GEOL 609, Seminar in Earthquake Physics
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Spring, 2007
Tuesday 11-12, Fr 2-3, ZHS 118
Instructors: Yehuda Ben-Zion1 and Thorsten Becker2
1Office: ZHS109; Tel: (213) 740-7634; email: benzion@usc.edu
2Office: ZHS269, Tel: (213) 740-8365; email: twb@usc.edu
Office hours by appointment
Course Description
The course covers state-of-the-art research material on the physics governing earthquakes, faults and plate boundaries. Topics include current results from continuum and fracture mechanics, lithsopheric dynamics, statistical physics, rock mechanics experiments, seismological observations of the earthquake source, observed patterns of earthquakes and faults, scaling relations, fractals, chaos, analysis of complex data, and prediction. The seminar series is aimed at graduate students of geophysics, physics, and engineering interested in promising directions in this field.
The format is two weekly meetings and the material will be covered via a blend of lectures by researchers and student presentations. One weekly meeting (Tue 11-12) will consist of a lecture by outside and in-house researchers. Speakers will include experts in various branches of earthquake science and will be available for additional discussions with students after the seminar. In the other weekly meeting (Friday 2-3), students will review papers related to the previous presentation and the next one. The grade will be based on the student presentations of papers.
Students requesting academic accommodations based on a disability are required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP when adequate documentation is filed. Please be sure the letter is delivered to us (or to your TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is open Monday Friday, 8:30 5:00. The office is in Student Union 301 and the phone number is (213) 740 0776.
Lectures and reading material
(Tuesday 11-12, unless indicated otherwise)
Jan 9, SECEC SoSAF workshop
Jan 16, Arben Pitarka, URS Corporation, Implication of rupture process and site effects on the local variation of near fault ground motion from the 2004 Parkfield earthquake.
Reading:
Pengcheng Liu, S. Custodio, and R. Archuleta, Kinematic inversion of the 2004 M6.0 Parkfield earthquake including an approximation to site effects. BSSA, 96, 2006, S143-S158.
Shakal, A., H. Haddadi, V. Graizer, K. Lin, and M. Huang. Some key features of the strong motion data from the M6.0 Parkfield earthquake of 28 September 2004, BSSA, 96, 2006, S90-S118.
Jan 23, (The formal talk this week in on Friday).
Reading:
Wilson, B., Dewers, T, Reches, Z., and Brune, J., Particle size and energetics of gouge from earthquake rupture zones, Nature, 434, 749-752, 2005.
Chester, J., Chester, F., and Kronenberg, A. K., Fracture surface energy of the Punchbowl fault, San Andreas system, Nature, 437, 133-136, 2005.
Yund, R. A., Blanpied, M. L., Weeks, J. D., and Tullis, T. E., 1990, Observation and interpretation of microstructures in experimental fault gouges, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 15589-15602.
Jan 26, Tom Rockwell, SDSU,
Jan 30, Yariv Hamiel, UCSD, Damage evolution and fluid flow in poroelastic rocks.
Reading:
Hamiel, Y., V. Lyakhovsky, and A. Agnon, Coupled evolution of damage and porosity in poroelastic media: theory and applications to deformation of porous rocks, Geophys. J. Int., 156, 701-713, 2004.
Hamiel, Y., V. Lyakhovsky and A. Agnon, 2005. Poroelastic damage rheology: Dilation, compaction, and failure of rocks. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 6, Q01008, doi:10.1029/2004GC000813.
Hamiel, Y., V. Lyakhovsky, V., and A. Agnon, 2005. Rock dilation, nonlinear deformation, and pore pressure change under shear. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 237: 577-589.
Feb 6, Jim Rice, Harvard U, Thermo- and hydro-mechanical processes along faults during seismic slip
Reading:
Rice, J. R., Heating and weakening of faults during earthquake slip, J. Geoph. Res., 111, B05311, doi:10.1029/2005JB004006, 2006
Feb 13, Jean Paul Ampuero, ETH, Towards a standard dynamic source model for strong motion prediction
Reading:
Feb 16, Ryosuke Ando, Lamont, Interactions between geometrical evolution of faults and dynamic ruptures: simulation and observation
Reading:
Rice, J. R., Sammis, C. G. and Parsons, R., Off-fault secondary failure induced by a dynamic slip-pulse, Bull. Seismo. Soc. Am., 95, 09–134, 2005.
Ben-Zion, Y. and Z. Shi, Dynamic rupture on a material interface with spontaneous generation of plastic strain in the bulk, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 236, 486-496, DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2005.03.025, 2005.
Dor O., Y. Ben-Zion, T. K. Rockwell and J. Brune, Pulverized Rocks in the Mojave section of the San Andreas Fault Zone, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 245, 642-654, 2006.
Feb 20 Zhigang Peng, GT, Temporal changes in the upper crust associated with major earthquakes: a tale of three stories.
Reading:
Feb 27, TBA
Reading:
March 6: Liz Hearn, UBC,
Reading:
March 13, Aron Meltzner, CIT, Coseismic, Postseismic, and Interseismic Deformation at the Boundary of the 2004 and 2005 Sunda Megathrust Ruptures:Insights from Coral Microatolls
Reading:
March 20, Sue Hough, USGS, Where do Big Earthquakes (and their Aftershocks) Happen?
Reading:
March 23, Jerry Mitrovica, U of Toronto, Ancient Eclipses, Modern Satellites and the Enigma of Global Sea level Rise
March 27, Steve Day, SDSU,
Reading:
April 3, Leon Knopoff, UCLA, TBA
April 10, SSA meeting
April 17, TBA
April 24, Aysegul Askan, Carnegie Mellon University, Full waveform inversion for seismic velocity and anelastic losses in heterogeneous structures