Ruth Harris (scientist)

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Ruth Audrey Harris
Alma materUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
Scientific career
Thesis Structural controls of earthquake ruptures  (1991)
Doctoral advisor Ralph Archueta

Ruth Harris is a scientist at the United States Geological Survey known for her research on large earthquakes, especially on how they begin, end, and cause the ground to shake. In 2019, Harris was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union who cited her "for outstanding contributions to earthquake rupture dynamics, stress transfer, and triggering". [1]

Contents

Education and career

Harris has a B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[ when? ] and an M.S. from Cornell University (1984). [2] After a few years of working, she came to the University of California, Santa Barbara where she earned a Ph.D. in 1991 working with Ralph Archueta. [3] [4] Following her Ph.D., she was a National Research Council postdoctoral investigator at the United States Geological Survey for two years before she was hired in a permanent position. [4]

In 2015, Harris served as president of the Seismological Society of America. [5] [6]

Research

Harris's research into earthquakes involves a combination of computer simulations and field and laboratory investigations. She is particularly interested in creeping faults, faults that creep for long periods of time while producing multiple small earthquakes. [7] In California, Harris quantified stress within the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas Fault, [8] [9] estimated changes in stress during the 1992 Landers earthquake, [10] and tracked the impact of the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake on subsequent earthquakes in the region. [11] She has simulated the movement of fractures across multiple segments of fault plans, [12] [13] and considered the role of earthquake depth and soil type in determining the strength of earthquakes such as the 2017 Puebla earthquake. [14] Harris led the community effort to validate computer models of earthquakes with field-based verification efforts. [15]

Selected publications

Awards and honors

References

  1. 1 2 "Harris". Honors Program. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  2. ↑ Harris, Ruth Audrey (1984). Oceanic geoid anomalies. OCLC   707694026.
  3. ↑ Harris, Ruth Audrey (1991). Structural controls of earthquake ruptures. OCLC   830696026.
  4. 1 2 3 "Distinguished Alumni | Earth Science - UC Santa Barbara". www.geol.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  5. 1 2 "Ruth Harris". www.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  6. ↑ "Presidents of the Society". www.seismosoc.org. Seismological Society of America. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  7. ↑ Harris, Ruth A. (2017). "Large earthquakes and creeping faults". Reviews of Geophysics. 55 (1): 169–198. Bibcode:2017RvGeo..55..169H. doi: 10.1002/2016RG000539 . ISSN   1944-9208.
  8. ↑ Harris, Ruth A.; Segall, Paul (1987). "Detection of a locked zone at depth on the Parkfield, California, segment of the San Andreas Fault" . Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 92 (B8): 7945–7962. Bibcode:1987JGR....92.7945H. doi:10.1029/JB092iB08p07945. ISSN   2156-2202.
  9. ↑ Segall, Paul; Harris, Ruth (1987). "Earthquake deformation cycle on the San Andreas Fault near Parkfield, California" . Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 92 (B10): 10511–10525. Bibcode:1987JGR....9210511S. doi:10.1029/JB092iB10p10511. ISSN   2156-2202.
  10. ↑ Harris, Ruth A.; Simpson, Robert W. (1992). "Changes in static stress on southern California faults after the 1992 Landers earthquake" . Nature. 360 (6401): 251–254. Bibcode:1992Natur.360..251H. doi:10.1038/360251a0. ISSN   0028-0836. S2CID   4315800.
  11. ↑ Harris, Ruth A.; Simpson, Robert W. (1996). "In the shadow of 1857-the effect of the Great Ft. Tejon Earthquake on subsequent earthquakes in southern California" . Geophysical Research Letters. 23 (3): 229–232. Bibcode:1996GeoRL..23..229H. doi:10.1029/96GL00015. ISSN   1944-8007.
  12. ↑ Harris, Ruth A.; Archuleta, Ralph J.; Day, Steven M. (1991). "Fault steps and the dynamic rupture process: 2-D numerical simulations of a spontaneously propagating shear fracture" . Geophysical Research Letters. 18 (5): 893–896. Bibcode:1991GeoRL..18..893H. doi:10.1029/91GL01061. ISSN   1944-8007.
  13. ↑ Harris, Ruth A.; Day, Steven M. (1993). "Dynamics of fault interaction: parallel strike-slip faults" . Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 98 (B3): 4461–4472. Bibcode:1993JGR....98.4461H. doi:10.1029/92JB02272. ISSN   2156-2202.
  14. ↑ Mock, Jillian (18 December 2017). "Size isn't the only thing that matters during an earthquake". Scienceline. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  15. ↑ Harris, R. A.; Barall, M.; Archuleta, R.; Dunham, E.; Aagaard, B.; Ampuero, J. P.; Bhat, H.; Cruz-Atienza, V.; Dalguer, L.; Dawson, P.; Day, S. (2009-01-01). "The SCEC/USGS Dynamic Earthquake Rupture Code Verification Exercise" . Seismological Research Letters. 80 (1): 119–126. Bibcode:2009SeiRL..80..119H. doi:10.1785/gssrl.80.1.119. ISSN   0895-0695.
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