Caltech's Brent Minchew (PhD '16) and Mark Simons, along with their collaborators and in cooperation with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), exploited four COSMO-SkyMed radar-imaging satellites on the Rutford Ice Stream in Antarctica. The satellites gathered near-continuous data for nearly nine months from a variety of angles.
The Rutford Ice Stream is a fast-moving river of ice, approximately 300 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide, in West Antarctica. It connects glaciers in the Ellsworth Mountains to the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, a floating chunk of ice roughly the size of California. Driven by its own weight, the stream of solid ice flows downhill toward the sea at a rate of about one meter per day, though that speed varies by as much as 20 percent with the tides.
The variability is driven by the ice's interactions with the ocean. At low tide, the floating ice sinks far enough to ground out on the sea floor like a foundering ship, causing an ice traffic jam that can be detected up to 100 kilometers upstream. When the tide rises again, the ice lifts off of the sea floor and flows freely once more.
Rachel was one of four recipients of the Springer Poster Presentation Awards at the 2016 COMPRES annual meeting for her presentation of "Equations of State of Fe-Ni and Fe-Ni-Si at High Pressure". The award is a 150 Euro book voucher from Springer-Verlag. Rachel is pictured third from the left.
The American Geophysical Union has chosen 60 new Fellows, including Rob Clayton, Professor of Geophysics. Since the American Geophysical Union (AGU) established its Fellows Program in 1962, the organization has elected outstanding members as Union Fellows. This special honor recognizes scientific eminence in the Earth and space sciences. It acknowledges Fellows for their remarkable contributions to their research fields, exceptional knowledge, and visionary leadership. Only 0.1% of AGU membership receives this recognition in any given year.
Click here for a full list of Class of 2016 AGU Fellows.
The American Geophysical Union has named Zhongwen Zhan, Assistant Professor of Geophysics, as the recipient of the Keiiti Aki Young Scientist Award for 2016.
Established in 2008, the Keiiti Aki Young Scientist Award recognizes the scientific accomplishments of young scientists in the field of seismology. The award is for recent graduates with a Ph.D. degree awarded in the three year period prior to January 1 of the year of the award presentation.
Click here for the list of Keiiti Aki Young Scientist recipients.
The American Geophysical Union names Mark Simons, Professor of Geophysics, to the William Bowie lecture series. The Bowie Lecture was inaugurated in 1989 to commemorate the fiftieth presentation of the William Bowie Medal, which is named for AGU's first president and is the highest honor given by AGU. Bowie lecturers in the list below are denoted by asterisks.
These awardees/lecture recipients represent some of the most innovative minds in their fields. We recognize their continuing meritorious work and service toward the advancement and promotion of discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity.
Click here for the list of this year's section and focus group awardees and named lecturers.
They will be recognized for their achievements at the 2016 AGU Honors Tribute on December 14, 2016 in San Francisco.
Congratulations Dr. Clayton, Dr. Zhan and Dr. Simons!
On February 18, 2015, an explosion rattled the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, causing ground shaking equivalent to that of a magnitude-2.0 earthquake and blasting out an air pressure wave similar to a sonic boom.
Traveling at 343 meters per second—about the speed of sound—the air pressure wave reached a 52-story high-rise in downtown Los Angeles 66 seconds after the blast.
The building's occupants probably did not notice a thing; the building shifted at most three-hundredths of a millimeter in response. But the building's seismometers—one is installed on every floor, as well as on the basement levels—noted and recorded the motion of each individual floor.
Those sensors are part of the Community Seismic Network (CSN), a project launched at Caltech in 2011 to seed the Los Angeles area with relatively inexpensive seismometers aimed at providing a high level of detail of how an earthquake shakes the Southern California region, as well as how individual buildings respond. That level of detail has the potential to provide critical and immediate information about whether the building is structurally compromised in the wake of an earthquake, says Caltech's Monica Kohler, research assistant professor in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science.
Congratulations to the 2016 GPS Division Graduates in the Seismo Lab Congratulations to the Geological & Planetary Sciences Division graduates! In particular, we would like to recognize the Seismological Laboratory's Geophysics doctoral graduates pictured with Dr. Michael Gurnis(from left to right) Hilary Martens, Junle Jiang, Yiran Ma and Dunzhu Li.
Natalia also had a paper published recently in American Minerologist. Click here to read paper.
Natalia will present her research on carbonates and amorphous silicates at the 2016 Goldschmidt conference held in Yokohama, Japan June 26-July1.
For more updates and news: http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~jackson/News.html
Launching in late 2020, NISAR is a joint U.S. - India radar satellite mission that will image most of the Earth's subaerial surface every 12 days. NISAR will provide key observations that constrain basic processes in earthquake science, glaciology, hydrology and ecosystem change, as well as situational awareness information for post-disaster response.
For more information on NISAR, please visit http://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/.
David G. Harkrider, professor of geophysics, emeritus, at Caltech and an expert in seismological wave propagation, has passed away on Tuesday, February 16, 2016. He was 84.
Born on September 25, 1931 in Houston Texas. Harkrider received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Rice University in 1953 and 1957, respectively. He earned a doctorate in geophysics from Caltech in 1963 and remained as a research fellow until 1965, when he joined the Department of Geology at Brown University as an assistant professor. Harkrider returned to Caltech as an associate professor in 1970, becoming a professor in 1979 and a professor emeritus in 1995. From 1977-1979 he was the associate director of Caltech's Seismological Laboratory.
