The brand new medal recognizes a good contributions to help you simple geophysics and unselfish collaboration inside the search

Keiiti Aki

Keiiti Aki was awarded brand new 2004 William Bowie Medal in the AGU Fall Meeting Celebrates Ceremony, which had been stored on , when you look at the Bay area, California.

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Kei Akis medical studies have offered the new frontiers away from seismology getting half a century. The guy pioneered the new digital running off seismic analysis to help you infer Earth structure and you may qualities of one’s disturbance resource. Most of that which we realize about high earthquakes pursue away from their work.

He was the first to scale seismic minute (toward 1964 Niigata quake); Aki second has just like the replaced Richter magnitude once the important level out of earthquake proportions. He discovered the basic scaling laws and regulations having seismic spectra you to definitely fixed inconsistencies one of other magnitude balances, and then he advised physical types of earthquakes to possess heterogeneous fault rupture. This really works provided rather to both the basic understanding of the latest rupture processes in addition to simple understanding of solid floor moves chatrandom.

The guy elucidated the brand new scattering and you may attenuation processes one to regulate the new propagation out of highest-regularity seismic surf, at which the guy derived the methods for computing quake proportions, scattering withdrawals, and built-in attenuation parameters. The guy exhibited, including, your built-in attenuation must drop-off on higher wavelengths.

The guy set up of several unique techniques for detailing regions of seismic swells, in addition to free-oscillation splitting, Gaussian beams, and you will border integral steps. Inside the per circumstances, he along with his college students effectively made use of these types of strategies to extract the particular information off seismograms.

The guy pioneered traveling-day tomography as a way to learn lithospheric build underneath thicker seismic arrays, posting seminal records almost 10 years prior to its common application so you can internationally seismology. He mainly based the brand new seismological point of views into the volcanic procedure, like the matchmaking out-of seismicity and you can harmonic tremor to help you magma injections and you can emergence. He identified fault-area guided waves and you will made use of its propagation characteristics to help you constrain new depth and you may flexibility of your destroy areas doing defects.

Given that impressive since this abbreviated record may appear (significantly more subject areas can easily be added), they fails to show Keis real impact into the geoscience neighborhood. The guy actually blogged the ebook Decimal Seismology, by far the most influential textbook and site guidelines on reputation for industry, which he coauthored with Paul Richards from inside the 1980.

Due to the fact an instructor and you may advisor, he entrained many brilliant children in the trip to understand the newest productive World, creating more 50 Ph.D.s just who today consume secret positions for the seismology internationally. His profits in the at the rear of more youthful researchers stems simply about depth out-of their wisdom, and also off their outstanding individual qualities-charm, laughs, and a deep regard to your equilibrium and poetry of the pure globe.

Keis quiet leadership from inside the seismology have showed new subtlety and power out-of unselfish venture from inside the lookup. They have held of a lot ranking: chairman of your Seismology Section of AGU, chairman of the Seismological Neighborhood away from The united states, chair of your NAS Panel toward Seismology.

But his best leadership achievement was the creation of brand new South California Disturbance Cardiovascular system into the 1991. As its beginning movie director, Kei articulated a vision to own SCEC where assessment by disciplinary performing communities was woven together with her towards a network-top ‘grasp design to have quake chances and you can chance from inside the Southern area Ca. The property owner-design style lead to of several enhances inside the seismic danger research, like the incorporation regarding GPS analysis towards enough time-identity earthquake predicting, therefore will continue to publication the expanding SCEC venture.

Some experts loom therefore high inside their fields that individuals need recipient of William Bowie Medal, is one of all of our giants.

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William Bowie, immediately following whom the fresh Bowie medal is called, is disturb by shopping for out-of seismologists in early 1920s that earthquakes are occurring in the deepness off nearly 1,000 kilometres, because he was residing in an unified field of isostasy, where Earths interior is during hydrostatic balance beneath the 100-km dense crust.