The Lamont Earth Science Colloquium presents:
Wiring the Megathrust: Monitoring the Creaks and Groans of a Plate Boundary near the Trench in the Nankai Subduction Zone
with Dr. Demian Saffer of the University of Texas at Austin.
Subduction zone megathrust faults produce the largest earthquakes on the planet, and yet we still have “blind spots” in our understanding of how these plate boundaries behave offshore, where slip spawns destructive transoceanic tsunamis. New sensors embedded below the seafloor have captured slow slip events that occur roughly every year at the outer reaches of the megathrust offshore of Japan and play a key role in the energy and slip budget of the earthquake cycle. Although these creaks and groans tell us that some stress is being relieved periodically in this region, they also show that the megathrust is highly sensitive to perturbations and may be perched to participate in slip during the next large earthquake.
Host: Dr. Terry Plank, Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor, Geochemistry, LDEO
The Earth Science Colloquium Series, sponsored by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia University Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES), provides a lively forum for discussing a wide variety of topics within the Earth sciences and related fields. Colloquia are attended by the full range of scientific and technical staff at LDEO. Colloquium attendance is required of all pre-orals DEES graduate students.