The slow slip aseismic, in the deep part of the tectonic faults is the main mechanism of accumulation of efforts in the engaged area. The deformation areas outside seismic coupling also causes intermittent seismic processes, for example swarms of tremors or earthquakes. Seismic monitoring of these processes allows to study the slow deformation. The phenomenon of episodic slow earthquakes accompanied by tremors is indicative of the heterogeneity of the physical properties of faults. During large subduction earthquakes, such as Tohoku, Japan, 2011 the coexistence of fast and slow processes are manifested by the spatial separation between the sliding areas of high and low frequency, revealed by studies of broadband source. The separation is also evident in the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, at high frequencies located in the deep part of the rupture zone, coinciding with the belt of seismicity background, mechanics and numerical and experimental models of seismic cycle allow us to understand these processes of rupture and its impact on the distribution of the intensity of the damage caused by the quake. In urban areas, new monitoring systems allow us to detect micro-seismicity more fully. This has revealed the existence of very deep earthquakes in the roots of an active fault in Los Angele, in the upper mantle. The unusual features of this deep seismicity can be interpreted in the context of models of rupture in heterogeneous fault areas.
Since the late 1970's, Caltech seismologist Tom Heaton, professor of engineering seismology, has been working to develop earthquake early-warning (EEW) systems- networks of ground-based sensors that can send data to users when the earth begins to tremble nearby, giving them seconds to potentially minutes to prepare before shaking reaches them. EEW systems have been implemented in countries like Japan, Mexico, and Turkey. However, the United States has been slow to regard EEW systems as a priority for the West Coast.
But on February 2, 2016, the White House held the earthquake Resilience Summit, signaling a new focus on earthquake safety and EEW systems. There, stakeholders-including Caltech's Heaton and Egill Hauksson, research professor in geophysics; and USGS seismologist Lucy Jones, a visiting associate in geophysics at Caletch and seismic risk advisor to the mayor of Los Angeles-discussed the need for earthquake early earning and explored steps that can be taken to make such systems a reality.
At the summit, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announced $3.6 million in grants to advance a West Coast EEW system called ShakeAlert, which received an initial $6 million in funding from the foundation in 2011. The grants will go to researchers working on the system at Caltech, the USGS, UC Berkeley, and the University of Washington.
When a series of earthquakes struck the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles County, California in early 2015, local residents were concerned that the use of hydraulic fracturing and other drilling activities in the nearby oil field might have played a role in triggering the quakes.
In response, the community worked with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Thriving Earth Exchange to identify an academic expert in earthquakes and their relationship to oil drilling. Jean-Paul (Pablo) Ampuero, Ph.D., an assistant professor of seismology at the California Institute of Technology who studies the physics of earthquakes, turned out to be a perfect scientific partner for the community. Dr. Ampuero, who is originally from Peru, was particularly interested in helping the community because of its large Hispanic population.
The resulting partnership not only helped to inform residents and calm their fears, but also formed a lasting relationship that continues to deliver the latest seismology research to the community.
Deep inside the earth, seismic observations reveal that three distinct structures make up the boundary between the earth's metallic core and overlying silicate mantle at a depth of about 2,900 kilometers- an area whose composition is key to understanding the evolution and dynamics of our planet. These structures include remnants of subducted plates that originated near the earth's surface, ultra-low velocity zones believed to be enriched in iron, and large dense provinces of unknown composition and mineralogy. A team led by Caltech's Jennifer Jackson, professor of mineral physics, has new evidence for origin of these features that occur at the core-mantle boundary.
Seismo Lab Director Michael Gurnis with a team of scientists from the University of Texas, IBM Research and New York University were awarded the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize at the annual Supercomputing Conference. The team developed innovative algorithms for a mathematical approach called an "implicit solver" to realistically simulate mantle convections and plate tectonics at ultra-high resolution and accuracy. The new software reached an unprecedented 97 percent parallel efficiency in scaling the solver to 1.6 million cores, a new world record. [PR Newswire]
In the event of a major earthquake in Los Angeles, first responders ideally would immediately have a map of the most intense shaking around the city-allowing them to send help to the hardest-hit areas first.
A new collaboration between Caltech researchers and schools of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) provides a crucial step in the creation of such damage maps by vastly broadening the scope of a dense network of seismic sensors in the Los Angeles basin.
[Caltech Article]
By many who owe him much
The following reminiscences, scientific and otherwise, were contributed by Don Anderson's scientific colleagues. Incomplete though they are, they give a flavor of the extraordinary range of Don's activities, his influence on Earth science, and the phenomenon that was the Caltech Seismological Laboratory in his time.
Click here to read full article.
Located primarily in the Seismological Laboratory, the Geophysics Option in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences provides unique opportunities for graduate students to excel in academics and engage in cutting-edge research. The Seismo Lab welcomes Jorge Castellenos, Jack Muir, and Minyan Zhong.
Jorge received his B.S. degree in Geophysical Engineering at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon. In 2015, he received a M.S. in Earth Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he worked with large seismic array datasets to characterize subduction zone dynamics underneath Mexico. His main research interests are geodesy, seismic wave propagation and the use of inverse theory to determine Earth structure. When asked why he chose Caltech, Jorge says, "Caltech provides me the opportunity to explore freely the different branches of Earth Science while working with the World leading researchers in these fields."
Jack received a Bachelor of Philosophy with honors in physics from the Australian National University in 2014. He has done internships in condensed matter physics, astrophysics, and geophysics. Jack has worked on projects involving Bayesian inference applications to the differential rotation of Earth's inner core and Joint inversion of lowermost mantle P-wave velocity and core-mantle boundary topography. His research interests include inverse problem methods, bayesian statistics, ambient noise correlations and deep mantle structure. For Jack, "Caltech is an exciting place to work due to the large and diverse faculty and student body, which provides a wealth of experience on which to draw."
Minyan received his B.S. from Peking University (Beijing, China) in 2015, double-majoring in Geophysics and Software Engineering. During his undergraduate studies, he worked on problems related to surface wave tomography, in order to retrieve surface-wave phase velocity across seismic arrays. He is interested in ambient seismic noise, development of Geophysical methods, and EQ physics related to super shear rupture. When asked why he chose Caltech, Minyan says, "There are many world-class faculty here, working in different subfields of geophysics, and the atmosphere of collaboration here is really great."
