Research Projects

Caltech's Tectonics Observatory (TO) brings together an interdisciplinary team of Caltech faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral research assoiciates, and visitors in the areas of field-based geology, numerical modeling, remote sensing with satellite-based instruments, and laboratory analysis. TO science focuses on geological processes that occur at the boundaries of Earth's tectonic plates, ranging from the sudden rupture of earthquakes (tens of seconds) to the slow formation of mountains (tens of millions of years).

Slip Map Project Sumatran Plate Boundary Project map MesoAmerican Subduction Experiment map south america map Tawian Tectonincs and Seismicity map inod asia collision zone illustration

Slip Maps of Large Earthquakes - rapid estimation of slip maps for many recent large earthquakes (Mw>7)

Sumatran Plate Boundary - multi disciplinary effort to understand tectonic processes at a plate boundary dominated by the oblique convergence of oceanic and continental plates

MesoAmerican Subduction Experiment (MASE) - construction of a dynamical (numerical) model of the subduction process that matches the variety of subduction scenarios present in the Central America subduction zone

Central Andean Tectonic Observatory (CAnTO) - collaborative project that focuses on the dynamics of the South American subduction zone, a region that spans the source area of a high percentage of the world's largest earthquakes and tsunamis, hundreds of active volcanoes, and the presently rising Andean mountain range

Tawain Tectonics and Seismicity - uses this exceptional area to investigate mountain building processes over time scales ranging from the seconds of an earthquake to millions of years of an orogeny. It is also an ultimate place to investigate both the transition from subduction to collision and from collision to collapse

Indo-Asian Collision Zone - case study to address the question of a need for some simple models relating crustal deformation and seismicity that would provide some physical basis to help assess the frequency and size of major earthquakes

Research Highlights - for general audiences

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Tectonics Observatory