Mega Earthquakes - impacts, cause and predictions
by
Dr Quentin Z.Q. Yue
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong
Date: 19 March 2012 (Monday)
Time: 6:00pm for 6:30p.m. to 8:00p.m.
Venue: HKIE, 9/F, Island Beverley, 1 Great George Street, Causeway Bay, HK
Abstract
In the last ten years, many mega-earthquakes occurred and caused many casualties to human beings and devastating disasters to environments. In this seminar, Dr. Yue will give a brief review on the impacts of the mega-earthquakes happened in China and around the Pacific Ocean in recent years. He will then discuss the cause of earthquakes. He will use facts to show that the earthquake energy is the volumetric expansion energy of highly compressed and dense natural (methane) gas escaped from deep crust traps along deep fault zones. Based on this energy hypothesis, Dr. Yue will explain the reasons why many seismologists believe the next damaging earthquake unpredictable. He will further put forward a new approach for effective and accurate prediction of the next damaging earthquakes.
About the speaker
Dr. Yue is a tenured Associate Professor at HKU Department of Civil Engineering. He received both BSc and MSc degrees’ education in Earth Sciences at Peking University from 1979 to 1986. He obtained his PhD degree in Civil Engineering from Carleton University in 1992 and one-year NSERC PDF at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). He practiced at the Ministry of Construction of China, at NRC and at a HK engineering company for many years. He has made more than 300 publications including about 100 SCI papers and two USA patents. His publications have been cited and/or used by many others. He has received some prestigious awards at the national and international levels including the Excellent Contributions Award from International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics.
