James H. Dieterich (born 1942) is an American geophysics professor emeritus at University of California, Riverside (UCR).

James H. Dieterich
Born1942 (age 81–82)
Education
B.S Geology, University of Washington
OrganizationNational Academy of Sciences[2]
Title
Distinguished Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus[3]

Former chair, National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council[4]

Awards
United States Geological Survey Distinguished Service Award (2007)[5]

American Geophysical Union Walter H. Bucher Medal (2000)

Websiteearthsciences.ucr.edu/dieterich.html

Early life and education

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Born in Seattle, Washington, Dieterich studied geology at the University of Washington before going on to graduate work at Yale University. He earned his Ph.D in 1968.[1] His doctoral thesis discussed the "Sequence and mechanics of folding in the area of New Haven, Westport, and Naugatuck, Connecticut."[6] He then went to work for the USGS.[1][7]

Career

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Dieterich spent most of his career at USGS/Menlo Park.[8] In October 1983 Dieterich made a trip to Costa Rica to evaluate recent University of California, Santa Cruz earthquake prediction models.[9] His research, published in both his 1994 paper A constitutive law for rate of earthquake production and its application to earthquake clustering and his 1996 paper with Brian D. Kilgore entitled Implications of fault constitutive properties for earthquake prediction, theorized that the magnitude of a given earthquake and the rate of follow-on aftershocks occurred in inverse proportion, meaning that stronger earthquakes have fewer aftershocks.[10] A study published in 2002 by Shinji Toda et al., addressing an earthquake swarm at the Izu Islands in 2000, confirms Dieterich's hypothesis.[11][12][13][14] In 2003 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.[8] In 2011, Dieterich's Department of Earth Sciences at UCR was awarded a five-year, US$4,600,000 (equivalent to $6,230,414 in 2023) grant by the National Science Foundation to study earthquake fault system dynamics. Dieterich was named the principal investigator for the grant. The study design included the use of computer simulations to better model seismic activity at the San Andreas Fault.[2][15][16][17]

Publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Rice, James R. "James H. Dieterich". American Geophysical Union.
  2. ^ a b Pittalwala, Iqbal (September 19, 2011). "Geophysicists to Develop Computer Simulations of Earthquake Fault Systems".
  3. ^ "Exploring Earthquake Prediction and Impacts". University of California, Riverside. November 4, 2013. Archived from the original on June 28, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
  4. ^ Opar, Alisa (March 1, 2010). "Scientists Aim to Predict Earthquakes Months or Years Out, Not Days Before". National Audubon Society.
  5. ^ Pittalwala, Iqbal (May 30, 2007). "Two UCR Earth Scientists Honored with U.S. Geological Survey's Distinguished Service Awards" (Press release).
  6. ^ Orville, Philip M., ed. (October 27, 1968). "Guidebook for Fieldtrips in Connecticut: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference". Yale University. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ Monastersky, Richard (July 24, 1993). "Where Have All the Earthquakes Gone? Scientists Wonder Why Part of Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Has Gone Quiet". Science News.[dead link]
  8. ^ a b "Mary Lou Zoback and James Dieterich: Survey scientists in the National Academy". GeoTimes. American Geophysical Institute. June 2003.
  9. ^ Booz Allen & Hamilton; LabatAnderson, Inc. (April 24, 1989). "Activity Profiles and Chronologies of the Non-Relief Projects of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance 1979-1988" (PDF). USAID: 89. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ Lee, William H.K.; Kanamori, Hiroo; Jennings, Paul; Kisslinger, Carl (2003). International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology, Part 2. Vol. 81. Academic Press. pp. 1222–1223. ISBN 9780080489230.
  11. ^ Marone, Chris (September 5, 2002). "Stressed to quaking point" (PDF). Nature. 419 (6902): 32. doi:10.1038/419032a. PMID 12214222. S2CID 4303624.
  12. ^ Salleh, Anna (September 6, 2002). "Earthquake forecasts given a boost". ABC Online.
  13. ^ Peterson, Greg (November 2002). "Many quakes, one theory". GeoTimes.
  14. ^ United States Geological Survey (September 5, 2002). "New Evidence For Why Earthquake Swarms Occur Offers Hope For Better Earthquake Forecasting". Science Daily (Press release).
  15. ^ Fiegener, Craig (October 13, 2011). "$4.6 Million for Earthquake Research at UC Riverside". KNBC.
  16. ^ Dybas, Cheryl (September 30, 2011). "NSF Frontiers in Earth-System Dynamics Awards Explore Links Among Earth Processes and Systems". National Science Foundation.
  17. ^ "NSF Awards $4.6M for Earthquake Study". San Diego State University. September 26, 2011.