Special Sessions of the SSA 2012 Meeting

Forwarded SSA session announcement from Yehuda Ben-Zion, USC:

I'd like to call your attention to the 2 sessions of the 2012 SSA meeting in San Diego (abstract deadline January 11).

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Deformation Processes and Properties of the San Jacinto Fault Zone

The San Jacinto fault is one of the most active branches of the San Andreas system in southern California, and it consists of multiple segments that exhibit considerably different properties and behaviors both at the surface and at depth. As such, it provides an excellent natural laboratory for studying the mechanics, architecture and evolutionary processes of a young transform plate boundary system. This session will provide a platform for discussing these topics based on in-situ geological, geodetic and seismological data from the San Jacinto fault zone, along with related laboratory and theoretical results.

Session Chairs:
Yehuda Ben-Zion <benzion [at] usc [dot] edu>
Tom Rockwell <trockwell [at] geology [dot] sdsu [dot] edu >
Frank Vernon <vernon [at] epicenter [dot] ucsd [dot] edu>

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Dynamics of Seismicity Beyond Universal Scaling Laws

Finding genuine aspects of seismicity that reflect local properties of faults or the crust, beyond the average regional Gutenberg-Richter magnitude distribution and Omori-Utsu aftershocks decay, is a highly challenging problem because of the inherent complexity of the earthquake process combined with the limited and noisy available data. Using large spatial domains increases the amount of data, but may suppress important local properties of seismicity. This session will focus on statistical features of seismicity specific to various sub-regions, and their relations to independent geophysical observations (e.g.,seismic velocity images, heat flow). Examples include space-time variations of foreshock/aftershock clustering and productivity, bursts of activity, swarms, periodic seismicity, triggering and other patterns that go beyond the classical power laws.

Session Chairs:
Yehuda Ben-Zion <benzion [at] usc [dot] edu>
Ilya Zaliapin <zal [at] unr [dot] edu>