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Five Announcements from the SCEC Community

Date: 12/08/2023

Dear SCEC Community,

See the following announcements:

  • Call for abstract submissions to seismic hazard session at 2024 SSA Annual Meeting
  • Assistant Professor Geophysics - Louisiana State University
  • BSSA Call for Papers: Special Issue on Improving Measurements of Earthquake Source Parameters
  • FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: AGeS-Grad Proposal 
  • Seeking MS and PhD graduate students to research active tectonics in the central Pacific Northwest

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On behalf of Olga-Joan Ktenidou, National Observatory of Athens

Call for abstract submissions to seismic hazard session at 2024 SSA Annual Meeting

Dear colleagues,

It's with quite a bit of enthusiasm that we're inviting you to submit an abstract for the 2024 SSA Annual Meeting, where we're organizing a session called "Assessing seismic hazard for critical facilities and infrastructure – insights and challenges."

As we walk the line between science and practice, we'd like to bring together the Seismological and Engineering communities in a forum for discussion regarding advances in any aspect of seismology and engineering seismology where innovation has been driven by the needs of seismic safety and hazard assessment for critical facilities or infrastructure. You can find the full session description below.

Abstract submissions are due 10 January 2024 (with more info on procedures here https://meetings.seismosoc.org/submit/) but why wait?!

Please spread the word, submit your abstract, and join us in Anchorage!

All the best,

Olga-Joan Ktenidou, National Observatory of Athens - Greece 
Céline Beauval, ISTerre, Université Grenoble Alpes - France
Andreas Skarlatoudis, AECOM
Glenn Biasi, US Geological Survey

Assessing seismic hazard for critical facilities and infrastructure – insights and challenges

Critical facilities such as nuclear plants, industrial facilities, dams, tailings dams and waste disposal sites need to remain safe under potential shaking even from large, rare seismic events. Similarly, seismic shaking presents hazards to distributed systems serving power, water, transportation, and waste disposal. Hazards are usually assessed through specialized frameworks including PSHA and PFDHA. Challenges in seismic hazard assessment for major structures provide a springboard for research and innovation in the Engineering and Seismological communities, and lead to cutting-edge solutions and advances. Large national and international projects aimed at critical sites often shape the state-of-the-art, but notable contributions have also come from smaller teams from academia, government, and civilian practice. New approaches and innovations are bringing advances in topics such as source, site and ground motion characterization, quantification and refinement of uncertainties, and more.

In this session, we would like to bring together the Seismological and Engineering communities in a forum for discussion regarding advances in any aspect of seismology and engineering seismology where innovation has been driven by the needs of seismic safety and hazard assessment for critical facilities or infrastructure. We welcome contributions from academia and practice, regulating and operating parties, research-led consulting firms, energy, and other sectors. We look forward to discussing challenges, insights and best practices from past and current endeavors, with a view to new directions in data, models and methods, and potential applications.

 

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On behalf of Karen M Luttrell, Louisiana State University

Assistant Professor Geophysics - Louisiana State University

The Department of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University invites applications for a tenure-track Geophysicist at the level of Assistant Professor in the broad area of Geophysics, including Earth, Energy, Environmental, or Planetary Geophysics.  Collaborative opportunities at LSU include the College of Science, College of Engineering, and College of Coast and the Environment.  LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology offers powerful platforms for research with a substantial computational component.  

The Department of Geology & Geophysics offers programs leading to B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees with over 20 faculty (https://www.lsu.edu/science/geology/index.php). The department is housed in the LSU College of Science and maintains research programs in geology, igneous and metamorphic petrology, geophysics, geochemistry, hydrology, palynology, paleoclimatology, earth and planetary materials, and earth and planetary surface processes. The successful applicant will complement these existing strengths. Numerous opportunities are available for collaboration with other departments on campus, including those in the College of Science, College of Engineering, and with the LSU High Performance Computing Center. LSU is a Carnegie Doctoral/Research R1 University, and a Land-, Sea- and Space-Grant University. LSU is the flagship school of the state of Louisiana, as well as the flagship institution of the Louisiana State University System.

Apply for the position at the link here: https://lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/E0235-Howe-Russell-Kniffen-East-Geoscience-Complex/Geophysics-Assistant-Professor_R00087021 

Review of applications will begin 1 January 2024.  For more information on this position, please contact Darrell Henry: glhenr@lsu.edu.  

 

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On behalf of Becky Ham, Seismological Society of America

BSSA Call for Papers: Special Issue on Improving Measurements of Earthquake Source Parameters

The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA) is soliciting papers for a Special Issue on Improving Measurements of Earthquake Source Parameters. Earthquake source parameters such as magnitude, seismic moment, source dimension, stress drop, and radiated energy are fundamental to understanding earthquake physics, and also key ingredients in earthquake ground motion modeling, rupture simulation and statistical seismology. However, the uncertainties in these parameters estimated from the radiated seismic wavefield are large due to variability in approaches, including site and attenuation characterization, and estimates for an individual earthquake made by different studies can vary greatly. The international SCEC/USGS Community Stress Drop Validation Study was designed to distinguish between estimates of source parameter variation resulting from real physical controls and from methodological artifacts, by inviting researchers to use a common dataset to independently estimate comparable measurements using a variety of methods.

