Precariously balanced rock data from northern New York and Vermont, USA

Publication Date

2024-07-25

Start Date

2022-08-01

End Date

2022-08-08

McPhillips, D., and Pratt, T.L., 2024. Precariously balanced rock data from northern New York and Vermont, USA: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P1H74TGF.

Although recordings of historic seismicity are a fundamental part seismic hazard models, the duration of the record is generally short relative to the return times of damaging earthquakes. Geologic data can provide important constraints over longer timescales. This is true in the eastern U.S., where crustal strain rates are low (and earthquake return times are long), but few Quaternary-active faults have been mapped, even in areas of relatively high seismicity, such as northern New York and Vermont. As a result, there have been few geologic constraints applied to the National Seismic Hazard Model in this region (Thompson Jobe, J., A. Hatem, R. Gold, C. DuRoss, N. Reitman, R. Briggs, and C. Collett (2022). Revised Earthquake Geology Inputs for the Central and Eastern United States and Southeast Canada for the 2023 National Seismic Hazard Model, Seismol. Res. Lett. 93, 3100–3120, doi: 10.1785/0220220162). The precariously balanced rocks described here may be used to validate the hazard model with geologic constraints.

• USGS Data Release Products