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Professor Derek Sawyer Awarded NSF Career Grant

Derek Sawyer smiling at the camera

SES Professor Derek Sawyer has been awarded a National Science Foundation Career Grant for his work on seafloor landslides!

The massive amount of sediment moved by seafloor landslides is a hazard to coastal areas and to seafloor infrastructure including undersea cables. This project will use a combination of field observations from seismically active regions offshore Japan and offshore the Pacific Northwest along with geophysical data and sediment cores, and laboratory experiments that simulate the shaking induced by natural earthquakes to obtain a better understanding of why submarine landslides occur. The project uses newly acquired and legacy data from the International Ocean Discovery Program and the United States Geological Survey. Laboratory experiments will be performed on samples from each field site to understand the relationships between earthquake shaking, sediment physical properties, strength of the sediment, and the potential for a landslide.

A key element of the education and outreach plan is to address under-representation of first-generation college students in STEM fields. This project will provide research experiences to first-generation college students majoring in the STEM field of earth sciences. A second major element of the education and outreach is a collaborative project with five other universities (Michigan, Penn State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Washington) to measure FanQuakes, to provide outreach to hundreds of thousands of students and the public on the science of earthquakes by analogy to stadium shaking during sporting events. The project supports the training of graduate students.
 

To learn more about Professor Sawyer's work check out his website and watch his "FanQuakes" video below!