Earthquake Science and Active Tectonics

  • A chart tracking earthquake activity

A simple truth is that the devastating effects of seismic events are likely to become more frequent not because of an increase in earthquakes occurrence, but rather as a consequence of human population growth, which places more people in harm’s way.   Thus the societal impacts from these seismic events should not be seen as unique but rather as ever more characteristic of the challenge of living on a tectonically active planet.  Our department has a particular interest in understanding how active geological processes shape the Earth’s surface, and make our planet hazardous yet habitable.  Over the last twenty years, the disciplines of Earthquake Science and Active Tectonics have emerged as collaborative, quantitative and interdisciplinary fields linked by the connections between earth structure and earthquake processes.  Please see the associated faculty research groups to the right.