At 4:17 am (Turkey time), Feb. 6, 2023, a damaging Mw 7.8 (or 8.0) earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and western Syria and was followed by many aftershocks including an unusually powerful Mw 7.8 (or 7.5) that occurred at 13:24. The earthquakes caused widespread damage including collapsing of many buildings. A large number of deaths were reported and the figures were projected to rise dramatically by World Health Organization.
In this TeckTalk, Professor Yue will present his understanding of the causes of the earthquakes and the associated building collapses using his methane gas refined fault theory of tectonic earthquakes. Each earthquake involved a rapid release of highly compressed methane gas expansion energy that was previously stored in deep aperture of rock fault zone. The highly compressed gas mass can rapidly expand, rupture, penetrate, and flow from the deep fault zone to shallow ground at a speed of 3 to 1 km/s. The rapid gas flow and expansion in fault rock zone generate massive seismic waves and induce huge concentrated damage to localized grounds and buildings. The earthquake is a cooling process since the gas expansion absorbs heat and cools the surrounding materials in the ground and sky, which can cause local weather changes including the occurrence of air temperature drop-down, rainfall and/or snow.
Professor Yue obtained BSc and MSc education in geology and earthquake from Peking University, and PhD education in geotechnical engineering from Carleton University. He chartered as geotechnical engineer in Ontario and Hong Kong. He had nine-years research and practice experience in Beijing, Ottawa, and Hong Kong before he joined HKU in 1999. His teaching and research interests include geotechnical engineering for development and land reclamation and methane-based theory of earthquakes and volcanoes for better-understanding of the Earth. He published 480 publications, delivered 600 invited lectures at conferences and institutions worldwide and, is a highly-cited researcher of the world top 2%.
Clean water and clean air are vital for public health. This project focuses on developing high-efficiency and environmentally sustainable filters for removing harmful air/water pollutants. The team has developed novel architectures and functionalities for the filters to achieve high permeance, high removal efficiency, and excellent reusability.
