Advancing earthquake science worldwide
This category is for the At Work column
16 August 2021–Earthquakes are happening all the time inside Louisa Brotherson’s lab. Tiny ones, at least—and the strike-slip faults involved occur in Perspex plastic, not rock. Using a machine called a triaxial deformation apparatus, Brotherson can apply different pressures and stresses on the plastic to mimic the conditions that lead … Continue Reading »
15 July 2021–For Amir Salaree, the road to studying tsunamis began when he was a physics major at the University of Tehran, “looking for simple, real-world applications of all the beautiful math and physics that I was learning which would be useful to people,” he recalled. Visiting a friend in … Continue Reading »
17 June 2021–Kristine Pankow’s Ph.D. research involved subduction zones—specifically, modeling shear wave structure of a subducting slab off the eastern coast of Russia. But when she began looking for jobs after receiving the degree, an offer from the University of Utah Seismograph Stations turned her sights further inland. “This was … Continue Reading »
17 May 2021–Some days you can’t see the forest for the trees—and some days, you don’t want to see either one. For earthquake geologists like Emily Kleber, getting at the ground beneath all the distractions is the goal for learning more about natural hazards. Kleber, a project geologist with the … Continue Reading »
15 April 2021–The list of Paula Koelemeijer’s study subjects would be enough to pique anyone’s interest: continent-sized blobs in the Earth’s lower mantle, mountains on its core, and … elephants. More about the elephants later. Koelemeijer, a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Royal Holloway University of London, is a … Continue Reading »
15 March 2021–Rengin Gök’s work day starts early, with text messages and email from all around the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the Caucasus regions. Even before the pandemic, she kept odd office hours, responding to her colleagues in these regions late into the night and on weekends. … Continue Reading »