Welcome to Yasunori Sawaki’s homepage!

My name is Yasunori Sawaki (Ph.D., he/him), a post-doctoral researcher in Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). I am an early-career researcher in seismology (a study of earthquakes and interior strucure of the Earth), who earned a Ph.D. (Science) from Kyoto University (in Japan) in March 2023. My current work is to estimate the detailed geometry of crustal faults and the seismological heterogeneity in crusts and subducting slabs, with the aim of advancing our understanding of seismotectonics.

Download the latest CV (last updated on October 25, 2024)

New Preprint Alert!

Major papers:

  • Sawaki, Y., Y. Ito, K. Ohta, T. Shibutani, and T. Iwata (2021). Seismological structures on bimodal distribution of deep tectonic tremor. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2020GL092183. doi: 10.1029/2020GL092183 (Open Access)
  • Sawaki, Y., Y. Yamashita, S. Ohyanagi, E. S. M. Garcia, A. Ito, H. Sugioka, T. Takahashi, M. Shinohara, and Y. Ito (2023). Seafloor depth controls seismograph orientation uncertainty. Geophysical Journal International, 232(2), 1376–1392, doi: 10.1093/gji/ggac397 (Open Access)
  • Sawaki, Y., Y. Ito, E. S. M. Garcia, A. Miyakawa, and T. Shibutani (2024). Deep plutonic bodies over low-frequency earthquakes revealed from receiver-side Green’s functions. Tectonophysics, 892, 230536. doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2024.230536 (Open Access)

Upcoming Schedule

Period Place Event
25–30 May 2025 Chiba, JP JpGU2025
24–26 Sep 2025 Kochi, JP Workshop on Slow-to-Fast Earthquakes 2025
20–22 Oct 2025 Fukuoka, JP SSJ Fall Meeting 2025

Recent News & Posts

AGU24 in Washington D.C.

AGU24 in Washington D.C.

Translations: JA

I participated in American Geophysics Union Annual Meeting 2024 held in Washington D.C. during 9–13 December 2024 and gave an oral talk about the fault geometry of the 2024 Mw 7.5 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. Interactions with researchers and students ignited my passion for further research.

Field trip to Noto Peninsula

Field trip to Noto Peninsula

Translations: JA

I visited Noto Peninsula in central Japan, where M7.6 earthquake occurred on 1 Jan 2024. I saw the great uplift on the western coast and surface rupture in the eastern area.

Our New Paper Published!

Our New Paper Published!

Deep plutonic bodies over low-frequency earthquakes revealed from receiver-side Green's functions

Translations: JA

We imaged the slab and crustal structure of the Kii Peninsula in SW Japan using a receiver-function-like analysis. Positive impedance contrasts in the forearc crust correspond to the top surface or inside Kumano pluton, which may control fluid conditions around slow-earthquake sources.

Check it out below!

  • Sawaki, Y., Y. Ito, E. S. M. Garcia, A. Miyakawa, and T. Shibutani (2024). Deep plutonic bodies over low-frequency earthquakes revealed from receiver-side Green’s functions. Tectonophysics, 892, 230536. doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2024.230536 (Open Access)

JpGU2024

Translations: JA

I participated in the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU) Meeting 2024 , held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, JP, from May 26 to 31. I made two presentations: one for oral and the other for poster.

  • [SCG50-02] Multiscale Fault Estimation in California and Oklahoma. Sawaki, Y., D. Shelly, T. Uchide, K. Sagae, T. Shiina, Y. Sato, and H. Horikawa
  • [U15-P09] Fault geometries of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake estimated by hypocenter clustering. Sawaki, Y., T. Uchide, T. Shiina, K. Sagae, H. Horikawa, and K. Imanishi

New preprint alert!

Deep Plutonic Bodies Over Low-Frequency Earthquakes Revealed from Receiver-Side Green's Functions

Translations: JA

We have a new preprint on the seismic structure beneath the Kii Peninsula, southwestern Japan, available on SSRN. While it’s not yet peer-reviewed, feel free to check it out if you’re interested!

Sawaki, Y., Y. Ito, E. S. M. Garcia, A. Miyakawa, and T. Shibutani. Deep Plutonic Bodies Over Low-Frequency Earthquakes Revealed from Receiver-Side Green’s Functions. Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4793654

SF-A03 Group Workshop at Toyama

SF-A03 Group Workshop at Toyama

Translations: JA

SF-A03 Group Workshop at Toyama was held from Feb. 08–10, 2024. I gave a talk about “Hypocenter-based Visualization of Multiscale Earthquake Faults”.

The presentations on geology related to the mechanism of tectonic tremors were interesting to me. As a research collaborator of group A03, I would like to contribute to the comparative subduction zone studies of Slow-to-Fast earthquakes!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Translations: JA

Happy New Year! I hope you all have a great year!