Kerry SIEH
Kerry Sieh studies the geological record to understand the geometries of active faults, the earthquakes they generate, and the crustal deformation their movements produce. His early work studying geological layers and landforms along the San Andreas fault led to the discovery of how often and how regularly it produces large earthquakes in southern California. A few years ago, he investigated Taiwan's multitude of active faults and figured out how their earthquakes are continuously creating that mountainous island. Currently, he and his colleagues are studying the active faults Myanmar and the surrounding region.
One of Sieh’s long-standing research interests is the subduction megathrust that has been producing great earthquakes offshore Sumatra throughout the past decade. His and his students' and colleagues' paleoseismic work has led to an understanding of the repeating nature of such earthquakes. He also instigated the creation of the Sumatran GPS Array, a network of continuously recording GPS stations, to record deformations during and in between large earthquakes.
- 1977 Ph.D. (Geology), Stanford University, “Late Holocene Displacement History along the South-Central Reach of the San Andreas Fault"
- 1972 A.B. with highest honors (Geology), University of California, Riverside
- 2012-present AXA-Nanyang Chair in Natural Hazards
- 2008-present Director, Earth Observatory of Singapore
- 2008-present Professor, Nanyang Technological University
- 2003-2009 Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology, Caltech
- 1977-2009 Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Caltech
- Singapore:
- Member, Local Evaluation Panel (LEP) for Singapore NRF Fellowship Award (June 2012–May 2014)
- Member, International Scientific Advisory Panel (ISAP), Centre for Climate Research
- Singapore (CCRS) (1 October 2011-September 2013)
- Member, Committee on Sustainable Earth, NTU (21 Dec 2009-present)
- International:
- Member, Advisory Panel, Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (2000-2013)
- Member, Assessment Committee, Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University,Taiwan (2004)
- Caltech:
- Chair, Division GIS Committee (1996-2000; 2005-2008)
- Member, Geology Search Committee (1998- 2005)
- Chair, Division Visiting Professor Committee (2003-2004)
- Division Post-doctoral Fellowship Committees (1995-2003)
- Caltech Faculty Board, (2000-2001)
- U.S. National:
- Member, U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (2000-2003)
- Member, Committee on the Science of Earthquakes, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences (1996-1998)
- Testimony before U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Basic Research, Committee on Science (April 24, 1997)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Fellow, American Geophysical Union
- Fellow, Geological Society of America
- Seismological Society of America
- National Academy of Sciences
- ES7001 - Natural Hazards, Climate Change and Society
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ES8001 - Natural Hazards, Climate Change and Society
- 2017 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- 2014 Harry Fielding Reid Medal, Seismological Society of America
- 2012 Best Paper Award, Geological Society of America, Structural Geology Divison (for Yule and Sieh, 2003)
- 2006 National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals GLBT Scientist Award
- 2001 Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
- 1999 Member of the National Academy of Sciences
- 1998 Outreach Award for Knowledge Transfer, Southern California Earthquake Center
- 1997 Commendation for Public Service, City of West Hollywood
- 1996 Fellow of the Geological Society of America
- 1988 Honoree, Los Angeles Times, "88 in 88": Los Angeles Times Magazine, IV, January 10, 1988, p.23.
- 1982 National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research, for development and application of innovative field techniques for studying active faults to identify and date paleo-earthquakes, thereby providing quantitiative asessment of earthquake hazards.
- 1978 E.B. Burwell, Jr., Memorial Award of the Engineering Geology Division, Geological Society of America. In recognition of published paper, Sieh 1978
- 1972 Gordon Watkins Award from Chancellor, University of California at Riverside for Community Service
Publications:
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Fault Slip and GPS Velocities Across the Shan Plateau Define a Curved Southwestward Crustal Motion Around the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. (2018).
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Limit on slip rate and timing of recent seismic ground-ruptures on the Jinghong fault, SE of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. Tectonophysics. 734-735, 148-166. (2018).
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Statement to Restore Science-Based Policy in Government. (Sieh, K. E., Ed.). (2018).
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Slip Rate and Rare Large Prehistoric Earthquakes of the Red River Fault, Southwestern China. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. (2018).
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Earthquake supercycles on the Mentawai segment of the Sunda megathrust in the seventeenth century and earlier. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. (2017).
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The discovery of a conjugate system of faults in the Wharton Basin intraplate deformation zone. Science Advances. 3, (2017).
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How complex is the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake, South Island, New Zealand?. Science Bulletin. 62, 309-311. (2017).
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Implications of the diffuse deformation of the Indian Ocean lithosphere for slip partitioning of oblique plate convergence in Sumatra. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 122(1), 572-591. (2017).
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Highly variable recurrence of tsunamis in the 7,400 years before the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Nature Communications. 8(16019), (2017).
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A paleogeodetic record of variable interseismic rates and megathrust coupling at Simeulue Island, Sumatra. Geophysical Research Letters. 42(24), (2015).
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Coral C-13/C-12 records of vertical seafloor displacement during megathrust earthquakes west of Sumatra. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 432, 461-471. (2015).
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Hunt for slow slip events along the Sumatran subduction zone in a decade of continuous GPS data. Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth. 120(12), 8623-8632. (2015).
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A 15 year slow-slip event on the Sunda megathrust offshore Sumatra. Geophysical Research Letters. 42(16), 6630-6638. (2015).
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Penultimate Predecessors of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, Sumatra: Stratigraphic, archeological, and historical evidence. Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth. 120(1), 308-325. (2015).
