Exciting news! We're transitioning to the Statewide California Earthquake Center. Our new website is under construction, but we'll continue using this website for SCEC business in the meantime. We're also archiving the Southern Center site to preserve its rich history. A new and improved platform is coming soon!
Chris Milliner
Caltech
Postdoctoral Scholar
Expertise: Active tectonics, remote sensing, fault mechanics
About Me
Publications
My research involves using geodetic and field techniques to better understand how faults release strain throughout the earthquake cycle from the surface to upper mantle depths.
I am interested in developing InSAR, GPS, lidar differencing, and optical image correlation techniques with field-based surveys to measure processes ranging from multi-segment co-seismic ruptures, aseismic transients, and post-seismic afterslip to viscoelastic relaxation.
I am particularly interested in understanding the mechanics of near-field co-seismic surface deformation, and how new and emerging geodetic datasets (e.g. optical image correlation and lidar differencing) inform us about tectonic processes at depth.
I am interested in developing InSAR, GPS, lidar differencing, and optical image correlation techniques with field-based surveys to measure processes ranging from multi-segment co-seismic ruptures, aseismic transients, and post-seismic afterslip to viscoelastic relaxation.
I am particularly interested in understanding the mechanics of near-field co-seismic surface deformation, and how new and emerging geodetic datasets (e.g. optical image correlation and lidar differencing) inform us about tectonic processes at depth.
Milliner, C., Avouac, J., Aati, S., Dolan, J. F., & Hollingsworth, J. (2023, 09). Do Faults Localize as They Mature? Insight From 17 Continental Strike-slip Surface Rupturing Events (Mw > 6.1) Measured by Optical and Radar Imaging Data.. Poster Presentation at 2023 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 13258
Milliner, C., Aati, S., & Avouac, J. (2022, 09). Constraining the Frictional Strength and State of Stress Along Coseismic Fault Ruptures using 3D Geodetic Imaging Data. Poster Presentation at 2022 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 11951
Milliner, C., Aati, S., & Avouac, J. (2021, 08). Resolving Coseismic Stresses Using 3D Geodetic Imaging Data: Examples from the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence. Poster Presentation at 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 11136
Milliner, C., Avouac, J., Aati, S., Chen, R., Chiou, B., Dawson, T., Donnellan, A., & Dolan, J. F. (2021, 08). Characterizing the Deformation and Hazard of Fault Zones Using Geodetic Imaging Data. Oral Presentation at 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 11135
Xu, X., Sandwell, D. T., Ward, L. A., Milliner, C., Smith-Konter, B. R., Fang, P., & Bock, Y. (2021, 08). Mapping faults from space with InSAR: Ridgecrest and beyond. Oral Presentation at 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 11112
Rodriguez Padilla, A. M., Oskin, M. E., Milliner, C., & Plesch, A. (2021). Widespread rock damage from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes. Nature Geoscience, (accepted). SCEC Contribution 10995
Rodriguez Padilla, A. M., Oskin, M. E., & Milliner, C. (2020, 08). Does Slip Heterogeneity Drive Near-field Fracture and Aftershock Distribution? Examples from the 2019 Ridgecrest Sequence. Poster Presentation at 2020 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 10578
Xu, X., Sandwell, D. T., Ward, L. A., Smith-Konter, B. R., Milliner, C., Fang, P., & Bock, Y. (2020, 08). Surface deformation nearby the Ridgecrest earthquakes: Frictional slip or compliant fault?. Poster Presentation at 2020 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 10563
Milliner, C., Avouac, J., Chen, R., Aati, S., Chiou, B., Donnellan, A., Dawson, T., & Dolan, J. F. (2020, 08). Development of a Geodetic-based Probabilistic Fault Displacement Hazard Analysis Using Near-field Geodetic Imaging Data. Poster Presentation at 2020 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 10551
Elliott, A. J., Dee, S., Koehler, R. D., Barnhart, W. D., Briggs, R., Collett, C., Dawson, T., DeLong, S., Gold, R. D., Haddon, E. K., Hartsorn, E., Hatem, A. E., Milliner, C., Pickering, A., Pierce, I., Seitz, G. G., Trexler, C., Wicks, C., Xu, X., & Zachariasen, J. (2020, 08). Comparison of ground-based and space-based surface rupture mapping of the May 15, 2020 M6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, Nevada. Poster Presentation at 2020 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 10489
