Geology Bites

Rufus Catchings on Pinning Down California's Faults


Listen Later

Knowing exactly where faults are located is important both for scientific reasons and for assessing how much damage a fault could inflict if it ruptured and caused an earthquake. In the podcast, Rufus Catchings describes how we can use natural and artificial sources of seismic waves to create high-resolution images of fault profiles. He also explains how faults can act as seismic waveguides, an effect that enables us to determine whether faults are connected to each other. In Napa, a famous wine-growing area near San Francisco, he used guided waves to determine that an active fault is actually ten times longer than previously thought.

Rufus Catchings is a Research Geophysicist at the US Geological Survey (USGS). Over the past 40 years, he has studied many dozens of faults in California and elsewhere to pin down their precise locations and help assess the risks they pose.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Geology BitesBy Oliver Strimpel

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

3 ratings


More shows like Geology Bites

View all
Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,676 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

2,954 Listeners

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast by Chris and Jesse

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast

215 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

12,604 Listeners

Bedrock: Earth's Earliest History by Dylan Wilmeth

Bedrock: Earth's Earliest History

153 Listeners