Energy Transformations: Earthquakes and Hot Rocks
Featured speaker Alexis Ault, PhD, geoscientist
Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, Utah State University
Date
Friday, April 12, 2024
7 p.m. Eccles Science Learning Center,
Emert Auditorium, Room ESLC 130
Hands-on learning activities and refreshments follow the talk in the Eccles Science Learning Center atrium.
Admission is free and all ages are welcome.
Directions and Parking Information
Talk Description
We associate earthquakes with seismic waves and potential destruction because that is what we can feel and see. But energy during an earthquake is also transformed into heat (the First Law of Thermodynamics.) This energy transformation is mostly hidden from us, but powerful, because it allows an earthquake rupture to take off.
USU geoscientist Alexis Ault describes how we can “see” the record of earthquake energy transformation in fault rocks down to the scale of atoms. She’ll also share how we can use these same tools to identify faults that are deforming, not by earthquakes, but slowly, and why that is important, too.