Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 179. This multidisciplinary monograph provides the first modern integrative summary focused on the most spectacular active tectonic systems in North America. Encompassing seismology, tectonics, geology, and geodesy, it includes papers that summarize the state of knowledge, including background material for those unfamiliar with the region; address global hypotheses using data from Alaska; and test important global hypotheses using data from this region. It is organized around four major themes: subduction and great earthquakes at the Aleutian Arc, the transition from strike slip to accretion and subduction of the Yakutat microplate, the Denali fault and related structures and their role in accommodating permanent deformation of the overriding plate, and regional integration and large-scale models and the use of data from Alaska to address important global questions and hypotheses. The book's publication near the beginning of the National Science Foundation's EarthScope project makes it especially timely because Alaska is perhaps the least understood area within the EarthScope footprint, and interest in the region can be expected to rise with time as more EarthScope data become available.

This publication summarizes data for earthquakes that occurred in the 50 states and Puerto Rico during 1985. Descriptions of individual earthquakes include hypocenters, magnitudes, intensities, and damages. The report also contains results from regional networks and data recorded by strong-motion seismographs.

Under certain circumstances, the increased pore pressure resulting from fluid injection, whether for waste disposal, secondary recovery, geothermal energy, or solution mining, can trigger earthquakes. This report discusses known cases of injection-induced seismicity and how and why earthquakes may be triggered, as well as conditions under which the triggering is most likely to occur. Criteria are established to assist in regulating well operations so as to minimize the seismic hazard associated with deep well fluid injection.

Everybody knows—or thinks they know—Charles Darwin, the father of evolution and the man who altered the way we view our place in the world. But what most people do not know is that Darwin was on board the HMS Beagle as a geologist—on a mission to examine the land, not flora and fauna.Tracing Darwin’s footsteps in South America and beyond, geologist Rob Wesson sets out on a trek across the Andes, repeating the nautical surveys made by the Beagle’s crew, hunting for fossils in Uruguay and Argentina, and explores traces of long vanished glaciers in Scotland and Wales. By following Darwin’s path literally and intellectually, Rob experiences the landscape that absorbed Darwin, followed his reasoning about what he saw, and immerses himself in the same questions about the earth. Upon Darwin’s return from the five-year journey, he conceived his theory of tectonics—his first theory. These concepts and attitudes—the vastness of time; the enormous cumulative impact of almost imperceptibly slow change; change as a constant feature of the environment—underlie his subsequent discoveries in evolution. And this peculiar way of thinking remains vitally important today as we enter the Anthropocene.

This publication summarizes data for earthquakes that occurred in the 50 states and Puerto Rico during 1985. Descriptions of individual earthquakes include hypocenters, magnitudes, intensities, and damages. The report also contains results from regional networks and data recorded by strong-motion seismographs.