Summary
The largest earthquakes on Earth occur along the megathrust fault in subduction zones. When these events reach the shallow portion of the fault, close to the trench, they generate large fault displacement (slip) and seafloor uplift, which in turn, triggers the generation of devastating tsunamis. The dynamics of these tsunamigenic (i.e. generate tsunamis) earthquakes are controlled, to a great extent, by the tectonic structure of the subduction zone and by the distribution of elastic rock properties of the upper plate. In this talk, Dr. Prada will highlight a set of ICM studies that explain the dynamics of megathrust earthquakes from geophysical observations and 3D numerical dynamic rupture simulation tools.
Brief biography
Dr. Manel Prada obtained his PhD in Marine Geophysics in 2014 from the University of Barcelona. After his PhD, he moved to Dublin where he spent 5 years at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2019, he was awarded a Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral grant at ICM and more recently, in 2021, he obtained a permanent position as a researcher in the same institution. His research interest focuses on the structure and formation processes of continental margins, and more recently on the main factors controlling the dynamic properties of megathrust earthquakes in subduction zones. To this end, Dr. Prada applies processing and modelling techniques to controlled-source seismic data sets recorded with ocean-bottom seismometers and/or multichannel seismic data to obtain the distribution of physical properties of the subsurface and integrate them into earthquake dynamic rupture numerical simulations.