CAREER: Investigating earthquake nucleation and rupture dynamics while reducing the hazard vulnerability of the immigrant community

了解地震的来源对于预测靠近活动断层的许多沿海城市的地震地面运动和海啸洪水非常重要。提高对地震物理学的理解依赖于更好地了解地震如何破裂以及断层如何释放应力。这一建议的目标是获得更可靠的地震破裂观测。其目的是帮助我们更好地预测与这些事件相关的危害。作为CAREER资助的一部分，该研究人员将开发几种先进的观测方法并整合不同的地震数据集。教育活动的目标是减少移民社区对地震和海啸灾害的脆弱性。该项目将提高新移民的科学素养和防震能力。这是通过与洛杉矶当地移民社区合作实现的。该项目将为美籍华人和其他媒体举办教育研讨会。此外，还将为公众举办地震意识研讨会，并为以移民为主的K-12学校举办外展活动。最后，该项目将通过研究和暑期实习吸引西班牙裔、非裔美国人和亚裔本科生。该项目整合了观测地震学和海啸科学的研究，以提高提取有关地震破裂和成核过程可靠信息的能力。该项目开发了基于高频地震阵列数据反投影的多尺度信号分析工具，并将这些结果与更传统的低频震源反演方法相结合。研究人员还将利用海啸波的伴随反演方法探索海啸地震和海底滑坡的机制，这种方法不依赖于断层几何形状和地球结构的先验假设。该项目将研究以前的事件，将地震破裂力学与海啸联系起来，以便开发更好的算法来预测海啸的方向和幅度。此外，该项目将利用机器学习技术增强对前兆前震和震颤的检测能力。对地震成核过程的理解将得到改善，这对基于物理的地震预报模型至关重要。该项目将支持博士级研究生，培养他们尖端的计算和数据处理技能。研究结果和影响将在科学会议上发表，发表在顶级同行评审期刊上，并作为加州大学洛杉矶分校一所主要公立学校的课堂教材。该项目由地球科学部的地球物理学和教育与人力资源项目支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding the source of earthquakes is important for predicting seismic ground motions and tsunami flooding in many coastal cities near active faults. An improved understanding of earthquake physics relies on better knowledge of how earthquakes rupture and how faults release stress. The goal of this proposal is to obtain more robust observations of earthquake rupture. The intent is to help us better predict the hazards related to these events. As part of this CAREER grant, the researcher will develop several advanced observational methods and integrate different earthquake datasets. The goal of the educational activities is to reduce the vulnerability of the immigrant community to seismic and tsunami hazard. The project will enhance the science literacy and earthquake preparedness of newly-arrived immigrants. This is achieved by partnering with the local immigrant community in Los Angeles. The project will host education workshops for Chinese American and other media. Earthquake awareness seminars for the general public and outreach activities for predominantly immigrant K-12 schools will also be included. Finally, the project will engage Hispanic, African American, and Asian undergraduates through research and summer internships.This project integrates research of observational seismology and tsunami sciences to enhance the capacity to extract reliable information about earthquake rupture and nucleation processes. This project develops multi-scale signal analysis tools based on back-projection of high-frequency seismic array data and integrate these results with more traditional source inversion approaches at lower frequencies. The researcher will also probe the mechanisms of tsunami-genic earthquakes and sub-marine landslides with an adjoint inversion method of tsunami waves that does not rely on prior assumptions of fault geometry and earth structures. The project will study previous events to correlate earthquake rupture mechanics with tsunamis in order to develop better algorithms to predict the tsunami direction and amplitude. In addition, the project will enhance the detection capabilities of the precursory foreshocks and tremors using Machine Learning techniques. Understanding earthquake nucleation processes will be improved, which is essential for physics-based earthquake forecasting models. This project will support Ph.D. level graduate students and train them with cutting edge computational and data-processing skills. The research results and implications will be presented in scientific conferences, published in top peer-reviewed journals and used as class materials taught in a major public school, at University of California, Los Angeles. This project is supported by the Geophysics and Education and Human Resources programs in the Division of Earth Sciences.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.