Tunnels are classified as complex engineering structures, which requires careful analysis and design procedures. Any instability of tunnels will be highly detrimental to their performance thereby posing a threat to public safety, consequently cause life-threatening and infrastru…
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This thesis investigates the use of growth stratigraphy in deepwater environments to determine fault kinematics and reservoir distribution in the Niger Delta and assess earthquake hazards associated with blind-thrust faults in the Santa Barbara Channel, California. Chapter 1 ana…
The southwest Pacific is a tectonically complicated region consisting of two large igneous provinces (LIPs) on the ocean floor formed approximately 120 Ma. The formation of these two plateaus, the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) and Manihiki Plateau (MP), along with one further south,…
Seismologists use the seismic wavefield to image the Earth’s structure at a wide range of scales, from a few meters to 1000s of km. Sources (earthquakes, explosions, etc.) of seismic waves can also be located and distinguished using the seismic wavefield. In this dissertation, I…
This thesis investigates the origin of large-scale sandstone intrusions. A new approach combining seismic, well data, core and outcrop observations with numerical modelling has been undertaken. Two possible end members of saucer-shaped, seismic-scale sandstone intrusions from th…
There is evidence that a stably stratified layer of fluid, which is not penetrated by the convective flow of fluid in the bulk of the outer core, is located below the Core-Mantle Boundary (CMB). The question considered in this thesis is whether such a layer also affects the core…
How well do Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) maps forecast ground shaking due to earthquakes? This question is central to ensuring the safety, security, and economic well-being of citizens. PSHA maps are an important product for users including seismologists, enginee…
Recent advances in seismic instrumentation have allowed researchers to undertake focused investigations of regions previously inaccessible. From the bottom of the sea to the coldest, driest places on earth, we are now able to deploy seismometers to remote locations and be certai…
We present ambient noise tomography results of Rayleigh wave group and phase velocities obtained from empirical Green's functions produced by cross-correlating long ambient noise sequences between available station pairs across Europe. Cross-correlations are stacked over the ent…
This thesis addresses three problems in seismology and volcanology by applying fluid dynamical theories that have been developed for engineering applications. Fault zones are proposed to operate analogously to journal bearings. A quantitative assessment of the physical regimes i…
Passive- and active-source seismological studies of northern Scotland and the South Caspian Basin indicate: (1) pervasive and laterally heterogeneous velocity discontinuities within the upper mantle influenced by the localized tectonic and thermal history of northwest Scotland, …
In this thesis, I summarize the research that I have done at UC Santa Cruz involving my development of joint inversion approaches using hr-GPS, teleseismic body and surface waves, regional seismic, campaign GPS, InSAR and tsunami datasets, to investigate the kinematic rupture pa…
Oceanic strike-slip earthquakes occur on transform faults and fracture zones that cut across thousands of kilometers of seafloor. The largest of these events often rupture a considerable portion of their associated fault and can provide a comprehensive look at seismic slip acros…
A key question in earthquake seismology is whether earthquake sources in different tectonic regions are functionally equivalent in terms of radiated ground motion. This thesis compares the apparent earthquake source radiation for six different tectonic regions covering Japan, Me…
I apply a suite of seismic techniques to investigate iceberg calving at large glaciers around Greenland. Iceberg calving accounts for up to half of the Greenland Ice Sheet's annual mass loss, which makes understanding the physics of the calving process vital to gaining a clear p…
Using high quality digital broadband waveforms, I present constraints on mantle structure in three geographic regions: the lower mantle beneath the central Pacific and Central America and the upper mantle beneath northeast Africa. Highly variable ScS travel times, amplitudes, wa…