Faculty/Staff

Louie, John

Status: Emeritus Professor

Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus (he/him/his)

Nevada Seismological Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, College of Science, University of Nevada, Reno MS 0174, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89557-0141

I am retiring in June 2023 and no longer recruiting students. Geophysics grad admissions.

Cloud invitations: for Box to louie@unr.edu; for Google Drive to johnnlouie@gmail.com; for Dropbox to johnnlouie@yahoo.com

Voice: (775) 229-3835; Fax: (775) 784-4165 (Always send a cover page with: ``J. Louie, MS 0174''); Lab Office: (775) 784-4975; Email: louie@unr.edu

Looking for Louie's software, research, or class resources?

Everything that was on the crack.seismo server is now at Louie.pub. Simply go into the subfolder with the materials you want. Please email louie@unr.edu with any questions.

Geol 100 Lectures on Earthquakes and Earth Structure

GPH 492 Applied Geophysics class public website

John is a faculty member of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory and the Dept. of Geological Sciences and Engineering in the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, College of Science at the University of Nevada, Reno.

''The goal of my research is to accurately image and characterize subsurface structures and conditions in seismically difficult areas, with high-resolution experiments. I constrain these observations with independent geophysical and geological data. The seismic characterization, imaging, tomography, and monte-carlo optimization techniques I develop improve the productivity of resource exploration and development, and of hazards assessments. In particular I try to describe the characteristics of earthquake faults and of sites in order to mitigate seismic hazards to life and property; and seismically image geothermal resources.''

Key Words: geophysics, seismology, resource exploration and development, seismic reflection, geophysical imaging and inversion, tomography, modeling, scientific visualization, earthquake hazards and zonation, parcel mapping, ReMi, tectonics.

John's Classes Archive:

GPH492/692, Applied Geophysics

Geol 706, Geophysical Series, Filtering, and Introduction to Imaging. Interactive imaging exercises in Java.

Geol 757, Advanced Seismic Imaging and Tomography.

John's selected recent papers are (click to go to the papers folder under Louie.pub):

J. Louie, Pancha, A., Pullammanappallil, S., and West*, L. T., 2018, Clark County Earthquake Parcel Map Vs30 effects on predictions of shaking for Las Vegas (paper 1477): Proceedings of the 11^th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Los Angeles, Calif., 5 pp.

(10 Mb PDF)

L. T. West*, Louie, J., Pullammanappallil, S., 2018, Sensitivity tests of detailed shear-wave velocity profiles to 95 m depth in 3D numerical simulations of wave propagation to 15 Hz frequency, Clark County, Nevada (paper 1127): Proceedings of the 11^th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Los Angeles, Calif., 5 pp.

(4.9 Mb PDF)

A. Pancha, S. Pullammanappallil, J. N. Louie, P. H. Cashman, and J. H. Trexler, 2017b, Determination of 3D basin shear-wave velocity structure using ambient noise in an urban environment: A case study from Reno, Nevada: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 107, no. 6 (December), 3004-3022, doi: 10.1785/0120170136.

(7.6 Mb PDF preprint)

A. Pancha, S. K. Pullammanappallil, L. T. West, J. N. Louie, and W. K. Hellmer, 2017a, Large scale earthquake hazard class mapping by parcel in Las Vegas Valley, Nevada: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 107, no. 2 (April), 741-749, doi: 10.1785/0120160300. (668 kb PDF journal reprint)

J. Louie, A. Pancha, S. Pullammanappallil, 2017, Applications of Refraction Microtremor done right, and pitfalls of microtremor arrays done wrong: invited for presentation at the 16^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (16WCEE) Paper No. 4947, Santiago, Chile, Jan. 9-13, 12 pp.

(14.1 Mb PDF preprint)

A. Pancha, J. Louie, S. Pullammanappallil, 2017, Detailed measurement of NEHRP site classifications throughout Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, for building code enforcement by Clark County: accepted for presentation at the 16^th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (16WCEE) Paper No. 0458, Santiago, Chile, Jan. 9-13, 12 pp.

