Four announcements from the SCEC Community

Date: 03/01/2023

Dear SCEC Community,

As we bid farewell to the shortest month of the year, please see below for the following four announcements:

Call for application of 11 PhD positions in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network “TREAD: daTa and pRocessess in sEismic hAzarD” project
SRL Call for Papers February 2023 SE Türkiye Earthquakes
USGS Mendenhall postdoc opportunity - optical imagery and active faulting
CIG UPCOMING Webinars: Physical Fault Models: Using Rubber Earthquakes to Understand Seismological Stress Drops and Earthquake Nucleation

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On behalf of Men-Andrin Meier, ETH Zürich

Call for application of 11 PhD positions in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network “TREAD: daTa and pRocessess in sEismic hAzarD” project

The TREAD doctoral network combines 11 distinct PhD projects at universities from across Europe to study and advance earthquake hazard science. The aim of TREAD is to train a new generation of researchers to tackle the challenges of earthquake forecasting in complex tectonic settings using integrated observations and physics. The main TREAD project objectives are:

to develop a novel integrative approach to seismic hazard analysis in Europe and the Mediterranean from small-scale laboratory experiments to large-scale observations.
to establish physics-based earthquake modelling bridging time scales from millions of years to fractions of a second in complex tectonic settings.
to improve the link between earthquake geology, computational modelling and hazard and risk assessment with a focus on the needs of governments, industry and scientific stakeholders.

The TREAD consortium comprises 14 academic and 8 non-academic institutions, of which 8 private partners, of high scientific level, from 7 European countries, covering cutting-edge knowledge and expertise in the fields of observational, experimental and modeling.

For more details, and to apply, please visit https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/59623. The deadline for applications is April 15, 2023. We aim to start all PhD positions the latest by October 31, 2023.

Best regards,
The TREAD Team

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On behalf of Becky Ham, SSA

SRL Call for Papers February 2023 SE Türkiye Earthquakes

Seismological Research Letters Call for Papers: Focus Section on the February 2023 SE Türkiye Earthquakes

On 6 February 2023 a magnitude Mw 7.8 and Mw 7.5 earthquake doublet occurred on the East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) resulting in massive destruction and loss of life in southeast-central Türkiye and northern Syria. As the vigorous earthquake sequence unfolded it became apparent that this was not a straightforward mainshock-aftershock sequence but involved activity on multiple fault segments. Seismological Research Letters is preparing a Focus Section dedicated to this earthquake sequence. This Focus Section aims to present the latest findings on the earthquake sequence covering multiple aspects of the earthquakes including seismological, geodetic, geological and engineering perspectives.

We invite submissions of original research articles on topics including but not limited to:

Seismological observations and analysis of the earthquake sequence, including waveform modeling, source mechanism, and ground motion characteristics and ground motion modeling (GMM).
Geodetic observations and analysis of the earthquake sequence, including InSAR and GPS data.
Geological observations and analysis of the earthquake sequence, including field mapping, geomorphological changes, interaction of faults, and fault zone analysis.
Engineering perspectives on the earthquake sequence, including performance of buildings, lifelines, and other infrastructure during the earthquake.
The impact of the earthquake on local communities, including losses, casualties, and recovery efforts
The integration of data from different sources and the development of multi-disciplinary models for the earthquake sequence.

Submissions to the Focus Section should be original, high-quality research articles that have not been previously published. Manuscripts should be submitted through the Seismological Research Letters Editorial Manager system (www.edmgr.com/srl)

Submission Deadline: Papers will be reviewed as they are received and published online as soon as they are ready and prior to the print issue. Early submission is encouraged. While published online soon after acceptance, the articles accepted to this Focus Section on February 2023 SE Türkiye Earthquakes will be collectively published in print in the March 2024 issue. To be included in the March 2024 print version of the focus section, all papers must be received no later than 15 August 2023.

Guest Editors:

Erol Kalkan, QuakeLogic, USA (kalkan76@msn.com)

Aysegul Askan, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye (aaskan@metu.edu.tr)

Marco Bohnhoff, GFZ-Potsdam, Germany (bohnhoff@gfz-potsdam.de)

Semih Ergintav, Kandili Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Türkiye (semih.ergintav@boun.edu.tr)

Ali Özgün Konca, Kandili Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Türkiye (ozgun.konca@boun.edu.tr)

Tuncay Taymaz, Istanbul Technical University, Türkiye (taymaz@itu.edu.tr)

Kemal Önder Çetin, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye (ocetin@metu.edu.tr)

Yeşim Çubuk Sabuncu, Icelandic Meteorological Office, Iceland (yesim@vedur.is)

Zeynep Gulerce, International Atomic Energy Agency, Austria (z.gulerce@iaea.org)

In preparing manuscripts, authors must follow the SRL author guidelines at https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/srl-authorsinfo/. Papers must be submitted via the SRL online submission system (www.edmgr.com/srl) under the category “February 2023 SE Türkiye Earthquakes.” Information on page charges and the SSA waiver policy may be found at https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/journal-publication-charges/.

Please address questions about scientific issues to the guest editors or SRL Editor-in-Chief Allison Bent at srleditor@seismosoc.org. Submission-related questions should be addressed to the SRL Editorial Office at srl@seismosoc.org.

