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John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics |
November 9, 2001, 4:30 pm EST,
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Seismology has made significant progress in understanding the basic physics of earthquakes. Together with this progress in seismology, modern technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) allow seismologists to forecast the overall long-term seismic activity. Yet, earthquakes continue to be a major threat to our society, as we have recently witnessed in Turkey, Taiwan and India. A major difficulty is that an earthquake involves a large number of elementary processes so that even if we understand the physics that governs each elementary process, the complex interaction between them makes accurate forecasts of earthquakes very difficult. I will discuss how we should deal with this inevitable uncertainty and use seismology effectively for mitigation of earthquake damage in modern society. To deal with the chaotic behavior associated with the earthquake process as well as the aftermath following a large earthquake, mitigation measures that utilize real-time methodology combined with structural control technology can be most effective. Also, to deal with relatively rare, but potentially devastating, large earthquakes, basic research on physics of faulting is required. I will present a few recent examples on real-time seismology and physics of earthquakes.
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CLICK HERE to view the lecture photo gallery! |
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Available for download: (Presentation Poster, 144 KB) Kanamori, Hiroo, "Future Directions in Seismology for Earthquake Damage Mitigation". Brodsky, E.E., and Kanamori, Hiroo, "Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication of Faults," Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.(Paper 2, 2.24 MB) Kanamori, Hiroo, and Brodsky, E.E., "The Physics of Earthquakes," Physics Today, June 2001, pp. 34-40. (Paper 3, 2.44 MB) Kanamori, Hiroo, Hauksson, E., and Heaton, T., "Real-time Seismology and Earthquake Hazard Mitigation," Nature, Vol. 390, 4 December 1997, pp. 461-464.
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Biographical Sketch of Hiroo Kanamori: Professor Kanamori is the John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics at the California Institute of Technology. After serving on the faculty at the University of Tokyo for several years, he joined the faculty at Caltech in 1972. From 1990-1998, Prof. Kanamori served as director of the university's Seismological Laboratory. Dr. Kanamori has received numerous awards, including the Medal of the Seismological Society of America, the Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship from the U.S. National Academy of Science, the California Scientist of the Year Award, the Asahi Prize, and the Walter H. Bucher Medal from the American Geophysical Union. He is also a member of the Seismological Society of Japan, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on the physics of earthquakes. His research interests include: quantification of great earthquakes using the Mw scale, quantitative study of tsunami earthquakes, seismological study of volcanic eruptions, real-time seismology for hazard mitigation, study of atmospheric waves excited by volcanic eruptions, study of interaction between solid earth and atmosphere, frictional melting due to faulting, and synthesis of microscopic and macroscopic physics of earthquakes.
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