BSSA welcomes contributions to the Special Issue that focus on source parameter estimation, including methods, uncertainties, and underlying physical mechanisms. In addition to work that is part of the ongoing community study, we solicit papers on methodological improvements to spectral and time-domain methods and novel approaches to infer source parameters including, but not limited to, seismic moments, source dimension and stress drop, directivity and finite-fault models. Collaborative comparisons of multiple techniques are especially encouraged.

Deadline for Submission: 15 June 2024

Articles accepted to this BSSA Special Issue will be published online soon after acceptance and collectively in print in the February 2025 issue. Papers will be reviewed as they are received and published online prior to the print issue.

Papers must be submitted via the BSSA online submission system (www.edmgr.com/bssa) under the category “Improving Measurements of Earthquake Source Parameters.”

 

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On behalf of Ramon Arrowsmith, Arizona State University

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: AGeS-Grad Proposal Deadline on Feb 1, 2024

The next AGeS-Grad Program deadline is Feb 1, 2024. 

 AGeS-Grad is an NSF funded opportunity that provides up to $10,000 of support for graduate students to acquire geochronology data for their research projects and offers hands-on lab experience while being mentored by geochronologists. AGeS awardees will visit one of 60+ AGeS labs, participate in sample preparation and analysis, and learn fundamental aspects of the methods, techniques, and theory used in modern analytical facilities. We recommend that applicants contact a preferred AGeS lab about potential projects as early as possible because each lab may support a maximum of 4 projects during each application cycle.

 AGeS-Grad plans to make 18-22 awards in 2024. 

  • Any student currently enrolled in a graduate degree program at an accredited college or university in the United States or its territories is eligible to apply. 
  • AGeS seeks to fund broadly in terms of research, geochronologic technique, and participants.
  • AGeS encourages applications from graduate students without previous geochronology experience, from those in MSc programs, and from those belonging to historically minoritized groups.

For additional program details please visit: https://www.colorado.edu/program/agesgeochronology/ages-grad/about-ages-grad

We will be holding an information session about the AGeS-Grad program on Wednesday December 20, 2023 at 9-10 am Mountain Time to explain the program and answer questions. Previous AGeS-Grad awardees will discuss their experiences.  The session will be by ZOOM and will be recorded, posted on the website, and available for review afterwards. 

https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/91223648465
Meeting ID: 912 2364 8465
Passcode: 355470

Please forward this message broadly to potential applicants and to your departments.

 

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On behalf of Ashley R. Streig, Portland State University

Seeking MS and PhD graduate students to research active tectonics in the central Pacific Northwest

Employer: Portland State University, Department of Geology
Location: Portland, Oregon
Closing Date: January 15, 2024

For additional information, please contact Dr. Ashley Streig (streig@pdx.edu)

Statement of Research Interests:

Historically, few damaging earthquakes have occurred in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, although the region overlies the seismically active Cascadia Subduction Zone. Earthquake resilience efforts here have largely focused on the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone and its potential for M 9 earthquakes. Damaging earthquakes on onshore faults, such as the Portland Hills fault, are also a poorly understood threat to the region. Few active faults have been identified onshore in Oregon, but recent laser terrain imagery acquisitions (lidar) have revealed widespread and previously unknown active faults distributed across the landscape. Our lab is conducting targeted geologic investigations to understand broad patterns of crustal deformation by evaluating distributed Quaternary active faults in a transect across the Cascadia convergent margin of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The purpose of this project is to establish paleo-earthquake timing and fault slip rate information for these newly discovered faults and to incorporate them into a regional model of crustal blocks that accommodate deformation in the Pacific Northwest.

Position Information:

Support for M.S. and Ph.D. students consists of Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant positions. These positions include full tuition remission and a monthly salary. Additionally, graduate students working with me have an RA funded summer salary including cost of health care, with additional support for all field expenses, and salary for an undergraduate field/lab assistant.  I also cover the cost for students to attend and present at professional meetings like GSA, SSA or AGU, and Bretz Club. Additionally, I cover the cost associated with publishing student research to a peer-reviewed journal.

A Ph.D. student involved in this project will have the opportunity to enroll in the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (https://omsi.edu/) Science Communication Fellowship to develop an interactive demo exhibit on regional tectonics and earthquake geology. The primary goal of this museum partnership is to educate K-12 audiences, teachers, and parents about geology, plate tectonics, the field of earthquake science, and earthquake hazards in their community. Dr. Streig has also completed this fellowship, and is an ongoing volunteer at Meet a Scientist events at the Museum.

Students with diverse backgrounds and those who identify with traditionally underrepresented groups in Geology are encouraged to apply.

These positions are funded by an NSF grant and a PSU award through the NSF funded Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT; Cascadiaquakes.org).

 

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