Idini, B., Simons, M., Zhong, M., Stephenson, O., Ross, Z. E., Fielding, E. J., Yun, S., Hauksson, E., Milliner, C., Moore, A. W., & Liu, Z. (2019, 08). The first few days of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 9884
Seitz, G. G., Mareschal, M., Dawson, T., & Milliner, C. (2019, 08). The Origin of Surface Cracks from the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence M6.4 and M7.1 Fault Zones: Primary Faulting, Triggered Slip or Shaking Related; Can we tell the difference?. Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 9847
Chen, K., Avouac, J., AATI, S., Milliner, C., Zheng, F., & Shi, C. (2019, 08). Cascading, pulse-like ruptures during the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes, East California Shear Zone. Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 9815
Kendrick, K. J., Akciz, S. O., Angster, S. J., Avouac, J., Bachhuber, J. L., Bennett, S. E., Blake, K., Bork, S., Brooks, B. A., Burgess, P., Chupik, C., Dawson, T., DeFrisco, M. J., Delano, J., DeLong, S., Dolan, J. F., DuRoss, C. B., Ericksen, T., Frost, E., Gold, R. D., Graehl, N. A., Haddon, E. K., Hatem, A. E., Hernandez, J. L., Hitchcock, C., Hudnut, K. W., Koehler, R. D., Kozaci, O., Ladinsky, T., Madugo, C. M., Mareschal, M., McPhillips, D., Milliner, C., Morelan, A. E., Nevitt, J., Olson, B., Padilla, S. E., Patton, J. R., Philibosian, B., Pickering, A., Pierce, I., Ponti, D. J., Pridmore, C., Rosa, C., Roth, N., Scharer, K. M., Seitz, G. G., Spangler, E., Swanson, B. J., Thomas, K., Thompson Jobe, J., Treiman, J. A., Williams, A. M., & Oskin, M. E. (2019, 08). Geologic observations of surface fault rupture associated with the Ridgecrest M6.4 and M7.1 earthquake sequence by the Ridgecrest Rupture Mapping Group. Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 9779
Milliner, C., Donnellan, A., Chen, R., Zinke, R., Xu, X., Morelan, A. E., Dawson, T., Madugo, C. M., Dolan, J. F., Sarmiento, A., Bozorgnia, Y., & Ansar, A. (2019, 08). OR-Corr a New Outlier-Resistant Image Correlation Method: Examples of Surface Deformation and Complex Fracturing from the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence Imaged by High-resolution Optical and Radar Imagery . Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 9732
Xu, X., Ward, L. A., Smith-Konter, B. R., Milliner, C., Fang, P., Bock, Y., & Sandwell, D. T. (2019, 08). Surface rupturing and triggered slip on nearby faults from the Ridgecrest earthquakes revealed by InSAR . Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 9637
Zinke, R., Hollingsworth, J., Peltzer, G., Fielding, E. J., Dolan, J. F., Milliner, C., Bozorgnia, Y., & Sarmiento, A. (2019, 08). Three-dimensional rupture patterns of the 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake sequence revealed by correlation of high-resolution WorldView optical satellite imagery . Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 9557
Milliner, C. W., & Donnellan, A. (2018, 08). High Resolution Geodetic Measurements of Co-seismic Fault-zone Deformation for Probabilistic Fault Displacement Hazard Assesment and Confidence Intervals on Geologic Slip Rates. Poster Presentation at 2018 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 8555
Milliner, C. W., Bürgmann, R., Wang, T., Inbal, A., Bekaert, D., Liang, C., & Fielding, E. J. (2017, 08). Capturing Postseismic Processes of the 2016 Mw 7.1 Kumamoto Earthquake, Japan, Using Dense, Continuous GPS and Short-repeat Time ALOS-2 InSAR Data: Implications for the Shallow Slip Deficit Problem . Poster Presentation at 2017 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 7392
Glasscoe, M. T., Parker, J. W., Donnellan, A., Lyzenga, G. A., & Milliner, C. W. (2016, 08). Constraining Interacting Fault Models in the Salton Trough with Remote Sensing Data. Poster Presentation at 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 6915
Hatem, A. E., Dolan, J. F., & Milliner, C. W. (2016, 08). Progress towards deriving the three-dimensional coseismic deformation field along the White Wolf fault during the Mw ~7.3 1952 Kern County earthquake. Poster Presentation at 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 6765
