How Well Do Mapped Tectonic Faults Predict the Location of Surface Rupture in the Next Earthquake?

zoom image of fault mapping class

16 April 2025—In places where earthquakes rupture the Earth’s surface, scientists often try to predict the location of these future fault ruptures based on the geological fault traces created in past earthquakes. But how accurate are these fault traces in predicting the next rupture location? At the Seismological Society of … Continue Reading »

At Work: Wilnelly Ventura-Valentín

Wilnelly Ventura-Valentín

10 February 2025—Wilnelly Ventura-Valentín’s research as a Ph.D. student at Miami University in Ohio focuses on earthquake swarms, the bursts of seismic activity—small earthquakes all about the same magnitude—that start abruptly and end abruptly. “We don’t know a lot about what triggers this activity,” she explains, “and because we don’t … Continue Reading »

First Paul Andrew Spudich Travel Grantee Completes Scientific Journey

SSA’s newest grant program sends early-career member to Osaka, Japan Chunyang Ji, a postdoctoral scholar at North Carolina State University whose research focuses on the modeling and assessment of high-frequency ground motions, is the first SSA member to participate in a seismological meeting with the aid of a Paul Andrew … Continue Reading »

At Work: Andrea Bryant

Andrea Bryant

31 August 2022–Andrea Bryant came to her work with NASA’s Dragonfly mission through what she calls “a beautiful accident.” Quarantining by herself in a tiny studio apartment in 2020, the University of Chicago graduate student was looking for a NASA internship that might fit with her exoplanet studies. A posting … Continue Reading »

At Work: Marlon Ramos

Marlon Ramos

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 »