Phase I IUCRC at California Institute of Technology-Center for Geomechanics and Mitigation of Geohazards[GMG]

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A number of energy-related industrial activities as well as a range of natural disasters - such as earthquakes and landslides - involve the deformation and eventual failure of geomaterials in presence of fluids. The governing mechanisms remain poorly understood. The Industry-University Collaborative Research Center for Geomechanics and Mitigation of Geohazards (GMG) will enable a synergetic research effort to improve their understanding. GMG will thereby contribute to more efficient, reliable and safe methods for energy production, CO2 and gas storage and improved methods for the assessment and mitigation of earthquake and landslide hazard. The center members include oil and gas companies, engineering companies in the areas of geomechanics and geohazard mitigation, and utilities operators concerned with the exposure of infrastructures to earthquake and landslide hazard. Participation of postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students in the research projects based on fundamental science yet relevant to the industrial and societal needs to be pursued by the center will educate a new generation of academic and industrial leaders in science and engineering.Deformation in the subsurface is often associated to, and eventually coupled with fluid flow. Investigating these mechanisms is important to improve our ability to model the effects of fluid injection or extraction in the sub-surface, fault dynamics in general, landslides and the ground response to earthquake shaking. The Industry-University Collaborative Research Center for Geomechanics and Mitigation of Geohazards (GMG) will therefore conduct cross-disciplinary research to advance the fundamental understanding of how geomaterials deform and fail in presence of fluids. GMG will achieve its goal by combining experimental and modeling studies, and leveraging cutting-edge research in geomechanics and computational mechanics, remote sensing, and geophysics. The research will benefit industrial activities involving the management of fluids in the sub-surface related for example, to energy production, gas storage and CO2 storage, and will advance methods for the assessment and mitigation of geohazards, whether of natural origin or related to industrial activities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.