Earth & Environmental Sciences · Lehigh University
Bar Oryan
Earthquakes remain both devastating and surprisingly poorly understood. I study how subduction zones store and release strain from seconds to tens of thousands of years using geodesy, geomorphology, physics-based earthquake-cycle simulations, and data-driven methods.
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Understanding earthquake cycles
Earthquake cycles span an extraordinary range of timescales, from ruptures lasting seconds to deformation accumulated over tens to hundreds of earthquakes. My research asks how these different parts of the cycle are connected, and what they can tell us about the mechanics and hazards of subduction zones.
I approach these questions by combining geodesy, geomorphology, physics-based numerical simulations, and data-driven methods. Modern geodetic observations capture deformation over years to decades, numerical models allow us to explore the physical processes governing earthquake cycles, while landscapes preserve a record of deformation accumulated over much longer timescales. Together, these approaches provide complementary windows into parts of the earthquake cycle that no single method can capture on its own.
I am also passionate about developing open datasets, computational tools, and community infrastructure that turn individual research efforts into shared resources for the earthquake science community.