Mary Lou Zoback

Mary Lou Zoback
Born	(1952-07-05) July 5, 1952
🏳️ Citizenship	American
🎓 Alma mater	Stanford University
💼 Occupation

Mary Lou Zoback (née Chetlain; born July 5, 1952) is an American geophysicist who led the world stress map project of the International Lithosphere Program from 1986 to 1994. Zoback's spent most of her career as a research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey and retired in 2006.

Life and career

Dr. Zoback is a geophysicist who graduated with her PhD in 1978 from Stanford University. She worked for most of her career as a senior research scientist at the U.S Geological Survey located in Menlo Park, California. Zoback served on the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board from 2012 to 2018.

Zoback's research focused on active tectonics, the relationship between active faulting, quantifying earthquake likelihood, deformation and state of stress in the earth’s crust, and the intertwined relationship between physics, chemistry and geology. The application of this specific work won her the Public Service award and the Day Medal from the Geological Society of America. She studied the San Andreas fault system and served as an early leader of world stress map project of the international Lithosphere program.

Zoback attended Stanford University, receiving her B.S. in 1974, M.S. in 1975, and Ph.D. in 1978. She did a Post-Doctoral program with the National Research Council from 1978–1979 with the U.S. Geological Survey's Heat Flow Studies group. She was a research scientist in the earthquake studies office at the USGS from 1979 until 2003. From 2006–2011 Zoback was the vice president, earthquake risk applications with Risk Management Solutions in Newark, California.

Zobacks' major area of interest is active tectonics, with emphasis on the relationship of the in-situ tectonic stress field to earthquake deformation. Her studies have focused on the San Andreas fault system. From 1986 to 1992, Zoback led the world stress map project of the International Lithosphere Program. The project involved more than 40 scientists from over 30 different countries with the objective of compiling and interpreting geologic and geophysical data on the present day tectonic stress field.

Zoback is a past member of U. S. Geodynamics Committee (National Research Council) and the NSF review panel for the continental dynamics program. She is a past member of the council and executive board of the Geological Society of America (GSA). She served as GSA president in 2000.

Zoback is married to Stanford University Professor Mark David Zoback. They have 2 children.

Stanford Studies

Mary Lou Zoback's studies at Stanford University consisted of the observation of the earth's crust, such as relationships between active fault lines, the deformation and stress within the earth’s crust, chances of earthquakes occurring, and identifying natural hazard risk. At Stanford University she was a consulting professor in the Geophysics Department. Her motivation for her research was mainly the thought of reducing the risk natural disasters cause for communities. She mainly focused on how the lithosphere could affect the public, and update old research on the top layer of the earth. With the knowledge of keeping up to date with active fault lines, people can be more aware of earthquake cycles and estimate when society should prepare for what is to come. The information of deformation and stress within earth’s crust is essential for the management of geo-reservoirs and underground storage for energy and waste. In addition Zobacks studies, with the help from her team have significantly impacted nation-states resilience to disasters, but she has a wide variation of studies that future generations will continue to add to, from what she has started at Stanford University.    

Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board

Mary Lou Zoback was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Barack Obama on September 25, 2012. Each board member is appointed to the board by the president after the National Academy of Sciences provides a list of candidates who are selected solely on the basis of established records of distinguished professional service and eminence in a field of science or engineering. As part of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, Mary Lou Zoback specialized in Seismology and Geophysics. Together, the board members worked together to provide scientific and technical oversight of the Department of Energy’s program for managing and disposing of high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel.

San Andreas Fault System

Mary Lou Zoback dedicated a large part of studies to the San Andreas fault system during the years of 1986 through 1992. The San Andreas fault system is a large and intricate fault network that cuts through the rocks along California's coast. She studied and contributed a great deal of knowledge towards the connection between earthquakes and large strike-slip faults. She looked back to 1906 at the devastating earthquake that shook northern California to its core.  Through the reanalysis of this event plenty of new information was presented. Through some of what she found Dr. Zoback was able to study the concept of the earthquake cycle. This is the concept of the elastic rebound hypothesis which is when a slow strain accumulation produced by movements from neighboring crusts, suddenly releases energy which are in turn earthquakes. Dr. Zoback made minor modifications to this theory and after her more recent understandings of the system still deems them accurate. She studied and wrote about compressions that explain not only the recent uplift of coast ranges but also the active reverse faults and folds parallel to the San Andreas system which had been previously unexplainable.

