Abstract

Abundant and well-documented examples of earthquakes induced by various types of human activities have provided an exceptional opportunity to investigate earthquake physics and test earthquake forecasting models.  The need for more and cleaner energy and for sequestration of large quantities of CO2 in geological formations to mitigate climate change is indeed driving various activities involving extracting or injecting fluids from the subsurface.  These activities induce deformation and can eventually activate faults and produce earthquakes. We will review recent progress in understanding these processes and developing forecasting models.

Biography

Jean-Philippe Avouac is the Earle C. Anthony Professor of Geology and Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He is the director of the NSF Center for Geomechanics and the Mitigation of Geohazards and was president of the Tectonophysics section of the American Geophysical Union from 2020 to 2022. Jean-Philippe Avouac studies earthquakes and tectonic processes using seismology, remote sensing,  geodesy, and geomorphology. His recent activities have focused on the effect of subsurface fluid injection for geothermal energy production or CO2 storage or extraction on deformation and seismicity.

Jean-Philippe Avouac graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (France) in 1987, receiving a high-level education in mathematics, physics, and engineering.  He received his Ph.D. in Geology from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France 1991.  He joined the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique in 1991, where he led the Laboratoire de Télédétection et Risque Sismique from 1996  until he moved to Caltech by the end of 2002. He was the director of the Caltech Tectonics Observatory from 2004 to 2014. He worked as the BP-McKenzie Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge (2014-2015).  

Jean-Philippe Avouac has been co-editor-in-chief of Earth and Planetary Science Letters since 2018, and he served as co-editor-in-chief of Tectonophysics from 2014 to 2018. 

Jean-Philippe Avouac has published over 250 articles in international peer-reviewed journals (Google Scholar profile, Scopus Profile)and holds patents in image processing.

Jean-Philippe Avouac also has non-academic experience. He has been a member of the Technology Advisory Committee of BP from 2014 to 2018. During his employment by the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (France), he conducted and supervised seismic hazard studies for nuclear facilities in France.