Another USGS Mendenhall Post-doc Opportunity

Announcing another post-doctoral opportunity from the U.S. Geological Survey:

USGS MENDENHALL POST DOCTORAL OPPORTUNITY FOR 2009

Integrated assessment of GPS and paleoseismic slip rate indicators for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in the western United States

Accurate estimates of slip rates on earthquake-prone faults are essential inputs to seismic hazard assessment, particularly in the construction of the USGS national probabilistic strong ground motion maps. Increasing availability of both geologic and Global Positioning System (GPS) constraints on earthquake fault slip rates has raised compelling questions about their application to seismic hazard analysis. Where GPS results agree with existing slip rate estimates, they lead to more secure hazard assessment (e.g. San Francisco Bay area faults). However, in several instances (e.g. Wasatch fault zone near Salt Lake City) GPS estimates have been shown to notably disagree with geological (paleoseismic) rates, raising uncertainties about which (if either) slip rate estimate is most applicable to hazard analysis. Where it exists, this disparity between GPS and geologic data may be telling us something fundamental about differences in the way crustal strain accumulates and is released in plate-boundary settings (SF Bay area) vs. the intraplate & extensional setting of the Basin & Range Province. Research carried out under this opportunity could be directed towards either observationally-based analysis and assessment of the existing GPS/geologic slip rate inventory or process-based modeling of deformation processes and how they are sampled by space geodetic or geologic methods to estimate fault slip rates.

The fundamental goal of this work is to contribute towards the confident integration of GPS and geologic slip rate information into the next generation of USGS seismic hazard assessments for the central and western U.S. To this end, the Mendenhall Fellow will thus address one of the following objectives: (1) develop a thorough understanding of the geologic and GPS slip rate data sets, understand and reconcile differences, and propose consensus fault slip rates for evaluation by the scientific and user community; or (2) carry out fundamental investigations to develop process-based understanding of deformation in the western US from geodetic to geologic timescales as a means towards reconciling similarities and differences between the two independent measures of fault slip rate.

Proposed Duty Station: Menlo Cark, CA, or Golden, CO

Areas of Ph.D.: Geophysics, seismology, geology

Qualifications: Applicants must meet one of the following qualifications: Research Geophysicist

(This type of research is performed by those who have backgrounds for the occupations stated above. However, other titles may be applicable depending on the applicant's background, education, and research proposal. The final classification of the position will be made by the Human Resources specialist.)

Research Advisor(s): Wayne Thatcher, (650)-329-4810 thatcher@usgs.gov; Antony Crone, fcrone@usgs.gov; Mark Petersen, mpetersen@usgs.gov

Human Resources Office contact: Erica Settlemyer, (916) 278-9383, esettlemyer@usgs.gov. For more information, see http://geology.usgs.gov/postdoc/