My long-term career goal is to contribute to the worldwide effort to address seismic and volcanic hazard issues of societal importance. By merging understanding of earthquakes gained from observational seismology with insight from numerical models and laboratory friction experiments, my research group has been taking steps towards this goal. My field sites are relatively simple environments, including oceanic transform faults and deep gold mines, where the physics of earthquake nucleation and rupture propagation is less effected by complex fault properties. I investigate the stress, strength, structure, and material properties of fault zones, and aim to determine how fault rheology influences earthquake behavior.
Oceanic Transform Faults
Seismicity at Axial Seamount
Mining-Induced Seismicity