Special Seminar – Victor Tsai

“Using Simple Physical Models to Understand the Earth: From Sea Level Rise to Debris Flows”

Despite the complexity of the Earth, simple physical models can be used to gain quantitative understanding of mechanical processes on Earth at a fundamental level. When informed by data, such models are particularly effective at generating testable hypotheses and making practically useful predictions, and I have applied this methodology to a broad range of geophysical questions that mostly involve fluid-solid interactions. In this talk, I will focus on a set of four topics: (1) predicting sea level rise in a changing climate, (2) quantifying erosion from debris flows, (3) predicting tsunami waves, and (4) understanding the formation of Earth’s crust and its effects on earthquake ground motions. I will show that these examples demonstrate how simple but quantitative models can be useful.

Lecture will take place in room 54-915
Reception to follow
All are welcome to attend