Recent News

IGPP Researchers Pinpoint Hot Spots as Earthquake Trigger Points

Professors Kevin Brown and Yuri Fialko describe new information gleaned from laboratory experiments mimicking earthquake processes. The researchers discovered how fault zones weaken in select locations shortly after a fault reaches an earthquake tipping point.

The details of the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, were published in the September 30 issue of the journal Nature.
http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=1286

IGPP Researchers ID Unique Geological 'Sombrero' Uplift in South America

A study led by Professor Yuri Fialko of Scripps and Postdoctoral Scholar Jill Pearse has revealed that magma is forming a big blob in the middle of the crust beneath the Altiplano-Puna plateau in South America, pushing up the earth's surface across an area 100 kilometers (62 miles) wide, while the surrounding area sinks, leading to a unique geological phenomenon in the shape of a Mexican hat that the researchers have described as the "sombrero uplift."

John Orcutt, panel, brief Congress on tsunami preparedness

John Orcutt, IGPP Distinguished Professor of Geophysics, and fellow panel members Eddie Bernard (NOAA/PMEL) and John Schelling (Washington State Emergency Management Division), presented "Tsunami Preparedness: Understanding our Nation's Risk and Response" to members of Congress, at the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, DC, on 21 March 2012.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utC1U005i18&feature=youtu.be

IGPP team is granted $1.02 million from the National Science Foundation to develop a deep-ocean seismic system.

PI Jonathan Berger and co-principal investigators John Orcutt, Gabrielle Laske and Jeffrey Babcock will develop a potentially transformative system for deploying seafloor seismometers and relaying their data in near real-time for applications ranging from earthquake monitoring and deep Earth structure and dynamics to tsunami warning systems. Read the full story here.