Earth & Planetary Sciences

Speaker/Affiliation: Brenton Hirao, UC Davis Title: Enhanced multidecadal earthquake catalogs at multiple spatial scales: application to the Pacific Northwest, USA. When: Friday, May 8 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214 

Speaker/Affiliation: Christopher Milliner, Caltech guest researcher, Moody’s RMS Title: Localization of Inelastic Strain with Fault Maturity for Strike-Slip Fault Systems: Implications for Earthquake Characteristics When: Friday, May 1 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: In this seminar I will examine how coseismic inelastic off-fault deformation (OFD) evolves with fault-system m…

Speaker/Affiliation: Yuancong Gou, UC Berkeley Title: Seafloor Fiber Sensing in Monterey Bay: Earthquake Early Warning and Beyond When: Friday, April 24 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214 

Speaker/Affiliation: Donald Fisher, Penn State University Title: What Do Observations of Exhumed Tectonic Plate Boundaries Tell Us About Subduction Zone Earthquakes? When: Wednesday, May 6 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: The greatest earthquakes occur on the plate boundary of subduction zones and are typically associated with convergent margins where sediments blanket the dow…

Speaker/Affiliation: Yuancong Gou, UC Berkeley Title: Seafloor Fiber Sensing in Monterey Bay: Earthquake Early Warning and Beyond When: Friday, April 24 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214 

Speaker/Affiliation: Mikhail Kreslavsky, UC Santa Cruz Title: Regolith transport on the Moon When: Friday, April 17 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: The lunar surface is covered by a meters-thick layer of regolith—a loose material formed by the comminution of rock by meteoritic impacts. At scales ranging from decimeters to hundreds of meters, lunar topograp…

Speaker/Affiliation: Zach Perzan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Title: Integrating Hydrogeophysics and Hydrologic Modeling to Understand Groundwater Recharge Processes Across Scales When: Wednesday, April 29th 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: Effective subsurface characterization is essential for addressing diverse environmental challenges, from remediating contaminated aqui…

Speaker/Affiliation: Zach Perzan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Title: Integrating Hydrogeophysics and Hydrologic Modeling to Understand Groundwater Recharge Processes Across Scales When: Wednesday, April 29th 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: Effective subsurface characterization is essential for addressing diverse environmental challenges, from remediating contaminated aqui…

Speaker/Affiliation: Kristine Pankow, University of Utah Title: Utah FORGE: A Field-Scale Geothermal Laboratory When: Wednesday, April 22nd 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: The Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) is a U.S. Department of Energy funded project to de-risk technologies necessary to make Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) commercially…

"Each summer in California’s Central Valley, the land bakes as temperatures climb past an oppressive 35°C. And then, a wall of fog rolls in from the ocean, cooling the air and moistening the ground with tiny water droplets. For millions living in the most populous U.S. state, the fog spawned where a cold ocean meets a Sun-warmed coast is like “natural air conditioning,” says Peter Weiss-Penzias,…

Speaker/Affiliation: Christopher Milliner, Caltech guest researcher, Moody’s RMS Title: Localization of Inelastic Strain with Fault Maturity for Strike-Slip Fault Systems: Implications for Earthquake Characteristics When: Friday, May 1 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: In this seminar I will examine how coseismic inelastic off-fault deformation (OFD) evolves with fault-system m…

Speaker/Affiliation: Matthew Savoca, Stanford University Title: From Watershed to Whales: Tracking the source and transport of microplastics in the greater Monterey Bay region When: Wednesday, April 15 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: Plastic pollution is one of the defining environmental challenges of the 21st century. Microplastics are now pervasive throughout marine ecosyst…

Speaker/Affiliation: Tyler Gordon, UC Santa Cruz Title: Exploring the Super-Earth and Sub-Neptune Population with JWST  When: Friday, April 10 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: The most numerous class of exoplanets known today are those between the radius of the Earth and that of Neptune. However, as we lack an analog for these worlds in our own Solar System…

Speaker/Affiliation: Alexis Ault, Utah State University Title: From rupture to recovery: how fault materials shaped the 2023 Mw7.6 Elbistan Türkiye earthquake surface rupture When: Wednesday, April 8 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: How does fault mineralogy influence earthquake rupture behavior? How do ruptures heal in the postseismic period? Addressing these questions improv…

Speaker/Affiliation: Gongjie Li, Georgia Tech Title: Formation of Close-in Planets via Scattering and Structure-Coupled High-e Migration When: Friday, April 3 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: Recent observations show distinct orbital architectures for hot and warm Jupiters: hot Jupiters span a wide range of stellar obliquities and tend to host distant compa…

Speaker/Affiliation: Ashesh Chattopadhyay, UC Santa Cruz Title: Earth on a chip: AI-based autoregressive models of the Earth system When: Wednesday, April 1 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: Recent advances in machine learning offer transformative potential for Earth system modeling, yet purely data-driven climate and weather emulators face critical challenges of instability an…

In this conversation, Gary Griggs shares his extensive experience and insights on the relationship between the ocean, climate change, and community resilience in Santa Cruz. Watch the full episode here.

Speaker/Affiliation: Andrew Fisher, UC Santa Cruz Title: 40+ Years Measuring and Modeling Ridge-flank Hydrothermal Circulation: Historical and Recent Lessons from the Earth and Ocean Worlds When: Wednesday, March 18 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: As we approach the 50th anniversary of the discovery of seafloor hydrothermal vents, this is a good time to consider how these sys…

Speaker/Affiliation: Mathieu Lapôtre, Stanford University Title: Reconstructing Earth’s early subaerial environments via process-informed comparative sedimentology When: Friday, March 13 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: Right after it cooled off in the Hadean, Earth is thought to have been mostly an ocean planet, with perhaps a few relatively small islands. The first substanti…

Speaker/Affiliation: Daniel O’Hara, US Geological Survey Title: Investigating the potential for volcanic island flank collapse and tsunami generation within the Pacific and Indian Oceans When: Wednesday, March 11 12:00pm PST  Location: EMS B214  Abstract: Volcanic edifice flank collapses are low-frequency, high-magnitude events that can rapidly mobilize tens of km3 of material and trans…