About

I am a computational geoscientist working at the intersection of seismology, geodynamics, and fault mechanics. My research focuses on how lithospheric stress loading, crustal deformation, pore-pressure effects, and fault-zone processes contribute to earthquake generation — and how regional loading conditions are translated into localized deformation, frictional weakening, and seismic instability within fault zones.

I use the Korean Peninsula and East Asia as natural laboratories to connect fault-scale processes with lithospheric-scale stress fields and observed seismicity. Rather than treating earthquakes only as consequences of plate motion or mantle dynamics, I aim to understand the physical processes that control earthquake nucleation, seismic/aseismic slip, and fault-zone evolution — moving beyond describing Korea's seismic environment toward explaining the physical conditions under which seismic deformation begins.

I integrate seismological observations, geodetic constraints, geodynamic modeling, poromechanics, and numerical methods. I develop and contribute to open-source geodynamic solvers such as DynEarthSol and LAGHOST, and my ongoing work incorporates finite-thickness fault-zone deformation and rate-and-state friction into them.

News

• 2026 I am hosting the GeoFLAC/DynEarthSol Workshop & Hackathon at KIGAM (Nov 2–6, 2026) — a week of hands-on workshops and an open hackathon on geodynamic modeling. Everyone is welcome.

Research

I study intraplate seismicity in Korea and East Asia as a physical process, combining observational analysis with physics-based numerical modeling — across fault-zone deformation & friction, regional stress & lithospheric structure, and fluids & fault stability, with the open-source solvers (DynEarthSol, LAGHOST) behind them.

Explore my research — research map & highlights →

Education & Appointments

Appointments

Education

Selected Publications

1. Sungho Lee, Chang Soo Cho, YoungHee Kim, Youngsang Kwon, Eunseo Choi. Upper mantle heterogeneity and weak subduction boundaries control crustal stress in the Korean Peninsula. Geophysical Research Letters, 53, e2025GL119915, 2025. doi Crustal stress · upper mantle · Korean Peninsula
2. Sungho Lee, Eunseo Choi, Minkyung Son, Seok Goo Song, Demián Gómez. Viscoelastic modeling reveals a correlation between GNSS-derived deformation rates after the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and lithospheric thickness in the southern Korean Peninsula. Geophysical Journal International, 242(1), 1–14, 2025. doi GNSS · viscoelastic deformation · lithospheric thickness
3. Sungho Lee, Eunseo Choi, Christopher H. Scholz. Do subducted seamounts act as weak asperities? Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 128, e2023JB027551, 2023. doi Subduction zones · asperity mechanics · earthquake generation
4. Sungho Lee, Jung-Hun Song, Dabeen Heo, Junkee Rhie, Tae-Seob Kang, Eunseo Choi, YoungHee Kim, Kwang-Hee Kim, Jin-Han Ree. Crustal and uppermost mantle structures imaged by teleseismic P-wave traveltime tomography beneath the southeastern Korean Peninsula. Geophysical Journal International, 235(2), 1639–1657, 2023. doi Teleseismic tomography · hydrothermal system · SE Korea
5. Sungho Lee, Jeong-Ung Woo, Junkee Rhie. Classification of transient triggering mechanisms of aftershocks in the post-seismic phase of the 2017 Pohang earthquake, South Korea. Geophysical Journal International, 233(3), 2215–2232, 2023. doi Poroelasticity · aftershock triggering · Pohang earthquake

Full publication list, manuscripts in preparation, talks, and more on the Publications, Talks & More page.

Contact

Sungho Lee
Earthquake Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM)
124 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Email: slee91@kigam.re.kr