Lawson Lecture Series

Since 2003, the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory has been hosting public lectures, the Lawson Lectures, on earthquakes and earthquake science. Held every year in April, the lecture series is meant to address a wide variety of earthquake issues of interest to the Berkeley community.

2012 Lawson Lecture:: Earthquakes from the Top to the Bottom of the Magnitude Scale: Insights into Earthquake Physics from EarthScope
Speaker: Dr. Bill Ellsworth, USGS
Date & Time: Wednesday, April 25, 4:00-5:00 PM
Location: Sutardja Dai Hall (CITRIS), Banatao Auditorium, UC Berkeley

Why are earthquakes so difficult to predict and how well do our current models characterize the hazard they pose? One of many challenges faced by earthquake researchers is the enormous range of scales spanned by the phenomenon, from grain boundary fractures to 1,000 km-long ruptures of plate boundaries. Another challenge is the remoteness of the nucleation process, with rupture invariably beginning kilometers deep in the Earth. This talk presents an overview of the underpinnings of earthquake science and discusses important results being obtained from a new generation of scientific tools for studying earthquakes.
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Lawson lectures:

Date	Title	Speaker	Links
4/25/2012	"Earthquakes from the Top to the Bottom of the Magnitude Scale: Insights into Earthquake Physics from EarthScope"	Dr. William Ellsworth, USGS	Announcement Abstract
5/04/2011	"Two Earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand: Lessons for California "	Dr. Mary Comerio, UC Berkeley	Announcement (PDF) View the flash video (run time 1 hour 10 min) Download the video in Quicktime (.mov) format (12 GB, run time 1 hour 10 min)
4/28/2010	"The Haiti Earthquake of 12 January 2010: A Geologic Perspective"	Dr. Carol Prentice, USGS	View the Flash Video Announcement (PDF) Abstract
4/14/2009	"Building Resilient Communities: Fresh Challenges for Earthquake Professionals"	Chris Poland, Degenkolb Engineers	Lecture Webcast Announcement (PDF) Abstract
4/09/2008	"A tectonic time bomb in our backyard: Earthquake potential of the Hayward fault"	Dr. Roland Burgmann, UC Berkeley	Lecture Webcast Announcement (PDF)
4/24/2007	"The Parkfield 2004 Earthquake: Lessons From the Best-Recorded Quake in History"	Dr. Andy Michael, USGS Menlo Park	Lecture Webcast a pdf of Andy Michael's CV
4/15/2006	Designing For Disaster: The UC Berkeley Seismic Retrofit Program	Dr. Mary Comerio, UC Berkeley	Lecture Webcast Lecture Abstract
4/18/2005	The 2004 Giant Earthquake and Tsunami: Observations and Lessons Learned	Dr. Barbara Romanowicz, UC Berkeley	Lecture Webcast Lecture Powerpoint Announcement (PDF) Information on the Sumatra earthquake
4/21/2004	Earthquake Conversations	Dr. Ross Stein, USGS	Lecture Webcast Announcement (PDF)
4/22/2003	New Earthquake Probabilities for the San Francisco Bay Area: What you should know	Dr. David Schwartz, USGS	Announcement (PDF) 2003 Earthquake Probability Study USGS Fact Sheet: Is a Powerful Quake Likely to Strike in the Next 30 Years? UC Berkeley Media Advisory