Using Simple Physical Models to Understand the Earth: From Sea Level Rise to Debris Flows

Title: Using Simple Physical Models to Understand the Earth: From Sea Level Rise to Debris Flows

Speaker: Victor Tsai, Professor of Geophysics, Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Abstract: Despite the complexity of the Earth, simple physical models can be used to gain quantitative understanding of mechanical processes on Earth at a fundamental level. When informed by data, such models are particularly effective at generating testable hypotheses and making practically useful predictions, and I have applied this methodology to a broad range of geophysical questions that mostly involve fluid-solid interactions.

In this talk, I will focus on a set of four topics: (1) predicting sea level rise in a changing climate, (2) quantifying erosion from debris flows, (3) predicting tsunami waves, and (4) understanding the formation of Earth’s crust and its effects on earthquake ground motions. I will show that these examples demonstrate how simple but quantitative models can be useful.

About the Speaker: Victor Tsai's research lies mainly at the intersection of seismology, geomechanics and other disciplines like glaciology, oceanography, and mathematical geophysics. One of his primary goals is to understand sources of ambient seismic noise and how these sources can be used to provide constraints on Earth structure (e.g. through ambient noise tomography) and other physical processes (e.g. sea ice interactions with ocean waves). He is also working to understand the short-timescale variability of glaciers and, in particular, is modeling rapid drainage of water in glaciers and the implications of this drainage. In addition, Victor is interested in improving seismic imaging techniques and geophysical time series analysis.