Voices From the Future: Emily E. Brodsky
"Earthquakes Triggered by Seismic Waves." Emily E. Brodsky discusses why earthquakes happen when they happen, in this presentation for the "Voices From the Future" distinguished lecture series, Dec. 2, 2010.
Emily E. Brodsky
Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
University of California, Santa Cruz
Emily Brodsky is an earthquake physicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Her research primarily focuses on identifying the processes that trigger earthquakes and constraining the forces and processes that occur inside a fault zone during slip. These studies require tools from a number of fields including seismology, rheology, hydrogeology and field geology. She is best known for quantifying the role of seismic waves in earthquake triggering and constraining the role of lubrication in fault slip. In related work, Brodsky has worked on the interactions between seismic waves and hydrological systems to show that earthquakes can measurably increase the effective permeability of distant aquifers. She also studies other rapid geological processes such as explosive volcanism, landslides and glacial slip.
Brodsky earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1995, doctorate from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in
2001, and was a 2001 Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. She is
the recipient of the inaugural 2005 Charles Richter Early Career award from the Seismological Society of America. She was also honored with the 2008 James Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and she is an AGU Fellow.
Brodsky was a 2009-2010 Distinguished Lecturer for the NSF Earthscope, and she
is currently a Distinguished Lecturer for the Geo-Prisms program. She was also a recipient
of an NSF CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development Program) award.