Crustal Deformation and Fault Mechanics

Welcome to the homepage of the Crustal Deformation and Fault Mechanics research group at Stanford University!

We investigate deformation of the Earth's crust due to earthquakes, volcanoes, and hydrothermal activity.

Areas of interest include measuring deformation during and just after earthquakes to determine characteristics of the fault, and measuring deformation that occurs between earthquakes to learn how elastic strain accumulates in the crust.

Current work in these areas is focused on the San Andreas Fault in central California and the ChiChi earthquake in Taiwan.

Volcanic studies are using GPS data from Kilauea volcano in Hawaii and InSAR data from the Galapagos islands and Long Valley caldera to study the processes which drive deformation and lead to eruptions in these very active settings.

We are developing tools for modeling complex and time-varying deformation in many of these locales. Our research improves the understanding of how earthquakes and volcanoes work, and contributes to a better knowledge of this very exciting part of Earth sciences.

Visit our research page for more information on current and past projects.

For the past decade the head of our group, Paul Segall, has taught a course called Crustal Deformation.  The two-quarter sequence develops the theoretical models that are most
widely used in modeling deformation data collected by the Global Positioning
System (GPS), Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), strainmeters,
tiltmeters, and other sensors.  He has written the textbook "Earthquake and
Volcano Deformation" that will be published in the spring of 2009 by
Princeton University Press.  The table of contents are available for download
here.