Michael L Blanpied

Associate Coordinator

Short Biography

Dr. Blanpied serves as Associate Coordinator of the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. His duties include oversight of the Program's earthquake hazards assessments, its research on earthquake physics and occurrence, and research activities abroad. He serves as executive secretary to the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council (NEPEC), an expert group that advises USGS on earthquake predictions and forecasting methods.

1. Blanpied, M. L., and T.E. Tullis, 1986, The stability and behavior of a frictional system with a two state variable constitutive law, Pure and Applied Geophysics, 124, 415-440.

2. Blanpied, M. L.,  T.E. Tullis, and J.D. Weeks, 1987, Frictional behavior of granite at low and high sliding velocities, Geophysical Research Letters, 14, 554-557.

3. Blanpied, M.L., 1989, Friction constitutive behavior and textural evolution of experimental faults in granite, Ph.D. thesis, 152~pp., Brown University, Providence, R.I., May, 1989.

4. Yund, R.A., M.L. Blanpied, T.E. Tullis, and J.D. Weeks, 1990, Observations of experimental fault gouges using transmission electron microscopy, Journal of Geophysical Research, 95, 15,589-15,602.

5. Blanpied, M. L., D. A. Lockner and J. D. Byerlee, 1991, Fault stability inferred from granite sliding experiments at hydrothermal conditions, Geophysical Research Letters, 18, 609-612.

6. Blanpied, M. L., Lockner, D. A., and Byerlee, J. D., 1992, An earthquake mechanism based on rapid seal-ing of faults, Nature, 358.

7. Sleep, N. H. and Blanpied, M. L., 1992, Creep, compaction and the weak rheology of major faults, Na-ture, 359, 687-692. 

8.  Kilgore, B. D., Blanpied, M. L. and  Dieterich, J. H., 1993,  Velocity dependent friction of granite over a wide range of conditions, Geophysical Research Letters, 20, 903-906.

9. Blanpied, M. L., J. D. Byerlee and D. A. Lockner, Effects of Temperature and PH2O on Frictional Strength of Granite, 1994, in Proceedings of USGS Conference on Mechanical Involvement of Flu-ids in Faulting, June 6-10, 1993, Fish Camp, CA.

10. Blanpied, M. L., J. D. Byerlee and D. A. Lockner, Effects of temperature and PH2O on frictional strength of granite, in USGS Redbook on the Mechanical Effects of Fluids in Faulting, edited by S. Hick-man, R. Sibson and R. Bruhn, USGS Open-File Report 94-228, p. 483-486, 1994.

11. Marone, C. J. and M. L. Blanpied, (eds.), Faulting, Friction, and Earthquake Mechanics, Part I, 402 pages, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 1994. 

12. Marone, C. J. and M. L. Blanpied, (eds.), Faulting, Friction, and Earthquake Mechanics, Part II, 511 pages, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 1994.

13. Marone, C. J. and M. L. Blanpied, Introduction, in Faulting, Friction and Earthquake Mechanics Part I, edited by C. J. Marone and M. L. Blanpied, p. 413-416, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 1994.

14. Blanpied, M. L. and C. J. Marone, Introduction, in Faulting, Friction and Earthquake Mechanics Part II, edited by C. J. Marone and M. L. Blanpied, p. 1-5, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 1994.

15. Sleep, N. H. and M. L. Blanpied, 1994, Ductile creep and compaction: A mechanism for transiently increasing fluid pressure in mostly sealed fault zones, Pure and Applied Geophysics, 143, p. 9-40.

16. Blanpied, M. L. and N. M. Beeler, Evolution of gouge textures in experimental granite faults, in Fault-Related Rocks: a Photographic Atlas, edited by A. W. Snoke, J. A. Tullis and V. R. Todd, Prince-ton University Press, 1997.

17. Blanpied, M. L., D. A. Lockner and J. D. Byerlee, 1995, Frictional slip of granite at hydrothermal conditions, Journal of Geophysical Research, 100, p3045-3057.

18. Beeler, N. M., T. E. Tullis, M. L. Blanpied and J. D. Weeks, 1996, Frictional behavior of large displacement experimental faults, J. Geophys. Res., 101, 8697-8715.

19. Blanpied M. L., T. E. Tullis and J. D. Weeks, The effects of displacement, sliding rate and shear heating on the friction constitutive behavior of granite, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 489-511, 1998.

20. Gomberg, J., M. L. Blanpied and N. M. Beeler, 1997, Transient triggering of near and distant earthquakes, Bull. Seis. Soc. Am., 87, 294-309.

21. Gomberg, J., N. Beeler, M. L. Blanpied and P. Bodin, Earthquake triggering by transient and static de-formations, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 24411-24426, 1998.

22.  Blanpied, M. L., C. J. Marone, D. A. Lockner, J. D. Byerlee and D. P. King, Quantitative measure of the variation in fault rheology due to fluid-rock interactions, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 9691-9712, 1998.

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My Science Topics

My USGS Science Strategy Areas

The Earthquake Hazards Program monitors the Nation's earthquakes, studies why they occur and how they shake the ground, provides quantitative earthquake hazard and risk assessments, helps promote loss-reduction measures using these results, and provides crucial scientific information to assist emergency responders when earthquakes occur. The Program operates under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, created by Congress in 1977.

The USGS's maps of earthquake shaking hazards (shown above) provide information essential to creating and updating the seismic design provisions of buliding codes and insurance rates used in the United States. Periodic revisions of these maps incorporate the results of new research. For more about this product, see USGS Fact Sheet 2008-3017, http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3017/.