Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! I hope you all have a great year!
Welcome to Yasunori Sawaki’s homepage!
My name is Yasunori Sawaki (Ph.D., he/him), an assistant professor at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. 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 03 April 2025)
Our new paper on fault geometries of the 2024 Mw 7.5 Noto Peninsula earthquake was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth!
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 |
| 27 Jul–01 Aug 2025 | Singapore | AOGS2025 |
| 31 Aug–05 Sep 2025 | Lisbon, Portugal | IAGA / IASPEI 2025 |
| 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
AGU Fall Meeting 2023 at San Francisco
I participated in the AGU Fall Meeting 2023 held at San Francisco during December 11–15. We had a good poster presentation with lively discussions with worldwide researchers. I can’t wait the next opportunity to interact with you all!
Visiting U.S. Geologocal Survey in Colorado
I visited the United States Geological Survey in Golden, CO for a month and conducted collaborative studies with Dr. David Shelly. It was a fantastic stay and a good opportunity to proceed my research.
I’m going to San Francisco for the upcoming meeting of American Geophysical Union. I have a poster presentation related to my current study .
New co-authored paper published!
Our new paper is publishded! We analyzed shear wave splitting from receiver functions in Shikoku Island, SW Japan, and along-dip variation of fast axes is clarified. Check it out!
Ruan, Yihuan, Yoshihiro Ito, and Yasunori Sawaki, (2023). Anisotropic Velocity Structure Beneath Shikoku, Japan: Insights From Receiver Function and Shear Wave Splitting Analyses Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 128, e2023JB027178. doi: 10.1029/2023JB027178
The 2023 Seismological Society of Japan Fall Meeting
I joined the 2023 SSJ Fall Meeting held in Yokohama and made a poster presentation.
Earn research grant KAKENHI
I earned Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity start-up, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant Number 23K19077).
Visit to Tohoku University
I visited Tohoku University Aobayama Campus for a scientific meeting. This made me feel nostalgic.
Visit to U-Tsukuba & NIED
I visited the University of Tsukuba and National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) for scientific meetings. I made a presentation about my PhD thesis in NIED.
Invited talk at JpGU meeting 2023
I made an invited speech titled “Heterogeneous seismic structure at Hyuga-nada from receiver-side Green’s functions” in the Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2023 (JpGU). We had numerous intriguing talks from world-wide young researchers in our session “Seismological Advances in the Ocean”. We enjoyed seeing each other and I believe that face-to-face communication brings scientific innovation!
Start a postdoc life
I start a new research life as a postdoc in the Geological Survey of Japan (AIST) in April. My job is to participate in the STAR-E (Seismology TowArd Research innovation with data of Earthquake) project organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan.