to install a seismometer. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks. Given traveled to Haiti with USGS colleagues Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J.

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Did they feel it? Legacy maroseismic data illuminates an engimatic 20th century earthquake Did they feel it? Legacy maroseismic data illuminates an engimatic 20th century earthquake

The challenges and the importance of preserving legacy instrumental records of earthquakes are now well-recognized (e.g., Richards & Hellweg, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1785/0220200053). Seismologists may not be aware of parallel challenges and opportunities with legacy macroseismic data for earthquakes in the United States. For much of the 20th century, macroseismic data were collected by...
Authors
Susan Hough, Lori Dengler, Robert McPherson, Lijam Hagos, Margaret Hellweg

Revisiting an enigma on California's north coast: The Mw6.5 Fickle Hill earthquake of 21 December 1954 Revisiting an enigma on California's north coast: The Mw6.5 Fickle Hill earthquake of 21 December 1954

Many earthquakes occur along the North Coast of California in the vicinity of the Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ), where the Pacific, Gorda, and North American (NA) plates meet, and on the adjacent plate boundaries. The MTJ marks the nexus of the Mendocino and San Andreas faults with the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ). Historically, most large earthquakes around the MTJ have been within...
Authors
Margaret Hellweg, Thomas Lee, Douglas Dreger, Anthony Lomax, Lijam Hagos, Hamid Haddabi, Robert McPherson, Lori Dengler, Susan Hough, Jason Patton

Reflections on a trio of North American earthquakes in 1925 Reflections on a trio of North American earthquakes in 1925

In 1925, three moderately large damaging earthquakes occurred in North America over four months: the 28 February (local time; LT) M 6.2 Charlevoix, 27 June (LT) M 6.6 Montana, and 29 June M 6.5 Santa Barbara earthquakes. The centennial anniversaries of these events motivated this retrospective consideration focused on the ground motions generated by the three events, including a...
Authors
Susan E. Hough, Maurice Lamontagne, John Ebel, L. Baise

Macroseismology Macroseismology

In this chapter I discuss the use of so-called macroseismic data, i.e., reports of damage and other effects of shaking on humans and the built environment, to improve the characterization of earthquakes and the ground motions they produce. Macroseismic data are critical not only to investigate earthquakes that occurred before the start of the instrumental era in seismology, but are also...
Authors
Susan E. Hough

What 25+ years of "Did You Feel It" intensities tell us about shaking in California What 25+ years of "Did You Feel It" intensities tell us about shaking in California

"When will the Big One happen?" is a question that people often have for earthquake scientists. But while waiting for the "Big One" to occur, people will usually experience frightening or damaging shaking from multiple relatively smaller‐magnitude earthquakes. Given this context, it raises the question: "Where does most of the damage come from?" Could smaller, yet more frequent...
Authors
Jenna Marie Chaffeur, Jessie Saunders, Sarah Minson, Annemarie Baltay Sundstrom, Elizabeth Cochran, Susan E. Hough, Vince Quitoriano, Morgan Page, James Blair

Reply to, "Comment on ‘The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake: Relic railroad offset reveals rupture,’ by Roger Bilham and Susan E. Hough" Reply to, "Comment on ‘The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake: Relic railroad offset reveals rupture,’ by Roger Bilham and Susan E. Hough"

We welcome this opportunity to respond to Pratt et al. (2024) (hereinafter P24). Bilham and Hough (2023) proposed a "first-cut" elastic deformation model for the 1886 earthquake, a quantitative source model constrained by identified coseismic constraints. A key observation was the measurement of a lateral offset of a railroad line south of Summerville, leading to a model with...
Authors
Roger Bilham, Susan Hough

On algorithmically determined versus traditional macroseismic intensity assignments On algorithmically determined versus traditional macroseismic intensity assignments

The utility of macroseismic data, defined as the effects of earthquakes on humans and the built environment, has been increasingly recognized following the advent of online systems that now produce unprecedented volumes of macroseismic intensity information. Contributed reports from the U.S. Geological Survey "Did You Feel It?" (DYFI) system (Wald et al., 1999) are used to generate...
Authors
Susan Hough

The 17 January 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake: A retrospective analysis The 17 January 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake: A retrospective analysis

The 17 January 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake was a watershed event, with far-reaching societal and scientific impacts. The earthquake, which occurred in the early days of both broadband seismic networks and the Internet, spurred advances in seismic monitoring, real-time systems, and development of data products. Motivated by the 30th anniversary of the earthquake, we present a...
Authors
Susan Hough, Robert Graves, Elizabeth Cochran, Clara Yoon, James Blair, Scott Haefner, David Wald, Vince Quitoriano

Static and dynamic strain in the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake Static and dynamic strain in the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake

During the 1886 Mw 7.3 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake, three railroads emanating from the city were exposed to severe shaking. Expansion joints in segmented railroad tracks are designed to allow railroad infrastructure to withstand a few parts in 10,000 of thermoelastic strain. We show that, in 1886, transient contractions exceeding this limiting value buckled rails, and...
Authors
Roger Bilham, Susan Hough

On the provenance of field reports of the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake: A seismo-historical whodunnit On the provenance of field reports of the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake: A seismo-historical whodunnit

Much of what is known about the effects of the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake throughout the epicentral region can be attributed to meticulous field investigations by an individual with training in geology and engineering, Earle Sloan (Clendenin, 1926). In a recent study, Bilham and Hough (2024) undertook a detailed analysis of the effects of the earthquake on railroads in...
Authors
Susan Hough, Roger Bilham

Why do seismic hazard models worldwide appear to overpredict historical intensity observations? Why do seismic hazard models worldwide appear to overpredict historical intensity observations?

Probabilistic seismic hazard assessments (PSHAs) provide the scientific basis for building codes to reduce damage from earthquakes. Despite their substantial impact, little is known about how well PSHA predicts actual shaking. Recent PSHA for California, Japan, Italy, Nepal, and France appear to consistently overpredict historically observed earthquake shaking intensities. Numerical...
Authors
Leah Salditch, Molly Gallahue, Seth Stein, James Neely, Norman A. Abrahamson, Susan Hough
USGS seeking Loma Prieta felt reports from 35-year-old earthquake

USGS seeking Loma Prieta felt reports from 35-year-old earthquake

‘Did you feel it’ reporting available in multiple languages

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Five Years After the Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence

Five Years After the Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence

On July 4th, 2019, as millions of Southern Californians looked forward to fireworks and other celebrations, earthquake shaking rumbled across much of...

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Earthquake in Southern California 90 Years Ago Changed the Way We Build

Earthquake in Southern California 90 Years Ago Changed the Way We Build

The story of the damaging Long Beach earthquake on March 10, 1933.

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The temblor that changed earthquake science turns 30

The temblor that changed earthquake science turns 30

To mark the 30th anniversary of a Southern California earthquake, we’ll note why it was significant and listen to USGS employees share their own quake...

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Who’s Sharing? Inconsistent Eyewitness Accounts Can Affect How We Understand Earthquakes

Who’s Sharing? Inconsistent Eyewitness Accounts Can Affect How We Understand Earthquakes

Scientists rely on seismometers and eyewitness accounts to identify an earthquake’s location, time and magnitude. A new study explores how the latter...

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Threat of Earthquakes Occurring in Central United States Still Alive

Threat of Earthquakes Occurring in Central United States Still Alive

Earthquake activity in the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the central United States does not seem to be slowing down. In a new study published in the...

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