Milliner, C. W., Dolan, J. F., Zinke, R., Hollingsworth, J., Leprince, S., & Ayoub, F. (2016, 08). Aerial2lidar3d: A New Point Cloud-Optical Image Matching Technique to Quantify Near-Field, Surface Co-Seismic Deformation in 3D: Application to the 1999 Mw 7.1 Hector Mine Earthquake and New Surface Offset Measurements of the 1999 Mw 7.6 Izmit earthquake. Poster Presentation at 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution 6760
Milliner, C., Aati, S., & Avouac, J. (2022). Fault Friction Derived From Fault Bend Influence on Coseismic Slip During the 2019 Ridgecrest Mw 7.1 Mainshock. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 127(11). doi: 10.1029/2022JB024519. SCEC Contribution 11829
Aati, S., Milliner, C., & Avouac, J. (2022). A new approach for 2-D and 3-D precise measurements of ground deformation from optimized registration and correlation of optical images and ICA-based filtering of image geometry artifacts. Remote Sensing of Environment, 277. doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2022.113038. SCEC Contribution 11828
Xu, X., Sandwell, D. T., Ward, L. A., Milliner, C., Smith-Konter, B. R., Fang, P., & Bock, Y. (2020). Surface deformation associated with fractures near the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. Science, 370(6516), 605-608. doi: 10.1126/science.abd1690. SCEC Contribution 10864
Ponti, D. J., Morelan, A. E., Padilla, S. E., Oskin, M. E., Olson, B., O'Neal, M., Nevitt, J. M., Nale, S., Mongovin, D. D., Philibosian, B., Milliner, C., McPhillips, D., McDonald, J., Mareschal, M., Madugo, C. M., Leeper, R. J., Ladinsky, T., patton, j. R., Pierce, I., Koehler, R. D., Jobe, J., Zimmerman, J., Zachariasen, J., Xu, X., Williams, A. M., Vanderwal, J., Valencia, F. N., Treiman, J. A., Swanson, B. J., Pridmore, C., Spangler, E., Smith-Konter, B. R., Singleton, D. M., Seitz, G. G., Scharer, K. M., Sandwell, D. T., Roth, N., Kozaci, O., Kendrick, K. J., Blair, J., Barth, N. C., Burgess, P., Bullard, T., Brooks, B. A., Bork, S., Blake, K., Bennett, S. E., Bacon, S., Dawson, T., Bachhuber, J. L., Avouac, J., Angster, S. J., Akciz, S. O., Pickering, A., Thomas, K., Rosa, C., Chupik, C., DeFrisco, M. J., Hudnut, K. W., Graehl, N. A., Holland, P., Hitchcock, C., Hernandez, J. L., Helms, J., Hatem, A., Haddon, E. K., Gutierrez, C., Gold, R. D., Delano, J., Funning, G. J., Frost, E., Ericksen, T., DuRoss, C. B., Donnellan, A., Dolan, J. F., DeLong, S., & Zinke, R. (2020). Documentation of Surface Fault Rupture and Ground-Deformation Features Produced by the 4 and 5 July 2019 Mw 6.4 and Mw 7.1 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence. Seismological Research Letters, 91(5), 2942-2959. doi: 10.1785/0220190322. SCEC Contribution 10852
DuRoss, C. B., Gold, R. D., Dawson, T., Scharer, K. M., Kendrick, K. J., Akciz, S. O., Angster, S. J., Bachhuber, J. L., Bacon, S., Bennett, S. E., Blair, L., Brooks, B. A., Bullard, T., Burgess, W. P., Chupik, C., DeFrisco, M. J., Delano, J., Dolan, J. F., Frost, E., Graehl, N. A., Haddon, E. K., Hatem, A., Hernandez, J. L., Hitchcock, C., Hudnut, K. W., Thompson Jobe, J., Koehler, R. D., Kozaci, O., Ladinsky, T., Madugo, C. M., McPhillips, D., Milliner, C., Morelan, A. E., Olson, B., patton, j. R., Philibosian, B., Pickering, A., Pierce, I., Ponti, D. J., Seitz, G. G., Spangler, E., Swanson, B. J., Thomas, K., Treiman, J. A., Valencia, F. N., Williams, A. M., & Zinke, R. (2020). Surface Displacement Distributions for the July 2019 Ridgecrest, California, Earthquake Ruptures. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 110(4), 1400-1418. doi: 10.1785/0120200058. SCEC Contribution 10110
Milliner, C., & Donnellan, A. (2020). Using Daily Observations from Planet Labs Satellite Imagery to Separate the Surface Deformation between the 4 July Mw 6.4 Foreshock and 5 July Mw 7.1 Mainshock during the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence. Seismological Research Letters, 91(4), 1986-1997. doi: 10.1785/0220190271. SCEC Contribution 10070
Milliner, C. W., Materna, K., Bürgmann, R., Fu, Y., Bekaert, D., Moore, A. W., Adhikari, S., & Argus, D. F. (2018). Tracking the weight of Hurricane Harvey’s stormwater using GPS data. Science Advances, 4(9). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau2477. SCEC Contribution 8918
Hollingsworth, J., Leprince, S., Ayoub, F., Dolan, J. F., Milliner, C. W., Tong, X., Sandwell, D. T., & Xu, X. (2016). Refining the shallow slip deficit. Geophysical Journal International, 204(3), 1843-1862. doi: 10.1093/gji/ggv563. SCEC Contribution 6198
Last updated Sep 20, 2023.