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The 2012 Mw 8.6 Wharton Basin sequence: A cascade of great earthquakes generated by near‐orthogonal, young, oceanic‐mantle faults. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 120(5), 3723–3747. (2015).
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Time-varying interseismic strain rates and similar seismic ruptures on the Nias–Simeulue patch of the Sunda megathrust. Quaternary Science Reviews. 258–281. (2015).
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Validation of linearity for tsunami waves in joint inversion of kinematic rupture models: Application to the 2010 Mentawai Mw 7.8 tsunami earthquake. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 120(3), (2015).
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A unified GPS-based earthquake catalog for the Sumatran plate boundary between 2002 and 2013. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 120(5), 3566-3598. (2015).
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Active tectonics and earthquake potential of the Myanmar region. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 119(4), 3767–3822. (2014).
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Rupture process of the 2010 Mw 7.8 Mentawai tsunami earthquake from joint inversion of near-field hr-GPS and teleseismic body wave recordings constrained by tsunami observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 119(7), 5574–5593. (2014).
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Deposits of the most recent eruption in the southern Mono Craters, California: description, interpretation and implications for regional marker tephras. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 275, 114-131. (2014).
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Ambiguous correlation of precisely dated coral detritus with the tsunamis of 1861 and 1907 at Simeulue Island, Aceh Province, Indonesia.. Marine Geology. 375, 384-391. (2014).
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Rupture and variable coupling behavior of the Mentawai segment of the Sunda megathrust during the supercycle culmination of 1797 to 1833. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 119(9), 7258–7287. (2014).
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Surface Ruptures of the Mw 6.8 March 2011 Tarlay Earthquake, Eastern Myanmar. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 104(6), 2915-2932. (2014).
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Permanent upper plate deformation in western Myanmar during the great 1762 earthquake: Implications for neotectonic behavior of the northern Sunda megathrust. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 118, 1277-1303. (2013).
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Tsunami-induced coastal change: scenario studies for Painan, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Earth, Planets and Space. 64, 799-816. (2012).
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The 2010 Mw 7.8 Mentawai earthquake: Very shallow source of a rare tsunami earthquake determined from tsunami field survey and near-field GPS data. Journal of Geophysical Research. (2012).
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Source model of the 2009 Mw 7.6 Padang intraslab earthquake and its effect on the Sunda megathrust. Geophysical Journal International. 190, 1710-1722. (2012).
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An ancient shallow slip event on the Mentawai segment of the Sunda megathrust, Sumatra. Journal of Geophysical Research. 117, (2012).
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Twin-Surface Ruptures of the March 2007 M > 6 Earthquake Doublet on the Sumatran Fault. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 102(6), 2356-2367. (2012).
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Interseismic Deformation and Earthquake Hazard along the Southernmost Longitudinal Valley Fault, Eastern Taiwan. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 102(4), 1569-1582. (2012).
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Earthquakes and slip rate of the southern Sagaing fault: insights from an offset ancient fort wall, lower Burma (Myanmar). Geophysical Journal International. 185, 49-64. (2011).
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Another potential source of destructive earthquakes and tsunami offshore of Sumatra. Geophysical Research Letters. 38, (2011).
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Tsunami-induced coastal changes: a scenario-based study for Painan, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Earth, Planets and Space. (2011).
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Submarine landslides along the Malacca Strait-Mergui Basin shelf margin: Insights from sequence-stratigraphic analysis. Journal of Geophysical Research. 115, (2010).
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Coral evidence for earthquake recurrence and an A.D. 1390–1455 cluster at the south end of the 2004 Aceh–Andaman rupture. Journal of Geophysical Research. 115, (2010).
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Kinematic behavior of southern Alaska constrained by westward decreasing postglacial slip rates on the Denali Fault, Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research. 114, (2009).
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Tsunami hazard from the subduction megathrust of the South China Sea: Part I. Source characterization and the resulting tsunami. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences. 36, 13-20. (2009).
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Heterogeneous coupling of the Sumatran megathrust constrained by geodetic and paleogeodetic measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research. 113, (2008).
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Partial rupture of a locked patch of the Sumatra megathrust during the 2007 earthquake sequence. Nature. 456, 631-5. (2008).
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Persistent elastic behavior above a megathrust rupture patch: Nias island, West Sumatra. Journal of Geophysical Research. 113, (2008).
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Variation of initial 230Th/232Th and limits of high precision U–Th dating of shallow-water corals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica. 72, 4021-4223. (2008).
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Detecting co-seismic displacements in glaciated regions: An example from the great November 2002 Denali earthquake using SPOT horizontal offsets. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 270, 209-220. (2008).
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Earthquake supercycles inferred from sea-level changes recorded in the corals of West Sumatra. Science. 322, 1674-8. (2008).
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Introduction to the Special Issue on the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake and the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 97, S1-S5. (2007).
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Coseismic Slip and Afterslip of the Great Mw 9.15 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake of 2004. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 97, S152-S173. (2007).
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Rupture Kinematics of the 2005 Mw 8.6 Nias-Simeulue Earthquake from the Joint Inversion of Seismic and Geodetic Data. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 97, S307-S322. (2007).
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Near-field propagation of tsunamis from megathrust earthquakes. Geophysical Research Letters. 34, (2007).
Pages
Publications:
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The 2008 Mw 7.2 North Pagai earthquake sequence and its relationship to ruptured and unruptured parts of the Mentawai patch. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. (2014).