Assistant Professor, Earth Sciences
I am primarily an imaging or structural seismologist. That is, I use information gleaned from records of seismic waves on the surface to obtain insights into the interior of the Earth. These insights help us understand tectonic processes such as subduction, and the formation, deformation, modification and destruction of the continental lithosphere. In order to “see” into the Earth, we observe properties of the seismograms (arrival times, amplitude and phase spectra) and, from those, develop estimates of wave propagation speed, anisotropy, and quality factor. In turn, these wave propagation parameters are interpreted in terms of physical properties of the rocks such as temperature, volatile content, and melt fraction.