One of the biggest unknowns in understanding the effects of climate change today is the melting rate of glacial ice in Antarctica. Scientists agree rising atmospheric and ocean temperatures could destabilize these ice sheets, but there is uncertainty about how fast they will lose ice.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is of particular concern to scientists because it contains enough ice to raise global sea level by up to 16 feet, and its physical configuration makes it susceptible to melting by warm ocean water. Recent studies have suggested that the collapse of certain parts of the ice sheet is inevitable. But will that process take several decades or centuries? [Caltech Article]
Michael is a senior at Caltech, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. This fall he entered the Master's program in Geophysics, which is part of the B.S./M.S. program for undergraduate students at Caltech. Michael is from Richmond, Virginia and after attending Caltech's pre-frosh weekend, he knew Caltech was the best fit for him. This past summer, Michael worked on acoustic emission experiments at Schlumberger in Salt Lake City. When he is not working on magnetostratigraphy or tutoring at the Hixen Writing Center, he is working on an electric-powered go-kart for the Society of Automotive Engineers "Formula SAE" competition.
Seismo Lab Postdoctoral Scholar, Hsin-Hua Huang, is interested in exploring various tectonic problems seismologically and gaining better understanding of Earth structure, including a wide spectrum of topics such as regional structural kinematics, unusual earthquake sequences, mountain building process, 3-D slab interaction, and crustal magmatism system. One of his recent focuses is on improving seismic imaging from the shallow crust to the upper mantle with multi-dataset joint inversion and waveform methods. In the meantime, he is also working on seismic interferometry to extracting new body-wave data set from earthquake coda and probing the deep Earth. One of his works that unveils the lower crustal magma reservoir beneath the Yellowstone has recently been published on journal Science.
The Earth is a living planet, as revealed by tectonic processes spanning various time and spatial scales, including earthquake, volcano eruptions, mountain building, basin formation, etc. All these tectonic processes are dominated by the solidus buoyancy flow inside the Earth's mantle - mantle convection.
Southeast Asia is a unique place to investigate the effects of mantle convection on surface tectonics. This intriguing place has the most prominent low dynamic topography on Earth at present, as indicated by numerical models and observations.
Sundaland, the continental core of Southeast Asia, underwent intense deformation in the past, as revealed by the low seismic velocity in the lithosphere and upper mantle, widespread rifting basins and high heat flux. However, Sundaland is tectonically quiet at present and manifests as the low seismicity and strain rate. We investigate global mantle viscosity and temperature structures with the constraints of geoid, free air gravity, gravity gradients and residual topography.
With the knowledge of mantle temperature and viscosity structures, we focus on the dynamic evolution of Southeast Asia, with dynamic models considering both lithospheric scale deformation and mantle convection. We demonstrate that a large mass of dense, cold slab material lay horizontally within the transition zone beneath southern Sundaland before the Miocene, due to the impedance of the 660 phase boundary. During the early Miocene the stagnant slab became unstable and penetrated into the lower mantle, forming a slab avalanche event. This slab avalanche event induced significant change in large scale topography, stress field and basin regimes and sedimentary environments in southern Sundaland.
We suggest that the slab avalanche might have occurred beneath other subduction zones and generated strong changes on surface tectonics.
The Mineral and Rock Physics focus group of the American Geophysical Union has awarded Dongzhou Zhang the 2015 Graduate Research Award, in recognition of his Ph.D. thesis work on the development and application of new techniques to constrain melting points of iron-alloys under extreme conditions.
Established in 1990, the Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award is given annually to one or more promising young scientists (current Ph.D. students and individuals who have completed the degree requirements for a Ph.D. or highest equivalent terminal degree up to 12 months prior to the nomination deadline) in recognition of outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research.
Congratulations, Dongzhou!
Click here for a list of present and past recipients.
At the Annual Meeting of COMPRES last week in Colorado Springs, a contest was conducted to select the best poster presenter, with the winners to receive one of the 150 Euro book vouchers from Springer-Verlag. Natalia won for her presentation of "Spin crossover and equation of state of (Mg.Fe)O". All four winners were graduate students currently at member institutions of COMPRES.
The winners are:
Alisha Clark, University of California Davis
Rebecca Fischer, University of Chicago
Dylan Rittman, Stanford University
Natalia Solomatova, Caltech
Congratulations, Natalia!
Click here for information on COMPRES.
Congratulations to the Geological & Planetary Sciences Division graduates! In particular, we would like to recognize the Seismological Laboratory's Geophysics doctoral graduate Dongzhou Zhang.
The American Geosciences Institute has named Hiroo Kanamori, John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, as the recipient of the Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal for 2015.
The Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal is given to a recipient with consistent contributions of high-quality scientific achievements and service to the Earth Sciences having lasting, historic value; who has been recognized for accomplishments in field(s) of expertise by professional societies, universities, or other organizations; and is a senior scientist nearing completion or has completed full-time regular employment. Prior to 2007 it had been called the AGI Legendary Geoscientist Award.
Congratulations Dr. Kanamori!
Click here for the list of previous recipients
Caltech Seismological Laboratory professor Joann Stock has been awarded a renewal of a KINGDOM Software Educational License from IHS Global, Inc.The amount of this 3 year grant is valued at $3,798,900.
The additional three-year license will allow continued interpretation of active source seismic data available from several locations (Antarctica, Mexico, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Southern California).
In addition, a student training class in marine geophysics on board ship in spring 2016 is in the initial planning stages. The cruise will collect multichannel seismic data in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. (See course description for Ge211, Applied Geophysics 11).
