Geophysics and Tectonics Seminar - spring-2025
TBA
April 2, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Geobiology candidate talk - UCLA, EPSS
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TBA
Core-Envelope Miscibility and the Evolution of Sub-Neptunes and Super-Earths
April 9, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Lars Stixrude - UCLA, EPSS
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TBA
A new method for simulating rotating convection at realistic rotation strengths for planetary interiors
April 16, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Adrian van Kan - UC Berkeley
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Geophysical and astrophysical fluid flows, e.g., in planetary interiors, are typically driven by convection and often constrained by planetary rotation at large scales. Rapidly rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RRRBC), a rotating fluid layer heated from below and cooled from above, provides a paradigm for direct numerical simulations (DNS) and laboratory studies of such flows, but current state-of-the-art techniques cannot achieve realistic strengths of rotational effects. Remarkably, taking advantage of the characteristics of rapidly rotating thermal convection leads to a new numerical approach that relies on appropriately rescaled equations, and enables exploration of this very wide parameter range. I will present the first DNS of rapidly rotating convection at realistic rotation strengths (very small but finite Ekman/Rossby numbers) using this approach, revealing new physics in this previously inaccessible parameter regime, including an emergent symmetry between cyclones and anticyclones, efficient heat transport and a rich boundary layer structure near the top and bottom of the fluid layer.
Detecting Slow-Moving Landslides in South America using InSAR and Convolutional Neural Networks
April 23, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Bryan Raimbault - JPL
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Landslides are widespread natural hazards that remain challenging to forecast due to their complex dynamics and elusive detection using large-scale remote sensing techniques. However, mapping historical and active landslides is crucial for understanding their behavior and triggers. Indeed, many landslides exhibit slow precursory deformations before failure, yet efficient detection of these precursory signals requires either time-consuming manual mapping or heavy image processing. We present a deep learning approach that leverages Sentinel-1 SAR archives to detect landslide-related deformation systematically. Using wrapped interferograms and a U-Net CNN, our method automates the identification of slow-moving landslides across South America without the need for phase unwrapping. Trained on a large set of manually mapped landslides, the model effectively captures subtle deformation signals, highlighting its potential for rapid assessments after earthquakes and extreme weather events. Combined with the growing availability of satellite data, this approach opens the door to near real-time landslide monitoring and large-scale analysis of natural and human-induced triggers.
Topographic coupling at the core-mantle boundary
April 30, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Remy Monville - UCLA
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TBA
Veiling of Magnetostrophic Dynamics in Liquid Metal Convection Experiments
April 30, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Tao Liu - UCLA
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TBA
Argon Partitioning Between Water and Hydrogen: a Proxy for Rock Mass Fraction Determination of Uranus
May 7, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
3853 Slichter Hall
Presented By:
- Bing Hong Chua - UCLA
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TBA
Investigations of the Solar Convection Zone Using Laboratory and Numerical Simulations
May 7, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Brandon Lazard - UCLA
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TBA
Interaction of Internal Gravity Waves with Hydromagnetic Waves in Red Giant Branch Stars
May 14, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Cy David - UCLA
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TBA
When do Mantle Plumes Merge? Exploring controls on the timescale of thermal and thermochemical plume merger
May 14, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Joy Lewis-Merrill - UCLA
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TBA
Xenon Isotopic Constraints on Mantle Degassing and Earth’s Starting Material
May 21, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Lan Hu - UCLA
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TBA
Machine Learning for Time-Series Landslide Detection and Prediction
May 21, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Yifan Sun - UCLA
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TBA
Where is my Ocean Basin?
May 28, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Matthew Bogumil - UCLA
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TBA
Revised Mantle Thermal Evolution and Deep Water Recycling Constrained by Prescribed Plate Velocities
May 28, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Lingxi Liu - UCLA
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TBA
Swarm Healing and Aftershock Drivers Following a Four-Year-Long Seismic Swarm and the 2024 Mainshock at the Noto Peninsula
June 4, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Saeed Mohanna - UCLA
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TBA
Bimaterial Effect and Favorable Energy Ratio Enable Supershear Rupture in the 2025 Myanmar Quake
June 4, 2025
noon - 1 p.m.
Geology 1707
Presented By:
- Liuwei Xu - UCLA, EPSS
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TBA