Gregory McLaskey
Cornell University, NY·Earth & Environmental Science
Can we tell an earthquake is coming? Theory suggests earthquakes may begin with slow slip along a fault that suddenly speeds up into violent shaking, and warning signs are routinely seen on tiny laboratory faults.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Engineering
Physics
- Topics
earthquake precursors
earthquake nucleation
seismic cycle
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Test whether seismic wave properties change reliably before or after laboratory earthquakes on dry and fluid-saturated meter-scale faults, using active source seismic interrogation with strain, slip and seismic sensor arrays.
- Identify the physical causes of seismic wave changes during the earthquake cycle and use machine learning to assess whether ruptures on meter-scale faults could be forecast.
- Determine how imposed fault heterogeneities such as rough patches, bumps and bends control how earthquakes start, using a ten-foot rock fault sheared in a large press.
- Develop numerical models of slow slip fronts on uneven faults and test them against stick-slip events beneath Whillans Ice Stream in Antarctica.
More about the research
In nature, however, reliable precursors remain elusive, and real faults are complicated by fluids, rough and slippery patches, bends and uneven stress. Both projects study earthquakes on meter-scale laboratory faults, large enough to capture these complexities, and connect lab results to natural faults through models and field data.
Why it matters
Earthquakes threaten lives and cities, and no reliable way to forecast them exists. By identifying measurable warning signs on realistic laboratory faults and explaining what causes them, this work could lead to new methods for detecting earthquake precursors, better interpretation of activity seen before large quakes such as the Tohoku earthquake, and improved seismic hazard forecasting.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Collaborative Research: Evolution of elastic wave properties during the seismic cycle: Experiments on dry and fluid pressurized meter-scale faults
NSF · Jul 2024 – Jun 2027
Collaborative Research: Seismic cycles and earthquake nucleation on heterogeneous faults: Large-scale laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and Whillans ice stream
NSF · May 2023 – Apr 2027
Closest labs
Christine McCarthy
Columbia University, NY·Earth & Environmental Science
Image directly how microscopic contacts between ice and a glass plate form, grow and change through cycles of shear, slip and healing, using total internal reflection imaging in a custom cryogenic biaxial apparatus.
Carolyn Tewksbury-Christle
Fort Lewis College, CO·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether slow slip and tremor are preferentially hosted by metasedimentary or meta-mafic rocks, using fieldwork, geochemistry, geochronology and microstructural analysis of three exhumed subduction complexes.
Ahmed Elbanna
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Earth & Environmental Science
Build an extensible software framework and science gateway that gives a broad user community access to physics-based earthquake rupture forecast models without requiring local expertise or computing resources.
The school
Cornell University: 37 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 537 research doctorates a year.
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