IHS Global, Inc's KINGDOM® software is an intuitive, cost-effective geoscience software solution. Kingdom combines simplicity and sophisticated science to provide basin-wide capabilities, advanced field evaluation, seismic and geological interpretation to well site identification and planning.
For more on Kingdom Software Educational Licenses click here.
On November 3, 2014 the Government of Japan announced the recipients of its Fall 2014 Decorations. Hiroo Kanamori, John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, will be receiving the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star for his contributions to education and research.
Dr. Kanamori's research on clarifying the source process of massive earthqaukes in order to quantify the physical process of the epicenter based on the seismic record was a breakthrough in the study of seismology. These research results have led to the development of systems to help reduce seismic disaster and also contributed to the spread of earthquake early warning and earthquake alarm systems in Japan.
Congratulations Dr. Kanamori!
Click here for the list of Fall 2014 Decoration recipients.
Congratulations to the Geological & Planetary Sciences Division graduates! In particular, we would like to recognize the Seismological Laboratory's Geophysics doctoral graduates pictured with Dr. Ken Farley (from left to right) Yihe Huang, Sara Dougherty, and Zhongwen Zhan.
The Seismological Society of America awarded Victor Tsai the Charles F. Richter Early Career award at the Annual Meeting held April 30 - May 2, 2014 in Anchorage, Alaska. The presentation of the award will take place during the 2015 Annual Meeting, April 21-23, 2015 in Pasadena.
The Charles F. Richter Early Career Award honors outstanding contributions to the goals of the Society by a member early in her or his career. No more than one Richter Award may be given each calendar year. The Richter award is presented at the annual meeting following the year of the award.
Congratulations Victor!
Rachel Miller, 2nd year graduate student in geophysics, has been selected to receive a 2014 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored and funded by the Department of Defense. This fellowship is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated the ability and special aptitude for advanced training in science and engineering.
Congratulations Rachel!
Dongzhou Zhang receives the 2013 National Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Studying Abroad, sponsored by the China Scholarship Council (CSC).
This award was founded by the Chinese government in 2003 with the purpose of rewarding academic excellence of self-financed Chinese students studying overseas. Only those with outstanding performance in their Ph.D. studies are considered for the award, and 518 students from all over the world were granted the award this year.
Congratulations Dongzhou!
Jean Paul Ampuero selected by IRIS/SSA as 2014 Distinguished Lectureship Lecturer Jean Paul Ampuero selected by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) and the Seismological Society of America as one of two speakers from the Earth science research community for the tenth annual IRIS/SSA Distinguished Lectures Series. The general goal of the program is to increase the general public's awareness of the relevance of Seismology through increased exposure.
The title of Dr. Ampuero's lecture: Earth's Cocktail Party: Deciphering the Physics of Earthquakes With Networks of Seismic Arrays.
Congratulations Pablo!
Click here to learn more about the IRIS/SSA education and outreach program.
Jennifer Jackson named Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of AmericaJennifer Jackson has been named Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America. Members who have contributed significantly to the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, petrology, or allied sciences and whose scientific contribution utilized mineralogical studies or data, may be designated as Fellows upon proper accreditation by the Committee on Nomination for Fellows and election by the Council. Congratulations Jennifer!
Click here to learn more about the Mineralogical Society of America.
Congratulations to 2013 GPS Division Graduates – Congratulations to the Geological & Planetary Sciences Division graduates! In particular, we would like to recognize the Seismological Laboratory's Geophysics doctoral graduates (from left to right) Francisco Ortega, Jeffrey Thompson, Kristin Phillips-Alonge, Thomas Ader, and Lingsen Meng.
Graduate Student Dongzhou Zhang Receives Student Poster AwardSeismo Lab graduate student, Dongzhou Zhang, a member of Jennifer Jackson's research group, received the Student Poster Award at the Advanced Photon Source Users Meeting held May 6- 9, 2013. His poster was titled "Fast-Temperature-Readout Spectrometer for Atomic Dynamics Measurements". Congratulations, Dongzhou!
Seismo Lab Mineral Physicist Develops New Method to Help Determine Temperatures Inside EarthSeismo Lab mineral physicist Jennifer Jackson has developed a new melt-detection method to measure the melting point of iron under extreme pressure. This method attempts to emulate the conditions found in Earth's core. Click here to read more about her discoveries.
Click here to see the article in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Michael Gurnis receives Augutus Love Medal from the European Geosciences UnionThe EGU Awards and Medals program recognizes scientists for their outstanding research contribution in Earth, planetary and space sciences, and identifies the awardees as role models for the next generation of young scientists. They released the names of the 41 recipients of the 2013 Medals and Awards, Division Medals, and Division Outstanding Young Scientists Awards.
The prizes will be presented at the 2013 EGU General Assembly in Vienna on April 7-12, 2013.
Click here to view all of the recpients of the 2013 Awards and Medals
Victor Tsai Receives Keiiti Aki Young Scientist AwardSeismological Laboratory Assistant Professor of Geophysics, Victor Tsai, has been awarded the 2012 Keiiti Aki Young Scientist Award. This award, established by the Seismology section of the American Geophysical Union, is given to an outstanding young seismologist who is within three years of receiving his/her Ph.D.
Click here to learn more about Victor Tsai's research.
Jean-Paul Ampuero Is NSF Faculty Early CAREER Development AwardeeJean-Paul Ampuero, Assistant Professor of Seismology, has been selected to receive a NSF Faculty Early CAREER Development Award. The program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. His specific award title is: "Integrating earthquake physics and source imaging while engaging the Hispanic community."
Click here to learn more about Jean-Paul Ampuero's research.
