UW reinforces seismology faculty and earthquake monitoring facilities

The University of Washington has announced the hiring of Prof. John Vidale as the new Director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN),and Prof. Heidi Houston, effective summer 2006. They will join the Department of Earth and Spaces Sciences, chaired by Prof. Robert Winglee, which hosts the PNSN. Acting Director of the PNSN Steve Malone will maintain the reins until Dr. Vidale takes over. He will assist with the transition and then plans to devote time to his special interest of volcano seismology

The PNSN provides seismic monitoring of earthquakes and volcanoes in Washington and Oregon. Originally founded by recently retired Professor Robert Crosson in 1970 the PNSN has been the central focus point for earthquake hazard research, tectonic structure investigations and the seismic study of active volcanoes in the northwest. The PNSN is funded by the US Geological Survey, the UW Department of Energy and the University of Washington. Plans are underway to expand the network, in collaboration with State officials, to include upgraded instrumentation and analysis, including robust, rapid characterization of earthquakes, more rapid assessment of the distribution of strong ground motion and the interpretation of the likely resulting hazard.

Prof. Vidale will come from UCLA, where he is currently Interim Director of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, and has conducted extensive research on earthquakes and Earth structure. His recent work includes measuring the damage to faults during earthquakes, striving to understand why earthquake swarms strike, measuring the rotation of the inner core, and showing there is a correlation, albeit very weak, between the occurrence of earthquakes and the ocean tides. He has been named an American Geophysical Union Fellow, a Gilbert Fellow of the United States Geological Survey, and was awarded the Macelwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union for significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by an outstanding young scientist less than 36 years of age in 1994. His PhD is from Caltech (1987), and his BS in Physics and Geology is from Yale (1981).

Prof. Houston also holds a 1987 PhD from Caltech, and an undergraduate degree in music and math from the University of Washington. Her expertise is in the general field of global observational source seismology, including analysis of patterns and timing of slip in large earthquakes, the earthquake energy budget, and the mystery of why earthquakes happen as deep as 700 km under the ground. She has also studied stresses around the San Andreas Fault and fine-scale seismic structures in fractured Southern California.