UC Santa Cruz

My research focusses on earthquake mechanics and associated flow and failure. I am interested in collaborating with students who would like to pursue problems of earthquake statistics, especially with an eye to improving forecasting. Parallel problems in the statistics of other natural hazards are also of interest. Recently we have worked on dynamic triggering, earthquake synchronization and volcanic seismicity. My group also performs analog experiments researching the fundamental physics of friction and granular flow. We have recently investigated the scale-dependent strength of materials and its relationship to fault roughness, the frictional resistance of granular flows and influence of seismic waves of granular friction, and how multicycle slip events on an analog fault generate preferred stress distribution. I also have an interest in environmental seismology to study surficial processes such as rivers, glaciers, and oceanic internal waves.

Our group at UC Santa Cruz is highly collaborative. We meet daily discuss progress, problems and future directions. Group members tend to move fluidly between techniques and often do a combination of seismology, laboratory work, and field geology.