Fiber Optics Identify Geohazards for Offshore Wind Projects While Tracking Whale Movements

Published on | Journals, News, SRL
The position of the DAS optic fiber cable after location correction.

10 January 2025—Using an existing telecommunications fiber optic cable running along the sea floor, researchers identified faults and tracked the locations of whales traveling up and down the central California coast. Their study, published in Seismological Research Letters, demonstrates the potential of distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) for visualizing the geohazards … Continue Reading »

At Work: Daniel Gittins

Published on | At Work, Community, Early Career, Member

9 January 2025—Earthquakes may be the noisy, attention-getters of seismological research, but geophysicist Daniel Gittins is focused on something a bit quieter. “Creep is the slow, gradual movement along faults that happens without causing an earthquake. Unlike sudden earthquakes, which release a lot of energy, aseismic creep occurs smoothly and … Continue Reading »

Events of 1973 Chilean Coup Captured in Historical Seismograms

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11 December 2024–Military vehicles rumbling toward the presidential palace, bombs dropped by the Chilean Air Force, and an eerie quiet descending over Santiago after a curfew imposed by a military junta—a lone seismometer captured all these features of the 1973 Chilean coup d’état. In Seismological Research Letters, Sergio León-Rios of … Continue Reading »

Kenneth W. Campbell Awarded 2025 Bruce Bolt Medal

Published on | Awards, BSSA, Member, News
Campbell has been a leader at several professional organizations, including CoreLogic Inc. and EQE International/EQECAT, focused on seismic hazard and risk analysis used in the insurance industry. His career also includes work for the U.S. Geological Survey and consulting companies specializing in developing design ground motion for worldwide critical facilities and oil platforms. He is perhaps best well-known for his impactful studies in ground motion modeling, several of which were cited by his peers in their nomination of Campbell for the Bolt Medal. These groundbreaking papers include the 1981 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America paper “Near-Source Attenuation of Peak Horizontal Acceleration,” which introduced the concept of magnitude saturation of peak ground acceleration; and the 2003 BSSA paper “Prediction of Strong Ground Motion Using the Hybrid Empirical Method and Its Use in the Development of Ground-Motion (Attenuation) Relations in Eastern North America,” which pioneered the concept of the “hybrid-empirical method” for developing ground motion models in regions with sparse ground-motion recordings. Starting in 2003, Campbell participated in the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) project series NGA-West, NGA-West2, NGA-East and NGA-Subduction, providing supporting studies for ground motion model development. These models have been adopted by the U.S. Geological Survey for the development of the USGS National Seismic Hazard maps, which inform seismic design codes across the country. Campbell has also worked as a consultant on high-profile infrastructure projects in the U.S. and internationally, including the seismic hazard analysis of the California High-Speed Rail project and multiple levels of the Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committee (SSHAC) projects for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He has also served as a seismic hazard expert for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

15 November 2024–The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS), and SSA are pleased to announce that Kenneth W. Campbell of CoreLogic Inc. (retired) is the recipient of the 2025 Bruce Bolt Medal. Campbell was recognized for his 50 years of research … Continue Reading »