A Ml 5.5 earthquake occurred at 1:57PM on August 26th, 2012, and was preceeded by nearly 200 events ranging Ml 1.4 - Ml 5.3. The earthquakes are occurring on a northeast striking fault zone located about 6 km north of the northwest end of the mapped Imperial Valley fault. This is within the area called the Brawley Seismic Zone. The BSZ extends from the northern end of the Imperial fault to the southern end of the San Andreas fault.
Click here to read the executive summary on the Southern California Seismic Network.
A team, including Seismo Lab assistant professor of seismology Jean-Paul Ampuero and graduate student Lingsen Meng (first author of the paper), used ground-motion recordings gathered by networks of sensors in Europe and Japan, and an advanced source-imaging technique developed in Caltech's Seismological Laboratory as well as the Tectonics Observatory to piece together a picture of the 2012 Mw 8.6 Sumatra Earthquake's complex rupture process. Their research appears in the July 19 issue of Science Express, an online publication ahead of print for Science Magazine.
Click here to read Caltech's article.
Click here for the article published in Science Express.
SSA Announces 2012 Student Presentation Award Winners Seismo Lab graduate student, Lingsen Meng, was awarded the student prize for his paper presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Seismological Society of America. The award is in recognition of Lingsen's excellent scientific capabilities and the manner in which he conveyed his results and interpretations to fellow scientists.
Congratulations, Lingsen!
Click here to view all of the recpients of the 2012 SSA Student Presentation Award
Dr. Hiroo Kanamori Elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of SciencesDr. Hiroo Kanamori, John E. and Hazel S. Smits
Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus was elected foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences. The 21 foreign associates are from 15 countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. They are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States.
Click here to read the News From the National Academy of Sciences.
Seismo Faculty and Students Enjoy RetreatTwenty-six members of the Seismo Lab spent the day at the Castaic Lake State Recreation Area in
Castaic, CA for this year's 2012 Student Faculty Retreat. The graduate students, post-docs, faculty, and staff on the
retreat enjoyed a morning hike along some of the park's trails and a
fun-filled afternoon of team-building games along the lakefront. The main
event was the "Amazing Race: Seismo Lab Student Faculty Retreat Edition",
for which each retreat participant received a certificate of completion.
The afternoon was topped off by an awards ceremony in which the winning teams for each game received prizes. A four-course al fresco dinner at a
local Italian restaurant completed the retreat.
Lean more about the Seismo Lab Annual Student Faculty Retreat http://www.seismolab.caltech.edu/daily.html
4/11/2012 (Mw 8.6), Offshore Sumatra, Indonesia Back-Projection ResultsThe April 11 2012 M8.6 earthquake off-shore Sumatra is a record-breaking event in many respects:
it is the largest strike-slip earthquake and the largest intraplate earthquake ever recorded.
High-resolution source imaging by back-projection of high-frequency teleseismic array data (by Lingsen Meng, Jean-Paul Ampuero, and Yingdi Luo) shows that this is also one of the most
complicated ruptures ever witnessed by modern seismology. It involved rupture on at least three
different faults in a system of almost orthogonal faults.
Click here to read the article on the Techtonics Observatory website.
The vibrational spectrum of iron, the most abundant element in Earth's core, at 171 gigapascals. By squeezing iron between two diamond anvils (inset), Caltech researchers reproduced the pressures found in Earth's core.
[Credit: Caitlin A. Murphy/Caltech]A team, including Seismo Lab assistant professor of mineral physics Jennifer Jackson and graduate student Caitlin Murphy (first author of the paper), has honed in on how iron behaves under the conditions found deep in the earth by conducting extremely high-pressure experiments on the element. The team used diamond anvil cells (DACs) to squeeze the iron samples, reproducing the types of pressures felt in the earth's core. Their research appears in the December 20 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.
Click here to read Caltech's article.
Click here for the article published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Laura Alisic Awarded the CSE Prize 2011Seismo Lab graduate student Laura Alisic, along with two other scientists, has been awarded the Computational Science and Engineering Prize 2011 by Springer for outstanding work on simulating global mantle convection at tectonic plate boundary-resolving scales.
Congratulations, Laura! Click here for more about Laura.
ShakeAlert is the current version of an early warning system now being tested by Caltech and UC Berkeley in collaboration with the Southern California Earthquake Center, ETH Zurich and the USGS.The California Institute of Technology has been awarded $2 million of a $6 million grant by the Gordon and Berry Moore Foundation to help develop a prototype earthquake early warning system for the Pacific Coast of the United States. The grant will allow seismologists at Caltech, the University of California, Berkeley, and University of Washington, Seattle, in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey, to learn about the science of earthquakes and the best way to capture and analyze seismic data in order to give schools, utilities, industries and the general public as much time as possible—most likely seconds to several minutes—before the ground begins to shake.
“The Foundation’s grant is a huge contribution to moving forward the science of earthquake early warning systems,” said Thomas Heaton, director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Laboratory and professor of geophysics and of civil engineering at Caltech.
Click here to read the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation press release.
Brent Minchew Receives ARCS FellowshipSeismo Lab graduate student Brent Minchew was given an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation Scholar Award. This award is for outstanding science, engineering and medical research graduate and undergraduate students who are citizens of the United States.
Congratulations, Brent! Click here for more about Brent.
Robert W. Clayton, Professor of Geophysics, is working on a New Scientific Opportunity USB3 - Component Accelerometers. We are developing a new earthquake monitoring (seismic network) system, Community Seismic Network (CSN) based on a dense array of low-cost sensors. The goal of the system is to produce block-by-block estimates of strong ground shaking. The information from these sensors will be sent to central computers that will process the data and produce localized estimates of ground shaking on a block-by-block basis - essentially, motions of the evolving seismic wave field during local earthquakes. This information will guide emergency responders and promises to lead to a new level of understanding of the physics of earthquakes and their impact on Southern California. The development of the new network is partially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Learn more
Lingsen Meng Receives CTBTO Best Young Scientist AwardSeismo Lab graduate student Lingsen Meng was presented with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization's Best Young Scientist Award for two presentations he made on the Tohoku-Oki earthquake at the CTBTO 2011 Science and Technology conference held in Vienna, Austria.
