Dr. Patrick Fulton is a scientist!

Dr. Patrick Fulton is a geophysicist (a scientist who studies the physical properties of the Earth) and an earthquake physicist (a scientist who studies the physical properties of earthquakes). His lab is at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. His lab is mostly computers where his research group spends a lot of time analyzing data they have collected from fault zones around the world. He does a lot of his field research in ocean’s deep trenches. He has spent many months at sea exploring the Japan Trench offshore Japan and the Hikurangi subduction zone offshore New Zealand. He also works in California on the San Andreas Fault. He says about his research, "I study what happens underground during earthquakes. Sometimes I put thermometers in faults to see how hot they got. Faults make heat when they slip during an earthquake. Just like when you rub your hands together, friction makes them hot. Slippery faults make less heat."

A scientist's job is to ask questions that we don't know the answers to and then work to find the answers through observation, experiments, and careful thinking. A scientific question that Patrick would like to answer is "How does water in faults affect earthquakes? Some places have big faults that are hazardous to people and need to be better understood."

You can learn more about Patrick and his research here.

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