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Who am I?I am a research geophysicist at the USGS Menlo Park office. My research focuses on using three-dimensional simulations of earthquakes to better understand the physics of the rupture process and the resulting ground motions. |
With numerous faults criss-crossing southern California, the potential for a large earthquake to occur within the urban area is very real. Characterizing the ground motions within a few kilometers of a rupturing fault is difficult, because few near-source ground motions have been measured. Consequently, the need exists to understand the characteristics of near-source ground motions and how faults rupture, so that engineers can design structures for such events.
I am currently constructing a three-dimensional dynamic model of the Earth's crust in a portion of the Los Angeles region. The primary goal is to develop self-consistent models of earthquake ruptures by matching a wide variety of observations from seismology, geodesy, and geology. This model will give important insight into the physics of the rupture process and lead to improved estimates of the ground motions generated close to fault ruptures.
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