(9.5 Mb PDF preprint)

Kyle Basler-Reeder, John Louie, Satish Pullammanappallil, and Graham M. Kent, 2016, Joint optimization of vertical component gravity and P-wave first arrivals by simulated annealing: Geophysics, 81, ID59-ID71, DOI: 10.1190/geo20150643.1.

(4.6 Mb PDF preprint)

J. Louie, G. Schmauder, G. Kent, K. Smith, K. McBean, A. McBean, K. Gray, and K. Hall, 2016, Chapter 45: Simulation of scenario-earthquake shaking in the Lake Tahoe basin - a comparison between ShakeMap and Nevada ShakeZoning: in R. Anderson and H. Ferriz, Eds., Applied Geology in California, Assoc. of Engineering and Environmental Geologists Special Publication 26, Star Publishing Company, Belmont, Calif., 897-925, ISBN 978-0-89863-399-3.

(5.8 Mb PDF preprint or

20 Mb PDF preprint with highres figs)

T. A. Stern, S. H. Henrys, D. A. Okaya, J. Louie, M. K. Savage, S. H. Lamb, H. Sato, R. Sutherland, and T. Iwasaki, 2015, A seismic reflection image for the base of a tectonic plate: Nature, 518 (5 Feb.), 85-88, doi:10.1038/nature14146. 2015 winner of The New Zealand Geophysics Prize from the Geoscience Society of New Zealand. (12.2 Mb PDF journal reprint)

Amy K. Eisses, Annie Kell, Graham M. Kent, Neal W. Driscoll, Rob L. Baskin, Ken D. Smith, Robert E. Karlin, John N. Louie, and Satish K. Pullammanappallil, 2015, New constraints on fault architecture, slip rates, and strain partitioning beneath Pyramid Lake, Nevada: Geosphere, 11, no. 3, doi:10.1130/GES00821.1.

Brady A. Flinchum, John N. Louie, Kenneth D. Smith, William H. Savran, Satish K. Pullammanappallil, and Aasha Pancha, 2014, Validating Nevada ShakeZoning predictions of Las Vegas basin response against 1992 Little Skull Mtn. earthquake records: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 104, no. 1 (Feb.), 439-450; first published online January 21; doi: 10.1785/0120130059.

(12.4 Mb PDF preprint with color figures)

Tyler Kent, John Louie, and Jim Echols, 2013, Correlating azimuthal anisotropy to geothermal resource potential using a 3D-3C seismic survey of Soda Lake geothermal field, Nevada: SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts 2013: 341-346, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/segam2013-1398.1. Copyrighted PDF available from SEG.

W. J. Stephenson, R. N. Frary, J. N. Louie, and J. K. Odum, 2013, Quaternary extensional growth folding beneath Reno, Nevada, imaged by urban seismic profiling: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 103, no. 5 (October), 2921-2927, doi: 10.1785/0120120311.

(8.9 Mb PDF journal proof)

Shahar Shani-Kadmiel, Michael Tsesarsky, John N. Louie, and Zohar Gvirtzman, 2013, Geometrical focusing as a mechanism for significant amplification of ground motion in sedimentary basins: analytical and numerical study: Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, published online Oct. 4, DOI 10.1007/s10518-013-9526-4, 19 pp.

Mahesh S. Dhar, John N. Louie, Kenneth D. Smith, Mayo Thompson,

and Annie Kell-Hills, 2013 in revision, Station delays, their standard deviations, and event relocations in the Reno-area basin from a dense USArray Flexible Array deployment during the 2008 West Reno earthquake swarm: submitted to Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 9 March 2011, 43 pp.

Shahar Shani-Kadmiel, Michael Tsesarsky, John N. Louie, and Zohar Gvirtzman, 2012, Simulation of seismic-wave propagation through geometrically complex basins - the Dead Sea Basin: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 102, 1729-1739, doi: 10.1785/0120110254. (4.8 Mb PDF preprint)

J. N. Louie, Pullammanappallil, S., and Honjas, W., 2011, Advanced seismic imaging for geothermal development: Proceedings of the New Zealand Geothermal Workshop 2011, Nov. 21-23, Auckland, paper 32, 7 pp. (9.3 Mb PDF preprint)

I. M. Tibuleac, D. H. von Seggern, J. G. Anderson, and J. N. Louie, 2011, Computing Green's functions from ambient noise recorded by accelerometers and analog, broadband, and narrow-band seismometers: Seismological Research Letters, 82, 661-675.

