Research in the group is currently concentrated in two main areas, earthquake physics and fluid flow in complex media. A common theme underlying all our work is that recognition that heterogeneity and complexity have a first order effect on natural processes. Earlier projects have involved characterizing the onset of aeolian sediment transport, field studies of fracture geometries, and searching for repeating micro earthquakes in the Gulf of Corinth.

Earthquake physics:

Much of our recent work has focused on using Coulomb stress transfer to constrain short term seismic hazard and we have applied this to the on-going seismic sequence in Sumatra, earthquake triggering in Turkey, and aftershock hazard in Europe. We are also interested in understanding the physical processes that affect earthquake nucleation and propagation and we have simulated earthquakes in both 2D and 3D. (more)

Fluid flow in complex media:

Predicting fluid flow is very difficult because the fractal geometry of natural fractures means that measurements taken at one scale are only applicable at that scale and hence up scaling and down scaling are extremely difficult if not impossible. We have created a sophisticated numerical technique to model flow in complex media, devised an experimental rig to directly measure flow in complex synthetic media, and are presently investigating a sophisticated methodology to trace the movement of fluids in natural systems. (more)