WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Dr. Jeanne Sauber of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center will present the American Geophysical Union Lecture at the National Convention of the National Science Teachers Association in Boston on March 26. She will speak on "The Earthquake Hazard in Alaska: Studying Subduction from Space." Subduction is the process by which one of Earth's tectonic plates slips under another, a principal cause of earthquakes. Dr. Sauber will discuss the direct measurement of this process using repeated, precise, space-based measurements of position by geophysicists and Alaskan teachers and students.
Dr. Sauber, who is a scientist in the Geodynamics Branch of Goddard's Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, has worked on Alaskan issues since 1988. She has found Alaska to be a natural laboratory to study subduction, which appears to occur only on Earth in the solar system. The movement of Alaska's plates has caused major earthquakes, including that in Anchorage in 1964, and the creation of some of North America's most rugged mountains.
Dr. Sauber is heavily involved in improving science education. She is working with a team that is developing a new program to involve teachers and K-12 students in ground validation studies for NASA satellite missions.
The AGU Lecture is scheduled for Friday, March 26, at 2:00 P.M. in Room 312 of the Hynes Convention Center.