Many fundamental questions related to the physics of earthquakes still evade understanding or consensus. How do earthquakes nucleate and arrest? What are the appropriate descriptions and parameters of fault friction? How do thermal effects, such as flash heating, pore-fluid pressurization, and melting, influence dynamic rupture propagation? What governs post-seismic creep? What is the stress state on faults and the surrounding crust? How can crustal deformation and tectonic loading be realistically described and incorporated into models of earthquake cycles? This rich and very active area of seismology involves laboratory experiments, numerical modeling, and theoretical investigations.
This award will help support a symposium focused on the Physics of Earthquakes. This symposium is organized in honor and recognition of Professor Hiroo Kanamori's recent retirement. Its aim is to bring together Hiroo's closest colleagues, students, posdocs, and friends for a two day in-depth discussion of the current state of knowledge with regards to earthquake physics. Earthquake early warning has long been one of Hirroo's research interests and will be another theme of the meeting. Hiroo has been a leader in earthquake seismology for decades. He has received numerous awards for his work including the Medal of the Seismological Society of America, the Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship of the National Academy of Sciences, the Walter H. Bucher Medal of the American Geophysical Union, and the Japan Prize.
The symposium will be held on February 23 & 24, 2006 at the Beckman Institute Auditorium on the Caltech campus. The program for the symposium reflects Hiroo's broad research interests ranging from the interaction of atmosphere and lithosphere to real-time seismology for hazard mitigation to long-term crustal processes associated with earthquakes. Speakers at the symposium will be a balance of junior and senior scientists, including some of Hiroo's most recent students and postdocs.
