University of Texas at El Paso
Can a Large Earthquake in Another Country Cause One in Your Backyard?
Earthquake scientists had shown that earthquakes can set off smaller earthquakes on nearby faults, but now new evidence suggests that seismic waves from large earthquakes can ripple worldwide and trigger tremors thousands of miles away, even in places not prone to earthquakes. Since 1992, at least 12 of 15 major earthquakes stronger than magnitude 7.0 have triggered distant earthquakes, including the 2004 catastrophic Sumatra earthquake, which coincided with tremors in Alaska and Ecuador, and the 2002 Denali earthquake, which coincided dozens of small quakes at Yellowstone. This talk will investigate the physics behind earthquake triggering and its implications for hazard assessments, understanding how earthquakes start, and whether other events, such as nuclear explosions, can trigger earthquakes. The talk will also explore how seismologists use earthquake records to monitor nuclear explosion treaties and the importance of earthquake science in keeping the world safe.
Watch video of Dr. Velasco's Lecture at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History
http://www.ees.nmt.edu/eesFlix/view.php?view=6fVcVy
About Dr. Aaron A. Velasco
Education
Ph.D., Seismology, University of California Santa Cruz (1993)
B.S., Applied Geophysics, University of California Los Angeles (1988)
Positions Held
Professor and Chair, Geological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso (2002-present)
Technical Staff Member, Los Alamos National Laboratory (1997-2002)
Team and Task Leader, Los Alamos National Laboratory (1999-2002)
Staff Geophysicist, Science Applications International Corporation (1993-1997)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1993)
Dr. Aaron A. Velasco received a B.S in applied geophysics from University of California Los Angeles in 1988, and a Ph.D. in seismology from University of California Santa Cruz in 1993. After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Velasco worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher, but left six months into this position for a permanent position at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in San Diego, CA. At SAIC, he helped develop software to run global seismic networks for the purpose of detecting underground nuclear explosions. After four years working in industry, he was hired at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in 1997 to help build the nuclear treaty verification DOE Knowledge Base, a superset of data, research products, and information systems designed to improve the U.S. capability to detect underground nuclear explosions. In 2002, he accepted a position as an associate professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, and has an active research program that studies the rupture processes of the recent earthquakes, earthquake interactions, crustal structure in the southwest U.S., glacial change in the Antarctic Peninsula, and on data fusion techniques.
He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences and is President of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). As President of SACNAS, he is currently leading an effort to develop a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Institute of Excellence that focuses on increasing minority representation in STEM, in collaboration with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and the Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES). In addition to his extensive work with SACNAS, Velasco is also a member of the National Research Council Committee on Seismology and Geodynamics.
Recent Publications
Zeiler, C. P., and A. A. Velasco, 2008, Seismogram Picking Error from Analyst Review (SPEAR), Part I: Cluster and Institution Analysis, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., submitted.
Rumpfhuber, E., G. R. Keller, E. Sandvol, D. Wilson, and A. A. Velasco, 2008, Rocky Mountain Evolution: Tying CD-ROM and Deep Probe seismic experiments with receiver functions, J. Geophys. Res., in review.
Parsons, T., and A. A. Velasco, 2008, Limits on the roles of near-field dynamic and static earthquake triggering from comparing explosion and earthquake sources, J. Geophys. Res., in review.
Zeiler, C. P., and A. A. Velasco, 2008, Developing Local to Near-Regional Explosion and Earthquake Discriminants, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., in press.
Velasco, A. A., S. Hernandez, T. Parsons, and K. Pankow, 2008, Global ubiquity of dynamic earthquake triggering, Nature Geoscience, Published online: 25 May 2008; doi:10.1038/ngeo204.
Velasco, A. A., Gee. V., L., C. A. Rowe, D. Hernandez, V. Gee, K. C. Miller, L. S. Hollister, T. Tobgay, D. Grujic, M. Fort, and S. Harder, 2007, High seismicity rate and evidence for mid-crustal faults in the Bhutan Himalaya determined from a temporary seismic network, Seism. Res. Lett., 78, 446-453.
Wiest, K. R., D. I. Doser, and A. A. Velasco, and J. Zollweg, 2007, Source investigation and comparison of the 1939, 1946, 1949 and 1965 earthquakes, Cascadia Subduction Zone, western Washington, Phys. Earth. Planet Int., in press.
Gilbert, H., A. A. Velasco, and G. Zandt, 2007, Boundaries of Proterozoic terranes within western North America and implications for the evolution of the Colorado Plateau, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 258, 237-248.
Andronicos, C. L., A. A. Velasco, and J. M. Hurtado, 2007, Large scale deformation in the India-Asia collision constrained by earthquakes and topography, Terra Nova, 19, 105–119.
Ammon, C. J., H., Kanamori, T. Lay, and A. A. Velasco, 2006, The 17 July 2006 Java Tsunami Earthquake (Mw = 7.8), Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L24308, doi:10.1029/2006GL028005, 2006.
Velasco, A. A., C. J. Ammon, and T. Lay, 2006, A search for seismic radiation from late slip for the December 26, 2004 Sumatra-Andaman (Mw = 9.15) earthquake, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L18305, doi:10.1029/2006GL027286.
Ammon, C. J., A. A. Velasco, and T. Lay, 2006, Rapid determination of first-order rupture characteristics for large earthquakes using surface waves: The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L14314, doi:10.1029/2006GL026303.
Averill, M. G., G. R. Keller, K. C. Miller, P. Sroda, T. Bond, and A. Velasco, 2006, Data fusion in geophysics: Seismic tomography and crustal structure in Poland as an example, in Sinha, A. K., ed., Geoinformatics: Data to
Knowledge: Geological Survey of America Special Paper 397, doi:10.1130/2006.2397(11), 153-168.
Drukpa, D., A. A. Velasco, and D. I. Doser, 2006, Seismicity in the Kingdom of Bhutan (1937–2003): Evidence for crustal transcurrent deformation, J. Geophys. Res., 111, B06301, doi:10.1029/2004JB003087.