Zohar Gvirtzman and John N. Louie, 2010, 2D analysis of earthquake ground motion in Haifa Bay, Israel: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 100,733?750, doi: 10.1785/0120090019.

P. H. Cashman, Trexler, J.H., Jr., Muntean, T.W., Faulds, J., Louie, J., and Oppliger, G., 2009, Neogene tectonic evolution of the Sierra Nevada - Basin and Range transition zone at the latitude of Carson City, Nevada: in Geol. Soc. Amer. Special Paper 447, Late Cenozoic Structure and Evolution of the Great Basin-Sierra Nevada Transition, p. 171-188, doi:10.1130/2009.2447(10).

Donghong Pei, John N. Louie, and Satish K. Pullammanappallil, 2009, Erratum to Improvements on Computation of Phase Velocities of Rayleigh Waves Based on the Generalized R/T Coefficient Method: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 99, 2610-2611.

Donghong Pei, John N. Louie, and Satish K. Pullammanappallil, 2008, Improvements on computation of phase velocities of Rayleigh waves based on the generalized R/T coefficient method: Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., 98, 280-287, DOI: 10.1785/0120070057.

Donghong Pei, John N. Louie, and Satish K. Pullammanappallil, 2007, Application of simulated annealing inversion on high-frequency fundamental-mode Rayleigh wave dispersion curves: Geophysics, 72, no. 5 (Sept.-Oct.), pp. R77-R85.

Weston A. Thelen, Matthew Clark, Christopher T. Lopez, Chris Loughner, Hyunmee Park, James B. Scott, Shane B. Smith, Bob Greschke, and John N. Louie, 2006, A transect of 200 shallow shear velocity profiles across the Los Angeles Basin: Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., 96, no. 3 (June), pp. 1055-1067, doi: 10.1785/0120040093.

James B. Scott, Tiana Rasmussen, Barbara Luke, Wanda Taylor, J. L. Wagoner, Shane B. Smith, and John N. Louie, 2006, Shallow shear velocity and seismic microzonation of the urban Las Vegas, Nevada basin: Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., 96, no. 3 (June), pp. 1068-1077, doi: 10.1785/0120050044.

W. J. Stephenson, J. N. Louie, S. Pullammanappallil, R. A. Williams, and J. K. Odum, 2005, Blind shear-wave velocity comparison of ReMi and MASW results with boreholes to 200 m in Santa Clara Valley: Implications for earthquake ground motion assessment: Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., 95, no. 6 (Dec.), 2506-2516.

J. B. Scott, M. Clark, T. Rennie, A. Pancha, H. Park and J. N. Louie, 2004, A shallow shear-wave velocity transect across the Reno, Nevada area basin: Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., 94, no. 6 (Dec.), 2222-2228.

John N. Louie, Weston Thelen, Shane B. Smith, Jim B. Scott, Matthew Clark, and Satish Pullammanappallil, 2004, The northern Walker Lane refraction experiment: Pn arrivals and the northern Sierra Nevada root: Tectonophysics, 388, no. 1-4, 253-269.

John N. Louie, Sergio Chavez-Perez, Stuart Henrys, and Stephen Bannister, 2002, Multimode migration of scattered and converted waves for the structure of the Hikurangi slab interface, New Zealand: Tectonophysics, 355, no. 1-4, 227-246.

John N. Louie, 2001, Faster, better: shear-wave velocity to 100 meters depth from refraction microtremor arrays: Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., 91, no. 2 (April), 347-364.

R. E. Abbott, J. N. Louie, S. J. Caskey, and S. Pullammanappallil, 2001, Geophysical confirmation of low-angle normal slip on the historically active Dixie Valley fault, Nevada: Jour. Geophys. Res., 106, 4169-4181.

See Louie's home page (under construction) for an archive of more preprints, copyright information, and software.

Contacts:

Home Page: http://louie.pub
Phone: (775) 229-3835
E-mail: click to email