EAR-PF: Geologic Age Constraints for Seismic Hazard Assessment of Critical National Infrastructure

Dylan Rood博士被授予NSF地球科学博士后奖学金，在加州大学欧文分校开展一项研究和教育计划。这项工作将为地震危险性分析开发一种变革性的新工具。这项调查的目标是利用原位生产的宇宙成因同位素(10Be)，为具有良好特征的地质特征(不稳定的平衡岩，PBR)产生暴露年龄的数据集。对PBR的成功测年将允许在没有观测数据的时间尺度上限制古代地震的地面运动。这一年表将与每个PBR的基于物理的未超过的地面运动估计值合成，并与现有的危险地图进行比较。这些结果将验证地震动模型，并显著减少地震危险性估计的不确定性，从而为概率地震危险性评估提供坚实的科学基础。PBR具有应用于广泛的国家关键基础设施(如建筑、桥梁、大坝等)的地震危险性分析的潜力。具体地说，改进的地震危险性分析将极大地帮助政府监管机构成功地为敏感结构(如核电站)发放许可证。该项目还将通过导师和教学经验支持一名青年科学家的职业发展。每年，这位研究员都会在加州大学欧文分校教授自然灾害课程，这是一门通识教育课程。课程主题包括地质灾害，包括地震和重大气候变化。这一研究和教学策略将帮助这位研究员为成为地球科学科学家和教育家的职业生涯做好准备。

Dr. Dylan Rood has been awarded an NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a research and education plan at the University of California, Irvine. This work will develop a transformational new tool for earthquake hazard analysis. The goal of this investigation is to produce a dataset of exposure ages for well-characterized geologic features (precariously balanced rocks, PBRs) using in-situ produced cosmogenic isotopes (10Be). Successful dating of PBRs will allow ground motions from ancient earthquakes to be constrained over timescales for which observational data do not exist. This chronology will be synthesized with physics-based unexceeded ground motion estimates for each PBR and compared to existing hazard maps. The results will validate ground motion models and significantly reduce uncertainty in earthquake hazard estimates, in turn, providing a firm scientific basis for probabilistic seismic hazard assessment.PBRs have potential to be applied to seismic hazard analysis for a wide range of the nation's critical infrastructure (e.g. buildings, bridges, dams, etc.). Specifically, improved seismic hazard analysis would greatly assist government regulators in successfully licensing sensitive structures (e.g. nuclear power plants). This project will also support the career development of a young scientist through mentorship and teaching experience. Each year the fellow will teach Natural Disasters, a general education course at University of California, Irvine. Course topics include geologic hazards, including earthquakes and major climate changes. This research and teaching strategy will help prepare the fellow for a career as a scientist and educator in the Earth sciences.