Research: Active Tectonics and Earthquakes
Active tectonics includes earthquakes, volcanism, and other geological processes that have direct and significant societal impact. In the past two decades the advancement of Global Positioning System (GPS) and other space-based geodesy, as well as new methods of chronological dating, have made active tectonics one of the most exciting field of earth sciences. My students and I have been conducting studies of active tectonics in a number of regions. Our research is focused on earthquake-related crustal deformation. Combining geodetic and geological data with geodynamic modeling, we investigate stress evolution and strain partitioning in seismogenic regions and explore their implications for earthquake activity. Our current study areas include the New Madrid seismic zone in central US, the San Andreas fault, and intraplate seismic zones in northern China.
Recent and Ongoing Projects
Ordos and N. China
Andes Asian modeling
last update: winter 2005
credits
copyright 1999 Mian Liu
and The Curators of the University of Missouri