Congratulations, Lingsen! Click here for more about Lingsen.
Seismologist Reflects on his Firsthand Experience of the Japanese EarthquakeEminent seismologist Hiroo Kanamori, Caltech's Smits Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, has been studying the movement of the earth his entire career. On March 11 he was in Tokyo, experiencing firsthand the largest earthquake in the country's recorded history. For the full story, click here.
Simons Argues Against Hazard Prevention CutsLess than two weeks after a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated a large swath of Japan, Caltech geophysicist Mark Simons, in today's Wall Street Journal, calls attention to federal budget proposals that would cut funding for prevention technologies. "Mitigating against future disasters depends on monitoring hazardous regions (earthquake faults, volcanoes, landslides and so on) and preparing to survive and recover once catastrophe strikes," Simons says in the opinion piece. By cutting funding for advanced early-warning and response technologies, our country's long-term security is jeopardized, he argues. For the full story, click here.
Looking Inside the San Andreas A new Earthquake study could provide the best idea yet of how the Big One will affect the Southland.
Please click on the following link to read the entire article in the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-geology-earthquake-20110323,0,2928553.story
PASADENA, Calif.—Computational scientists and geophysicists at the University of Texas at Austin and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed new computer algorithms that for the first time allow for the simultaneous modeling of the Earth's mantle flow, large-scale tectonic plate motions, and the behavior of individual fault zones, to produce an unprecedented view of plate tectonics and the forces that drive it.
A paper describing the whole-earth model and its underlying algorithms will be published in the August 27 issue of the journal Science and also featured on the cover.
The work "illustrates the interplay between making important advances in science and pushing the envelope of computational science," says Michael Gurnis, the John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics, director of the Caltech Seismological Laboratory, and a coauthor of the Science paper.
The paper, "The Dynamics of Plate Tectonics and Mantle Flow: From Local to Global Scales," was also coauthored by Georg Stadler, Carsten Burstedde, Lucas C. Wilcox and Omar Ghattas all at the University of Texas at Austin and Laura Alisic of Caltech. The work was supported by the NSF, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and—at the Caltech Tectonics Observatory—by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Kathy Svitil
Click here to read Kathy Svitil's full article.
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Thomas J. Ahrens, one of the leading figures in mineral physics, geophysics, and planetary sciences during the Twentieth Century and a member of the Seismological Laboratory, passed away on November 24, 2010 at the age of 74. His many former students, collaborators and Caltech friends will sorely miss him. Ahrens spent more than forty years at Caltech and was the Fletcher Jones Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus when he passed away. His vast research accomplishments and impact touched on the origin, differentiation and evolution of the Earth and planets. An experimentalist at heart, he was widely known for starting and leading the Lindhurst Laboratory of Experimental Geophysics. Through the more than thirty graduate students and fifteen post docs and visiting associates he mentored, his impact on science will be felt for many years to come. To read and print the entire tribute, click here.
Seismic waves (red and blue-green lines) passing up through the lower mantle may have detected a plume (blue-green column).
According to a review by Richard A. Kerr in Science magazine, "Mantle plumes--tall columns of hot rock rising to feed volcanic hot spots like Hawaii--are either fundamental components of Earth's heat-shedding machinery that reshape the surface and perhaps trigger mass extinctions, or they are the figments of some geophysicists' imaginations." His review explores the reactions of the scientific community to an article by Seismo Lab scientists Daoyuan Sun, Don Helmberger, and Michael Gurnis that was published in Geophysical Research Letters on May 4, 2010. In the article, Sun et al. posited the existence of a mantle plume under southern Africa.
Click here to read Science magazine's review.
Click here for the article published in Geophysical Research Letters.
(VP, red) and shear (VS, blue) wave velocities determined for (Mg.16Fe.84)O. Seismic observations for the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) and ultra-low velocity zones (ULVZs) are shown to highlight that just a small fraction of iron-rich (Mg,Fe)O in a deep mantle rock is needed to explain ULVZ observations at Earth's core-mantle boundary.
Using a diamond-anvil cell to recreate the high pressures deep within the earth, researchers at Caltech have found unusual properties in an iron-rich magnesium- and iron-oxide mineral that may explain the existence of several ultra-low velocity zones (ULVZs) at the core-mantle boundary. A paper about their findings was published in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters.
Click here for Caltech's article.
Click here for the article published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Victor Tsai, Assistant Professor of Geophysics, will be joining the division in July 2011. Victor was born in Massachusetts but grew up mostly in the San Francisco Bay area. As an undergraduate at Caltech, he became interested in geophysics and did research on atmospheric/solid-earth coupling and the stability of earth rotation, graduating with a BS in geophysics. While pursuing his Ph.D. at Harvard University, he broadened his research interests to include earthquake dynamics, glacier mechanics, solid-fluid interactions, and seismic noise tomography. As a postdoctoral fellow at the United States Geological Survey, he is continuing some of this work while also investigating the physical processes that generate seismic noise.
Brent Minchew Awarded the NASA Earth and Space Science FellowshipSeismo Lab graduate student Brent Minchew has been awarded the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) for his proposal, "Temperate Glacier Observations with L-Band SAR". The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) received a total of 331 applications to this fellowship program announced in November 2010 in Earth Science Research and selected 57 for award.
Congratulations, Brent! Click here for more about Brent.
For updated information about the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake, please click here.
