Civil Engineering Professor Brings Earthquake Expertise Home to Arkansas

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Clinton Wood

Clinton Wood is a University of Arkansas alumnus, having received both a bachelor's and a master's degree from the U of A College of Engineering. After earning a doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin, he has returned to Fayetteville as an assistant professor of civil engineering.

"The University of Arkansas is honestly my home," said Wood. "The faculty here are world class and they are great people to work with."

Wood's research focuses on the dynamic characterization of soils using stress waves. Clinton often travels with the National Science Foundation funded Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance organization, collecting perishable data from areas of the world that have experienced large earthquakes.

On one of his recent trips to Christchurch, New Zealand, Wood used broadband seismometers arranged in large circular arrays to measure low intensity stress waves (primarily surface waves) created by urban or natural noise sources, such as ocean waves. By measuring the frequency and wavelength of these waves as they pass through the array of seismometers, Wood can calculate the shear wave velocity and layering of the soil underneath the arrays. These shear wave velocity profiles help engineers better understand the ground motions recorded during earthquakes and design buildings that can better withstand future earthquakes.

Another of Wood's research topics is the effect of topography on earthquake ground motions. He explained that, although earthquake experts have observed qualitatively that more building damage occurs at the crest of topographic features than at the base, experts have yet to fully explain the phenomenon in a quantitative manner. To study this phenomenon, Wood deployed locally-dense arrays of seismometers over a mountainous region of Utah. This area experiences frequent and predictable coal mining-induced seismicity that provides an excellent opportunity to record topographic effects on full-scale features.

Wood explained that the facilities at the University of Arkansas, such as the civil engineering lab space at the Engineering Research Center and the "Hawg" vibroseis truck, have given him a head start on his research program.

"We are very happy to welcome Clint back to the U of A," said Kevin Hall, head of the civil engineering department. "He has already established an international reputation in geotechnical earthquake engineering, and we are honored and excited that he has chosen to come here to build on that research. With the addition of Clint and his colleague Michelle Bernhardt, our department  is now well-positioned to play a significant role in the field of geotechnical engineering, both within the U.S. and abroad."