Findings and Recommendations - New Research Opportunities in the Earth Sciences - page 92

key regions to explore in the next decade: Cascadia; the Alaskan subduction zone;
and the North Island, New Zealand, subduction zone. The faulting and deformation
systems and material fluxes within these regions can best be addressed with
interdisciplinary programs.

Finding 3: EAR research on the multiscale nonlinear problem of earthquake faulting,
seismic wave generation, and ground shaking in complex three-dimensional media is
establishing understanding that can transform earthquake hazard assessment into a
fully physics-based approach with potential to more effectively guide earthquake
engineering decision making.

Finding 4 : Understanding fault zone and plate boundary processes is strongly linked
to understanding and mitigating natural hazards; thus, there is great societal relevance
to understanding faulting and deformation processes as well as volcanic processes in
these environments. Industry, insurance, and municipal partnerships and strong
coordination with the USGS are relevant to help EAR connect science to the end user.

Recommendation: EAR should pursue integrated interdisciplinary quantification
of the spectrum of fault slip behavior and its relation to fluxes of sediments, fluids,
and volatiles in the fault zone. The successful approach of fault zone and
subduction zone observatories should be sustained, as these provide an
integrative geosystems framework for understanding faulting and associated
deformation processes. The related EarthScope project is exploring the structure
and evolution of the North American continent using thousands of coordinated
geophysical instruments. There is great scientific value to be gained in
completing this project, as envisioned, through 2018.

Instrument and Facilities Needs for Faulting and Deformation Research

Finding 1 : EAR is currently supporting numerous disciplinary facilities that are
gathering essential data for understanding faulting processes and associated
deformations. Facilities such as UNAVCO, IRIS, the National Center for Airborne
Laser Mapping (NCALM), SCEC, CIG, and high-speed computing are important to
advancing understanding of faulting processes.

Finding 2 : Advances in fault rupture studies will require support for theoretical
developments, new observations (combining accelerometers and global positioning
systems), and high-speed computational resources.

Finding 3 : InSAR data are proving to be of great value for research on faulting and
associated deformation processes as well as volcanic processes. The plan for NASA
to deploy an InSAR satellite as part of the EarthScope project remains a high
priority.