Pascal Audet (University of Ottawa) will be giving a Geology Series Seminar titled: Tracking deep crustal dynamics around tectonic faults with seismic waves from large distant earthquakes.

Abstract: In recent decades, new observations of large earthquakes and slow slip events at tectonic plate boundaries have redefined our understanding of the seismic cycle and crustal deformation. Tracking the evolution of the stress field through changes in seismic wave velocities in the deep crust around tectonic faults during these events holds the key to constraining seismogenic processes and improving seismic hazard models.

In this presentation, I summarize our work in tracking deep fluid processes during subduction zone slow slip events in Cascadia and Hikurangi and constraining the depth-dependent damage and stress evolution around active strike-slip faults in California through a novel method that repeatedly samples the crust via seismic waves from large, distant earthquakes.

This method further holds the promise of tracking deep magma dynamics and unrest at active volcanoes and improving seismic and volcano hazard forecasts.