Our planet is subjected to more than 50 earthquakes a day. Fortunately, most do not cause significant damage. But some earthquakes are extremely destructive (as recent events in Turkey and Afghanistan demonstrate) The complexity of these tectonic plates shifts make prediction very challenging but fascinating work. Dr. Meade explains the importance of better prediction of earthquakes and the huge challenge of developing better prediction tools.
Brendan Meade's research is focused on the geodetic imaging of earthquake cycle processes with an emphasis on the detection of interseismic elastic strain accumulation. His special emphasis is on the tectonic and earthquake cycle signals across the Japanese Islands to identify the coupled subduction zone interface that ruptured during the great Tohoku-oki earthquake of 2011. Dr. Meade received his Ph.D. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He first joined Harvard as a Daly Postdoctoral fellow and continued as an Assistant then Associate Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences.
