Advancing earthquake science worldwide
This category is for the At Work column
13 July 2020–Deep long period (DLP) earthquakes occur close to the base of the crust and contain seismic waveforms with frequencies less than 5 Hz—a phenomenon very different from the high frequency, relatively shallow tectonic activity that most people think of as an earthquake. DLP earthquakes are most often associated … Continue Reading »
16 June 2020–In 1988, as a graduate student, SSA President Bill Walter and his colleagues arrived in Kazakhstan to record a Soviet nuclear test as part of the U.S.-USSR Joint Verification Experiment (JVE). The partnership was an unusual one in the context of the Cold War: U.S. and Soviet scientists … Continue Reading »
15 May 2020–When Janis Hernandez was studying for her associate degree, she took an introduction to geology class to meet a science requirement. “After that, I kept thinking, ‘what’s wrong with me, why am I thinking so much about rocks?’” she says. “It was just so interesting. And once you … Continue Reading »
15 April 2020–Exploring planets other than the Earth was Hrvoje Tkalčić’s first love, he says. “Ever since I can remember I wanted to become an astronaut.” Tkalčić, now the head of seismology and mathematical geophysics at The Australian National University, was fascinated by the universe and adept in mathematics and … Continue Reading »
16 March 2020–There are two main pillars of seismology, Carl Tape says. “One is studying the structure of the earth or any medium—it could be a rock sample in the laboratory, he notes. “The other is studying source processes—an earthquake, a volcanic event, an event within a glacier, a nuclear … Continue Reading »
14 February 2020–As he pursued his master’s degree at Boise State University, Marlon Ramos was doing what he calls “traditional, active-source seismology,” interpreting seismic pictures of tsunami-producing faults near the Kodiak Island segment of the Alaska-Aleutian megathrust zone. “I had an interest in subduction zones and the very large earthquakes … Continue Reading »