"The Tortoise & the Hare: Slow vs. Fast Earthquakes" lecture
September 5, 2012
A public lecture, "The Tortoise and the Hare: Slow vs. Fast Earthquakes," will take
place at 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 17 in the Civic Center at Pioneer Park.
In the past decade, earthquake scientists have discovered a family of unusually slow
earthquakes. Unlike ordinary earthquakes, which grow explosively in size with increasing
duration, slow earthquakes, whether large or small, grow at a constant rate. They
occur on the deep extension of large faults - a location that is strategic because
it adjoins the part of the faults that generate the more familiar, and dangerous,
"ordinary" earthquakes. Slow earthquakes have the potential to trigger large earthquakes.
Gregory Beroza is the Wayne Loel Professor and chair of the Department of Geophysics
at Stanford University in California. His research includes the development and application
of new techniques for analyzing seismograms, recordings of seismic waves, to understand
the hazards that earthquakes pose.
For a decade, the IRIS/SSA lecture series has enabled world-renowned scientists to
travel and speak to public audiences about cutting-edge seismological research as
part of the Distinguished Lecture Series. This will be the first IRIS/SSA Distinguished
Lecture to be hosted in Alaska and is done with the support of the Geophysical Institute.
For more information contact Carl Tape at carltape@gi.alaska.edu.