The tragic M9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake in Japan, which occurred on March 11, 2011, generated an extraordinary volume of observations that will be used to further our understanding of large seismic events. The devastating images, video, and reports showing widespread destruction serve as a catalyst to the scientists at Caltech to further strengthen our resolve to mitigate hazards associated with damaging earthquakes. Caltech scientists and collaborators at JPL continue to analyze the data, with the aim of describing the earthquake with the highest fidelity possible.
We show a preliminary animation derived by back-projection of seismic waves, which models the initial 180 seconds of the earthquake rupture. Created by Lingsen Meng and Jean-Paul Ampuero of Caltech, the model uses data collected from USArray seismic stations located in the United States (in addition to European stations), and shows that ~100 seconds into the earthquake, the fault rupture undergoes a complex change, where the rupture front splits bilaterally north and south.
Animation showing back-projection of the teleseismic waves to their source. Note the north-south bilateral split of the fault rupture, with significant displacement of the fault continuing to the south, while mild to moderate displacement continues north.
High frequency analysis of the teleseismic records by Caltech Seismological Laboratory seismologists Risheng Chu and Don Helmberger further confirm the bilateral fault rupture as seen in the back-projection animation above, and the data demonstrate a slower than average rupture velocity, indicating this fault took longer to rupture than other faults of similar size and geometry.
Ray count and analysis of high-frequency waveforms calculate 90% of the energy was released during the first 250 seconds of the fault rupture. This correlates to the slow speed of the bilateral fault rupture, shown in the previous animation, which models the speed of the rupture at ~2.8km/second. This is slightly faster than the 2004 Great Sumatra Earthquake, but still slower than typical fault rupture speeds.
Caltech scientists Shengji Wei and the members of the ARIA project (a collaboration between Caltech and JPL), along with Anthony Sladen of Geoazur, have created a model of the distribution of slip on the subsurface fault. The model is derived by combining observations from long distance teleseismic body waves and near source GPS observations. A 3D image of the fault slip can be viewed in Google Earth (link to KML file here: http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/slip_history/2011_taiheiyo-oki/tohoku11-joint.kml ), and projects the fault rupture in three dimensions, which can be viewed from any point of reference. The analysis shows that the rupture originated ~24 km (15 miles) deep, and the maximum slip on the fault was 100 feet, ultimately thrusting the island of Japan as much as 5m (16 feet) east from its location before the earthquake.
The graphic above projects the fault geometry above the surface of the earth in three dimensions. Hot/cold colors correlate to maximum/minimum displacements of the fault, respectively. Click on the image above to download the Google Earth KML file.
Caltech scientists, in conjunction with Geoazur in France, have modeled the deadly tsunami by combining GPS and teleseismic data (http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/slip_history/2011_taiheiyo-oki), creating an animation which is solved under the non-linear shallow water approximation using a finite difference code.
An animation depicting the tsunami as it traverses the Pacific Ocean. The difference in red and blue colors represent the peaks and troughs of the waves, respectively. Tsunamis generated by earthquakes rarely exceed 2 meters (6 feet) on average. This tsunami had a maximum observed run-up of 13 m (43 ft) in some areas of Japan, and caused millions of dollars of damage as far away as Hawaii and California. Although one fatality occurred near Crescent City, CA, the tsunami caused several thousand fatalities in Japan. The resultant damage and fatalities caused by the tsunami far exceeded the damage and lives lost due to earthquake shaking. This animation was created by a collaboration of the Tectonics Observatory at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory, GeoAzur (France), California Earthquake Authority, and CNRS (France).
The deadly Tohoku-oki earthquake occurred at the boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the Pacific Plate; this is a plate boundary where the plates are converging at a rate of ~8cm/year, respectively. No earthquake of this magnitude had occurred in this area within recorded history, and many in the scientific community did not think a M9 or larger was possible in this area. This event will change the way seismologists and geophysicists view subduction zone dynamics in the future.
Maximum fault slip, shown in red, was nearly 30 m (90 feet). Surface projection of the fault plane slip distribution is shown above. Red dots are plate boundaries, whereas grey dots are aftershocks during the first day. The mainshock epicenter is denoted by the red star. This image was modeled by Shengji Wei, Anthony Sladen, and the ARIA group (Caltech-JPL).
A M5.4 earthquake occurred in southern California at 4:53 pm (Pacific Time) about 30 miles south of Palm Springs, 25 miles southwest of Indio, and 13 miles north-northwest of Borrego Springs. The earthquake occurred near the Coyote Creek segment of the San Jacinto fault, which is one of the strands of the San Jacinto fault. The earthquake exhibited sideways horizontal motion to the northwest, consistent with slip on the San Jacinto fault. It was followed by more than 60 aftershocks of M>1.3 during the first hour. Seismologists expect continued aftershock activity.
This M5.4 earthquake follows the 4th of April 2010, Easter Sunday, Mw7.2 earthquake, located about 125 miles to the south, well south of the US Mexico international border. A M4.9 earthquake occurred in the same area on June 12th at 8:08 pm (Pacific Time). Thus this section of the San Jacinto fault remains active.
For more earthquake information, please go to www.usgs.gov or scsn.org.
Also, visit daretoprepare.org for up-to-date information on how to protect yourself, your family, and your property.
Congratulations to the Geological & Planetary Sciences Division graduates! In particular, we would like to recognize Geophysics/Seismological Laboratory doctoral graduates Ravi Kanda, Lijun Liu, and Sarah Minson.
A June 18 story on OurAmazingPlanet looked at the discovery of a magma plume under southern Africa and quoted study coauthor Don Helmberger.
Learn more by reading Brett Israel's article, "Magma Plume Discovered Under Southern Africa" from June 18, 2010 on OurAmazingPlanet.
