What do past earthquakes tell us about the next big one in Southern California?

Event Type: 
Professional Seminar
Date: 
Friday, April 14, 2017 - 12:20pm
Professor of Geosciences, UMass, Amherst
Location: 
Morrill 129

Past earthquakes provide some of the only information we have on the stress state within the crust and the potential for future damaging earthquakes. But does the relatively short seismic catalog provide a reliable record of loading on southern California faults, such as the San Jacinto and San Andreas faults? This talk will compare focal mechanisms from the seismic catalog along with 3D crustal deformation models to assess processes that may produce a seismic catalog that is not representative of loading on the active faults.

  Part of our weekly Friday lunchtime seminar series, otherwise known as ProSem.