Skip to main content

Geologic Hazards Science Center (GHSC) Data Steward

thumbnail
The effects of climate change have the potential to impact slope stability. Negative impacts are expected to be greatest at high northerly latitudes where degradation of permafrost in rock and soil, debuttressing of slopes as a result of glacial retreat, and changes in ocean ice-cover are likely to increase the susceptibility of slopes to landslides. In the United States, the greatest increases in air temperature and precipitation are expected to occur in Alaska. In order to assess the impact that these environmental changes will have on landslide size (magnitude), mobility, and frequency, inventories of historical landslides are needed. These inventories provide baseline data that can be used to identify changes...
thumbnail
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm. Heavy rainfall caused landslides in mountainous regions throughout the territory. This data release presents geospatial data describing the concentration of landslides generated by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. We used post-hurricane satellite and aerial imagery collected between September 26, 2017 and October 8, 2017 to visually estimate the concentration of landslides over nearly the whole territory. This was done by dividing the territory into a grid with 4 square km cells (2 km x 2 km). Each 4 square km grid cell was classified as either containing no landslides, fewer than 25 landslides/ square km or more than...
thumbnail
The use of high-resolution remotely sensed imagery can be an effective way to obtain quantitative measurements of rock-avalanche volumes and geometries in remote glaciated areas, both of which are important for an improved understanding of rock-avalanche characteristics and processes. We utilized the availability of high-resolution (~0.5 m) WorldView satellite stereo imagery to derive digital elevation data in a 100 km2 area around the 28 June 2016 Lamplugh rock avalanche in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. We used NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline, an open-source software package available from NASA, to produce one pre- and four post-event digital elevation models (DEMs) of the area surrounding the Lamplugh...
ScienceBase brings together the best information it can find about USGS researchers and offices to show connections to publications, projects, and data. We are still working to improve this process and information is by no means complete. If you don't see everything you know is associated with you, a colleague, or your office, please be patient while we work to connect the dots. Feel free to contact sciencebase@usgs.gov.