My principal research interest is earthquake geology, which uses geological layers and landforms to understand the geometries of active faults, the earthquakes they generate, and the crustal structure their movements produce. My early work on the San Andreas fault led to the discovery of how often and how regularly it produces large earthquakes in southern California.

More recently, my students and colleagues and I have just finished a study of Taiwan’s multitude of active faults and figured out how their earthquakes are creating that mountainous island. Also, we have begun a study of the earthquake geology of Myanmar (Burma). Our principal current research interest is the subduction megathrust that produced the devastating giant Sumatran earthquakes and Indian Ocean tsunamis of 2004 and 2005. That research suggests that the megathrust is poised to produce yet another giant earthquake in western Sumatra.

This year I am on sabbatical in Singapore, working on a proposal to create an Earth Observatory there that would conduct basic and applied research related to earthquake, volcanic, coastal and climate hazards.

 

Contact Information:
Division of Geological & Planetary Sciences
MC 100-23
1200 E. California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91125
Email: sieh@gps.caltech.edu