About Us
Caltech's Seismological Laboratory, an arm of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS), was established in 1921. It has a distinguished history of leadership in science and serving the public interest. Internationally recognized for excellence in geophysical research and academics while also having outstanding facilities in seismic networks, high performance computing, and mineral physics, makes the Seismo Lab an ideal place for study and research. The Lab serves as a focal point for earthquake information in Southern California and the world.
Spotlight
Swami Krishnan, Assistant Professor Earthquake Engineering Researcher
Swaminathan Krishnan is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Geophysics at Caltech and a structural engineer specializing in earthquake engineering. Professor Krishnan leads the earthquake engineering simulation group (http://krishnan.caltech.edu/) which pursues fundamental research in earthquake engineering with applications to end-to-end simulation of earthquakes and structural response using high-performance computing. End-to-end simulations consist of holistically simulating the earthquake process, starting with fault rupture, generation and propagation of seismic waves to a site(s) of interest, and shaking of the top-soil layer, simulating the structural response including soil-structure interaction, and estimating the losses due to damage, and the opportunity cost due to interruption of structure usage. Learn more
Community Seismic Network
We are developing a new earthquake monitoring (seismic network) system, Community Seismic Network (CSN) based on a dense array of low-cost sensors. The goal of the system is to produce block-by-block estimates of strong ground shaking. The information from these sensors will be sent to central computers that will process the data and produce localized estimates of ground shaking on a block-by-block basis - essentially, motions of the evolving seismic wave field during local earthquakes. This information will guide emergency responders and promises to lead to a new level of understanding of the physics of earthquakes and their impact on Southern California. The development of the new network is partially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Read more
