Research Highlights
Short stories | Podcasts | Videos
Scientists at the TO focus on geological processes occurring at the boundaries of Earth's tectonic plates. The timescales of these processes span from a few tens of seconds (the typical duration of an earthquake) to tens of millions of years (the time it takes to build mountains).
These videos and stories describe TO research in everyday terms.
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Short Stories
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Podcasts
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Videos
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Roof of the World (BBC) (broadcast 1998) - 50 minutes
Documentary by BBC about mountain building, including an interview with Jean-Philippe Avouac who explains how the Himalayan mountains continue to rise because of earthquakes [Video on Youtube]
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Good Vibrations Inside the Earth (4/13/2011) - 50 minutes
Watson Lecture by Jennifer Jackson
Professor Jackson shows how modern devices such as diamond-anvil cells and high-power infrared lasers can be used on minerals to recreate the crushing pressures and flaming temperatures suspected to exist deep within Earth, while extremely brilliant synchrotron x-radiation probes the minerals' properties [Video on iTunes U]
Rising Mountains and Sinking Oceans: Earthquakes That Shape the Earth (10/27/2010) - 50 mins
Watson Lecture by Jean-Philippe Avouac
Why are the Himalaya mountains so high? Why are ocean trenches off the shores of South America and Sumatra so deep? Combining modern space and traditional geological techniques and field observations, Jean-Philippe Avouac with his colleagues and students have collected an exceptional set of observations of the most active plate boundaries, the Himalya, Sumatra, and South America. These observations bring new light on the physics of earthquakes and on how they relate to rising mountains and sinking oceans. [Video on iTunes U]
The Ancient California River and how it Carved the Grand Canyon in the Age of T. Rex (4/7/2010) - 50 mins
Watson Lecture by Brain Wernicke
Anyone who stands at the rim of grand canyon is confronted with one of the most humbling spectacles in the solar system, a high, featureless plateau interrupted by a mile-deep chasm. Its origin has been controversial ever since John Wesley Powell’s historic navigation of the colorado river in 1869. A long-held consensus is that the canyon is six million years old and was carved by the river. This lecture will examine data collected over the last three years suggesting instead that the
canyon was incised between 70 and 80 million years ago, by a river flowing in the opposite direction to the modern colorado river.
[broadband] [cable/DSL] [Mp3 Real Player Audio] [Mp3] (for help viewing video)
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Modern Methods of Observing Earthquakes: What We Have Learned About Haiti and Chile using Seismology and Space Observations (3/31/2010) - 90 minutes
Mark Simons and Anthony Sladen were among the speakers at a public panel discussion (watch video of event)
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Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics (2008) - 2 minutes
With the advent of plate tectonics, it's become apparent that episodes of extreme geologic upheaval -- like earthquakes -- are much more than simply random events. Comments by several scientists, including Joann Stock, Caltech professor of geology and geophysics
iTunes U video podcast by Intelecom
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The Pacific-North American Plate Boundary, Mexican Style(1/23/2008) - 47 minutes
by Joann Stock, Caltech professor of geology and geophysics
Watson Lecture on how studies of volcanic and
sedimentary rocks in Mexico and southernmost California help scientists understand the slip history of
the San Andreas fault system farther north in California. She also explains how dramatic changes in the
geology and geography of land and ocean have occurred in the plate-boundary region.
[56k modem] [cable/DSL] [broadband] (for help viewing video)
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Continental Deformation: Making the Basin and Range (2007) - 8 minutes
Story covering a team of geologists, including Brian Wernicke, Caltech's Chandler Family Professor of Geology, who are combining fieldwork in the American Southwest with animated computer modeling to understand how the Basin and Range's gological drama has played out over the last 36 million years. To view,
go to American Natural History Museum, Science Bulletins, under "All Stories" click on Earth Features, and then on "Continental Deformation."
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Natural Disasters: What We Know vs. What We Do (10/18/2006) - 59 minutes
by Kerry Sieh, Caltech's Sharp Professor of Geology
Watson Lecture on how catastrophic natural events in Western Sumatra, Iran, and New Orleans provide important illustrations of the disparity between what Earth scientists know about natural hazards and what
has been done to mitigate those hazards' effects.
[56k modem] [cable/DSL] [broadband] (for help viewing video)
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All the Faults in the World: The Cutting Edge of Tectonics (5/7/2003) - 47 minutes
by Brian Wernicke, Caltech's Chandler Family Professor of Geology
Watson Lecture on how Caltech uses diverse new technologies
to observe the earth's movements, both now and in the past, and to determine the physical laws that govern these motions.
[56k modem] [cable/DSL] [broadband] 47 minutes (for help viewing video)
- Coming soon - CNN production on "The Earthquake Hunter"
- Coming soon - Discovery Channel Series "Engineering Nature"
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