Nature Will Publish Research of U of M Earthquake Scientists
For release: February 3, 2004
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey

The February 12th issue of the scientific journal Nature will publish the research findings of two scientists at the University of Memphis' Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) who studied the natural triggers for earthquakes.

Paul Bodin, an associate professor, and Joan Gomberg, a research seismologist with the United States Geological Survey at CERI, wrote the article on "earthquake nucleation by transient deformations" caused by the magnitude 7.9 Denali, Alaska, earthquake of 2002. Other authors are Kristine Larson of the University of Colorado and Herb Dragert of the Geological Survey of Canada.

The article is an observational study of a phenomenon called earthquake triggering, where seismic waves from one earthquake cause other earthquakes to take place, sometimes thousands of kilometers away if the triggering quake is large.

"We have only been able to demonstrate this process sine 1992, and it is not well understood," said Bodin, "but the sensitivity of faults to triggering suggests that we may be able to use these observations to explore the unknown physics of earthquake rupture nucleation."

The study used a new technique called high-sample-rate GPS, or HSRGPS, which allowed scientists to observe large ground motions associated with the seismic waves from the earthquake, and to correlate them with remotely triggered earthquakes.

Nature's Web site is www.nature.com.

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