Earn research grant KAKENHI
I earned Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity start-up, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant Number 23K19077).
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 02 July 2025)
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., T. Shiina, K. Sagae, Y. Sato, H. Horikawa, A. Miyakawa, K. Imanishi, and T. Uchide (2025). Fault Geometries of the 2024 Mw 7.5 Noto Peninsula Earthquake from Hypocenter-Based Hierarchical Clustering of Point-Cloud Normal Vectors. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 130(4), e2024JB030233. doi: 10.1029/2024JB030233 (Open Access)
Upcoming Schedule
| Period | Place | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 20–22 Oct 2025 | Fukuoka, JP | SSJ Fall Meeting 2025 |
| 14–19 Dec 2025 | New Orleans, LA | AGU25 |
Recent News & Posts
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.
Doctor of Philosophy in Science
I was awarded “Doctor of Philosophy in Science” by Kyoto University on March 23, 2023. The title of my PhD dissertation is “Heterogeneous seismic structure in onshore and offshore areas of the Nankai subduction zone with receiver-side responses to regional deep-focus and teleseismic earthquakes”.
Slow-to-Fast Earthquake Workshop in Taiwan
In the middle of March 2023, Slow-to-Fast Earthquake Workshop was held in Taiwan and I had a poster presentation “Impedance contrast in the Nankai subduction zone”.
Published Homepage!
I finally published my homepage!
The URL is here:
https://yasuit21.github.io/en/
Slow-to-Fast Earthquake A03 group workshop in Beppu
Title: "Impedance contrast in the Nankai subduction zone"
A03 group for Slow-to-Fast Earthquake held a workshop in Beppu city in Feb 9–11 2023. I had a talk about the spatial relationship of slow earthquakes and seismic impedance contrasts in the Nankai subduction zone.
CV and publication list
Publication list was created. CV was created. Links was created.