Susan Elizabeth Hough (born March 20, 1961) is a

seismologist Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

at the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

, and scientist in charge of the office. She has served as an editor and contributor for many journals and is a contributing editor to ''Geotimes Magazine''. She is the author of five books, including ''Earthshaking Science'' (Princeton).

Biography

Hough graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1982 and is a

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

alumnus, earning her Ph.D. in

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

from the

Scripps Institution of Oceanography Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is the center for oceanography and Earth science at the University of California, San Diego. Its main campus is located in La Jolla, with additional facilities in Point Loma. Founded in 1903 and incorpo ...

in 1987. She has served on the board of directors of the

Seismological Society of America The Seismological Society of America (SSA) is an international Learned society, scientific society devoted to the advancement of seismology and the understanding of earthquakes for the benefit of society. Founded in 1906, the society has members ...

from 1998 to 2004 and of the

Southern California Earthquake Center The Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC) is a collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists across 100 research institutions focused primarily on conducting research on earthquakes in Southern California and elsewhere by gathering data, c ...

from 2006 to 2009. Subsequent to the

2010 Haiti earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (departm ...

, Hough led the

team charged with the installation of seismic stations and accelerometers. The USGS are contributing to earthquake engineering efforts by improving earthquake monitoring and reporting by means of their USGS

Advanced National Seismic System The Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) is a collaboration of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and regional, state, and academic partners that collects and analyzes data on significant earthquakes to provide near real-time (generally ...

(ANSS). Hough and her team deployed portable seismometers for recording aftershocks of the earthquake,Susan Hough
www.newscientist.com and she continues to cooperate with Haitian seismologosists for setting up permanent seismic monitoring in their country. Areas at risk in future earthquakes are mapped by means of seismic microzonation using local geological conditions to characterize seismic hazard. Normally, the effect of sedimentary layers are considered, however local

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

is not considered in this context. However, the results provided by Hough and her team highlighted that topographic amplification played a major role in causing the earthquake damage in Pétion-Ville, a suburb of

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

, thereby challenging the conventional view on factors to consider when performing microzonation. Hough has written numerous articles for mainstream publications such as the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. Altogether she has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals.AGU Council – Seismology – Secretary Candidate: Susan Hough
, American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Publications

;Books * ''Predicting the Unpredictable: The Tumultuous Science of Earthquake Prediction'' (2009),

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, * ''Richter's Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man'', a biography of famed seismologist Charles Richter (2007), Princeton University Press, * ''After the Earth Quakes: Elastic Rebound on an Urban Planet'' (2005),

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, * ''Finding Fault in California: An Earthquake Tourist's Guide'' (2004),

Mountain Press Publishing Company Mountain Press Publishing Company is an American book publishing company based in Missoula, Montana. It specializes in western U.S. history, natural history, and non-technical earth science, geology, and ecology Ecology () is the natu ...

, * ''Earthshaking Science: What We Know (and Don't Know) about Earthquakes'' (2004), Princeton University Press, *''The Great Quake Debate: The Crusader, the Skeptic, and the Rise of Modern Seismology'' (2020),

University of Washington Press The University of Washington Press is an American academic publishing house. The organization is a division of the University of Washington, based in Seattle. Although the division functions autonomously, it has worked to assist the university' ...

, ISBN 9780295747361 ;Articles (selection) * Susan E. Hough, Alan Yong, Jean Robert Altidor, Dieuseul Anglade, Doug Given, Saint-Louis Mildor
Site Characterization and Site Response in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Earthquake Spectra, Volume 27, Issue S1 (October 2011) * Susan Hough

Washington Post, 26 August 2011 * S. Hough, J. Altidor, D. Anglade, D. Given

Nature Geoscience, 2010 * Susan E. Hough

Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2010 * Susan Hough

New York Times, 11 April 2009

References

External links

USGS profile of Susan Hough
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hough, Susan American seismologists American biographers American science writers 1961 births Living people American women geologists Scientists from California United States Geological Survey personnel University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century American geologists 21st-century American geologists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American women geophysicists American geophysicists 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women biographers