Research papers on early results are welcome at SSA’s short-form, open access journal The Seismic Record. In preparing manuscripts for TSR, authors must follow the TSR submission guidelines at https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/the-seismic-record/submission-guidelines/. Papers should be submitted via the TSR online submission system (www.edmgr.com/tsr). More information on publication fees, including the discounts and waivers policy, can be found at https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/the-seismic-record/the-seismic-record-publication-fees/.

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On behalf of Stephen DeLong, USGS

USGS Mendenhall postdoc opportunity - optical imagery and active faulting

We are recruiting a postdoc to work on a NASA and USGS-funded project utilizing optical imagery to study active faults with an eye towards reducing uncertainty in hazard assessments. We solicit proposals that are aligned with an in-progress funded NASA Surface Topography and Vegetation proposal (the QUAKES-I project) and USGS Earthquakes Hazard Program priorities. Please reach out to the research advisors to discuss ideas. The project will include collaboration with USGS, JPL, and ASU-SESE researchers. More information can be found here:

www.usgs.gov/centers/mendenhall/

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/mendenhall-research-fellowship-program/s63-advancing-understanding-plate-boundary-processes

Thanks, we look forward to hearing from you!
Steve

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On behalf of Lorraine Hwang, UC Davis

CIG UPCOMING Webinars: Physical Fault Models: Using Rubber Earthquakes to Understand Seismological Stress Drops and Earthquake Nucleation

*** THIS WEEK *** FRIDAY MARCH 3, 2023 @ 1P PT
Physical Fault Models: Using Rubber Earthquakes to Understand Seismological Stress Drops and Earthquake Nucleation
Will Steinhardt, UC Santa Cruz

Many geophysical systems, including faults, ice sheets, and hill slopes, are predominantly stable, but become unstable catastrophically, with severe societal consequences when they do. The behavior of these systems is often difficult to predict because they involve extreme spatial and temporal scales, accumulating stresses over decades or centuries, but nucleating failure processes in fractions of second, which start at the micron scale but can lead to kilometers of deformation. To explore these systems, I utilize techniques from applied physics to build scaled-down experiments that behave like “physical models”, where a wide range of system properties can be actively tuned to and otherwise impossible observations made. I will describe a scaled, transparent laboratory fault that shares many similarities to traditional biaxial friction experiments, but studies slip events on a fault made out of a transparent rubber instead of rocks. While rubber may seem like an odd material for studying faults, the measured events display the scaling behaviors of natural earthquakes and slow slip events, and using transparent rubber offers a number of unique experimental advantages and possibilities, including: direct imaging of slip at the frictional interface, active control over normal stress heterogeneity, and ruptures that are fully contained within the edges of the fault area. I will show that slow slip events in our system follow earthquake-like scaling, and demonstrate how finite fault effects alter the stress drop of events. In addition, I will discuss preliminary results from this system on the earthquake nucleation process.

More info: https://geodynamics.org/events/details/291

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Thursday, March 9, 2023 @ 2P PT
Effective Strategies for Writing Proposal Work Plans for Research Software
Chase Million, Million Concepts

Effective research proposals must persuade review panels that the project objectives can be achieved and that the requested resources are reasonable and sufficient resources for doing so. A clear, plausible work plan is central to this persuasive process. Despite the fact that many research projects require a great deal of software development, the true costs of software development tasks are often underappreciated and underestimated by both proposers and reviewers. Accurately judging and communicating these costs leads to better proposal and project outcomes. We will quickly survey software project scoping, requirements elicitation, and estimation methods appropriate for the pre-proposal phase, then explain how these can be used to generate a strong and convincing work plan. Topics will include vision and scope, concept of operations, and requirements specification documents; work breakdown structures; requirements / task matrices; and Gantt charts. Strategies for maximizing the impact of these artifacts within a research proposal will be discussed, with suggestions for further reading.

More info: https://geodynamics.org/events/details/284

FRIDAY MARCH 10, 2023 @ 1P PST
Fault strength evolution during the seismic cycle: Insights from the laboratory
John Bedford, University of Liverpool

Geophysical evidence suggests that some faults are frictionally strong, in agreement with laboratory measurements of quasi-static frictional strength (μ ≈ 0.6-0.8) for many crustal materials; whereas others studies have found that some faults are weak when compared to laboratory friction values (μ < 0.5). It has also been well documented that fault materials undergo a significant dynamic reduction in frictional strength when the sliding velocity accelerates to earthquake slip rates (on the order of meters per second). In this talk I will review our current understanding of fault strength evolution during the seismic cycle, then I will present results from two recent laboratory studies where we attempt to elucidate some of the dominant controls on fault strength both before and after an earthquake has occurred. Firstly, I will present results from a study where we investigate how geological heterogeneity in fault zones affects fault strength and stability; we find that heterogeneous faults are considerably weaker and more frictionally unstable than compositionally identical faults with an initially homogeneous structure. Then I will present results from some high-velocity friction experiments where we investigate how faults recover their strength after experiencing dynamic weakening during a seismic slip event. Our findings show that fault strength recovery (healing) occurs rapidly after high-velocity slip, which has important implications for our understanding of rupture dynamics and earthquake recurrence.

More info: https://geodynamics.org/events/details/292

Sign up for the CIG forum to receive future announcements: https://community.geodynamics.org

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