Wednesday Seminar Series

Come hear from Caltech faculty and JPL scientists about their exciting research! Lunch will be served to the first 100 guests.

This week features Zhongwen Zhan, Assistant Professor of Geophysics.

Large deep earthquakes that hit Afghanistan every decade

Magnitude 7+ earthquakes hit a particular spot of Afghanistan every 10-15 years, and cause hundreds of casualties each time. This intense activity is puzzling compared with the slow tectonic movements measured in this area.  In this presentation, I will show that these events probably occur on the same fault 200km below the Earth's surface, loaded by a piece of heavy slab sinking through the mantle.