California State University, Fresno experts in earthquakes and structural engineering helped explain to central San Joaquin Valley media and their audiences the science in the devastating quake and tsunami that struck  Japan and sent high waves east across the Pacific Ocean.

Dr. Stephen Lewis, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences that he also chairs; Dr. John Wakabayashi, an associate professor of earth and environmental sciences who is a seismologist, and  Dr. Ming Xiao,  an assistant professor  of civil engineering provided the interviews to radio and television outlets.

Fresno State has 33 students from Japan, reports Lucia Hammer, director of International Students Programs. The California State University operates a study-abroad program at Waseda University in Tokyo about 380 kilometers from the epicenter of this earthquake but none is from Fresno State.

Lewis’ research has focused on the structural and tectonic development of continental margins, mostly in the circum-Pacific region. He has led oceanographic research expeditions to the Philippines,the South China margin, Taiwan, Alaska, southern Chile, and offshore California.

Wakabayashi’s research spans many subdisciplines in geology with the unifying theme of tectonics, including work on tectonic geomorphology (studies in the Sierra Nevada, California Coast Ranges), and active faulting/seismic hazards of coastal California and the Sierra Nevada. He has focused on the long-term evolution of strike-slip fault systems (including the San Andreas Fault system).

Xiao’s research is in soil-water-interaction (surface and subsurface erosions of soils and erosion prevention and remediation; seepage and drainage in soils and geosynthetics), particle transport and multiphase flow and distribution in porous media.

For more information or to contact experts, call or text Tom Uribes at 559.246.1717 or tomu@csufresno.edu.

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