Risk Management Solutions

Risk Management Solutions is a company that has led the way in transforming the catastrophe risk industry by helping organizations make better decisions to improve human and environmental outcomes. They have proven modeling science with powerful advances in technology enabling clients to better assess risk and reduce uncertainty.

Zoback served from 2006 to 2011 as Vice President for Earthquake Risk Applications with Risk Management Solutions. Her objective was to help to organize and manage earthquake hazard and risk networks, as well as build consensus among experts to develop high quality earthquake source and earthquake risk models for new regions of the world. She also led Risk Management Solutions initiatives on the significance of risk quantification for expanding the societal role of earthquake insurance, disaster management, and risk reduction activities worldwide.

Her work was important because understanding risk, integrating predictive analytics, and sharing expertise more broadly will result in a more resilient world.

Public Service Award and Day Medal

Mary Lou Zoback was awarded with The Geological Society of America Arthur L. Day Medal in 2007 through the nomination of Richard Gordon who was a Keck Professor of Geophysics at Rice University. This award is to recognize those who apply physics and chemistry to solve geologic problems. She was awarded this honor through her work on stresses and forces that deform tectonic plates, as well as what drives and resists their motion. The results that Mary received from her research were vital to understanding what causes earthquakes and other faults worldwide. Today her world stress maps are used widely and cited by geo-scientists around the world.

The Geological Society of America Public Service Award is given to individuals who have considerably enhanced the understanding of Earth Sciences. Mary Lou Zoback was given the honor of receiving this award in 2007 after being nominated by David Applegate, who was the Acting Associate Director for Geology and Senior Science Advisor for Earthquake and Geologic Hazards for her contributions to Geoscience in public policy decision making, along with her science education at both national and local level. Through her tireless efforts she educated the public on earthquake hazards through her leadership in a campaign to bring awareness towards earthquake preparedness.

Awards and honors

• 2007 – Geological Society of America public service award
• 2007 – Geological Society of America Arthur L. Day medal
• 2006-2011 – she was Vice President for Earthquake Risk Applications with Risk Management Solutions, a private catastrophe modeling firm serving the insurance industry
• 2006 – "Leadership, Innovation, and Outstanding Accomplishments in Earthquake Risk Reduction" Award from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
• 1997 to 2000 – she was a member of the National Research Council's Board on Radioactive Waste Management.
• 1995 – Elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences
• 1990 – USGS Gilbert Fellowship Award for a one-year sabbatical in Karlsruhe, Germany (1990–1991)
• 1987 – American Geophysical Union Macelwane award
• 1987 – American Geophysical Union fellow
• 1984 – Geological Society of America fellow

Selected publications

• State of stress in the conterminous United States. Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 85, no. B11, p. 6113–6156. (1980)
• Zoback, M. L., Anderson, R. E., and Thompson, G. A., Cenozoic evolution of the state of stress and style of Tectonism of the Basin and Range Province of the western United States: Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London A, v. 300, p. 407-434. (1981)
• Zoback, M. D., and Zoback, M. L., State of stress and intra-plate earthquakes in the central and eastern United States: Science, v. 213, p. 96-104. (1981)
• New evidence on the state of stress on the San Andreas fault system: Science, v. 238, p. 1105-1111. (1987)
• Zoback, M. L., and Zoback, M. D., Regional tectonic stress field of the continental U.S.: Geophysical Framework of the Continental U.S., L. Pakiser and W. D. Mooney, eds., Geological Society of America Memoir, 172, p. 523-539. (1989)
• Global patterns of tectonic stress. Nature, v. 341, p. 291–298. (1989)
• Zoback, M. L., Stress field constraints on intraplate seismicity in Eastern North America: Journal Geophysical Research, v. 97, p. 11761-11782. (1992)
• First and second order patterns of stress in the lithosphere: the World Stress Map project. Journal Geophysical Research, v. 97, p. 11703-11728. (1992)
• Abrupt along-strike change in tectonic style: San Andreas fault zone, San Francisco Peninsula. Journal of Geophysical Research: v. 104, p. 10719-10,742. (1999)
• Committee on Development of an Addendum to the National Science Education Standards on Scientific Inquiry, Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards, National Academy Press, 202 p. (2000)
• Analysis of the tsunamis generated by the Mw7.8 1906 San Francisco earthquake." Geology, v. 27, p. 15–18. (2000)
• Grand challenges in earth and environmental sciences: science, stewardship, and service for the 21st century. GSA Today, v., p. 41- 46. (2001)

References

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