Researcher's Information
Earthquake source physics and seismic wave propagation
Earthquakes are awful phenomena that may cause terrible damage to our infrastructures. On the other hand, however, plain fields and basins have been formed owing to faulting associated with earthquakes. Also, active faults provide us ground water. Beautiful nature in Japan has been partly made by activities of the earth such as earthquakes. Since we are living in Japan, where a lot of large earthquakes occur, we must survive earthquakes in exchange for great natural benefits. Then, it is essential to understand earthquakes and active faults.
When, where, how large and how do earthquakes occur? Are the earthquake sizes determined in advance? How do rocks in the earth behave when seismic waves pass through? In our laboratory, we are approaching to such fundamental problems on earthquake physics and seismic wave propagation by means of laboratory experiments, field observations and seismic waveform analyses
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Granite sample on the way to fault formation. White part is a fault trace that will be a final rupture plane.