Seismo Lab graduate student Ting Chen has been awarded the 2009 National Award for Outstanding Self-financed Chinese Students Studying Abroad by the China Scholarship Council (CSC). This award was founded by the Chinese government in 2003 with the purpose of rewarding the academic excellence of self-financed Chinese students studying overseas. Only those with outstanding performance in their Ph.D. studies are considered for the award, and no more than 500 students are granted the award each year.
Congratulations, Ting! Click here for more information about Ting.
Seismo Lab graduate student YoungHee Kim has been awarded the Anadarko/SEG (Society of Exploration Geophysicists) Scholarship for the 2010-2011 school year. The scholarship is sponsored by Anadarko Petroleum. Geosciences students worldwide are considered for this scholarship.
YoungHee has also been awarded the KUSCO-KSEA Scholarship for graduate students in the United States. This scholarship is to recognize outstanding graduate students who have excelled in the field of science and engineering as well as in extracurricular activities, including community service, and who have demonstrated a potential for becoming leaders in the scientific community for closer cooperation between the U.S. and Korea.
Congratulations, YoungHee! Click here for more information about YoungHee.
Hiroo Kanamori, Caltech Professor Emeritus is interviewed by Nature on the 50th anniversary of Chile's 1960 magnitude 9.5 earthquake - Nature magazine talks with the experts. Nature magazine's Roff Smith interviews Caltech Professor Emeritus Hiroo Kanamori as he looks back at the largest earthquake ever recorded.
About Hiroo Kanamori: In 1977 Dr. Hiroo Kanamori developed the Moment Magnitude scale, which replaced the Richter scale for measuring earthquakes M5.0 and larger. Using the improved method, scientists were able to obtain more precise measurements of the energy of large earthquakes that occurred in the past, such as the 1960 Chilean earthquake and the 1964 Alaskan earthquake, as well as a better means of studying and analyzing seismic events when they occur.
Learn more by reading Roff Smith's article, "The Biggest One" in Nature's May 5, 2010 edition.
Bin Chen, a Texaco Postdoctoral Fellow, is the 2010 recipient of the John C. Jamieson Award. The Jamieson Award is given for outstanding achievement in the field of high pressure research by a graduate student or postdoctoral researcher. This award is given every year, alternating at the Gordon Research Conference (Research at High Pressure) in one year and the AIRAPT Conference the next year. Bin will accept the award at the GRC this summer. John Calhoun Jamieson (1924 - 1983) was Professor of Geophysics at The University of Chicago. Most of his research used static high pressures. He also performed shock experiments at Los Alamos and SRI International. The John C. Jamieson Memorial Fund, which supports the Award, was established by a number of Jamieson's former students and colleagues. The Fund is managed by Bob Schock, a former postdoc of Jamieson and currently Director of Studies for the World Energy Council (WEC) in London.
Congratulations Bin! More information about Bin can be found on his homepage.
A Fellow of AGU is a scientist who has attained acknowledged eminence in the geophysical sciences. This honor is bestowed on only 0.1% of the membership in any given year by a committee of 11 Fellows. Click here to learn more
The magnitude 7.2 northern Baja California earthquake of Sunday, April 4, 2010, occurred approximately 40 miles south of the Mexico-USA border at shallow depth along the principal plate boundary between the North American and Pacific plates. This is an area with a high level of historical seismicity and has recently been seismically active, though this is the largest event to strike in this area since 1892. This earthquake appears to be larger than the M 6.9 earthquake in 1940 or any of the early 20th century events (e.g., 1915 and 1934) in this region of northern Baja California.
The principal plate boundary in northern Baja California consists of a series of northwest-trending strike-slip faults that are separated by pull-apart basins. The faults are distinct from but parallel to strands of the San Andreas fault system. The April 4 main-shock occurred along a strike-slip segment of the plate boundary that coincides with the southeastern part of the Laguna Salada fault. Aftershocks appear to extend in both directions along this fault5 system from the epicenter of yesterday's event. The aftershock zone extends from the northern tip of the Gulf of California to the Mexico-USA border. There have been more than 1000 aftershocks as of Tuesday, April 6,2010.
For more earthquake information, please go to www.usgs.gov or scsn.org.
Also, visit daretoprepare.org for up-to-date information on how to protect yourself, your family, and your property.
Jennifer Jackson, Assistant Professor of Geophysics, has been selected to receive a NSF Faculty Early CAREER Development Award. The program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to re-search and education. Her specific award title is: "Investigations on the elastic and vibrational properties of mantle silicates and oxides." Learn more about Jennifer Jackson's research
Congratulations to Swaminathan Krishnan, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Geophysics, whose simulations of earthquakes and structural response has won the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute's 2009 Annual Graphics Competition. View the submission
Seismo Lab graduate student Laura Alisic is the National Science Foundation’s MARGINS Student Prize Poster Winner for 2009. She presented her poster, “Ultra-High Resolution and Composite Rheology in Global Mantle Flow”, at the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting. The judges commended her on "An extremely well presented poster on a complex topic by a student in full control of her research. From start to finish, [they] found this poster presentation to be done at a very high professional and scientific level. Superb, eye-catching graphics, logical organization, clear in-person discussion and response to questions. Simply outstanding." The poster can be viewed by clicking the link on nsf-margins.org.
Congratulations, Laura! More information about Laura's research can be found on her web site.
Michael Gurnis, John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics, was named Director of the Seismological Laboratory, effective July 1, 2009. Dr. Gurnis will continue the tradition of strong leadership that the Seismo Lab has enjoyed over the decades. He brings with him a breadth of experience working with international organizations. He has a dedicated focus on the education and training of new scientists. He balances his students' experience through research in both geo-physical and computational science. Dr. Gurnis served as Associate Director of the Seismological Laboratory from 1995-2003 and is currently Director of Computational Infrastructure for Geo-dynamics (CIG). Learn more about Michael Gurnis' research
