Research
I study how magma is transported from Earth’s mantle to the surface at volcanoes and the interaction of mantle plumes with ocean ridges. I also investigate the structures that control rupture segmentation at the Cascadia subduction zone. I lead research expeditions to the Cascadia margin, oceanic spreading centers, and volcanic hotspots. I collect and analyze dense geophysical data and use inverse modeling on high performance computers.
Ongoing projects
- Santorini: Detailed vertical structure of a recharging crustal magma plumbing system at an arc volcano. State-of-the-art analysis and interpretation of a unique active source seismic dataset for deep structure and state of magma system.
- Cascadia 2021: Investigating subduction zone segmentation with a 3D high-resolution Vp model. Dense onland recording of offshore deep penetration airgun shots to image the structures that relate to rupture complexity of the Cascadia megathrust.
- Galapagos 2022: An Open Access experiment to seismically image Galapagos plume-ridge interaction. With colleagues Doug Toomey (Univ. Oregon), Garrett Apuzen-Ito (Univ. Hawaii) and Yang Shen (Univ. Rhode Island), we will be conducting an ocean bottom seismic experiment to discover the nature of plume-lithosphere-ridge interactions in the Galápagos hotspot and ridge system.
Oregon Center for Volcanology: YouTube video
Themes
- Subduction zone segmentation and structure
- Volcanic plumbing and eruption.
- Plume-Ridge interactions
- Mid-ocean ridge crustal structure and relationship to mantle processes.
- Development of advanced seismic methods including tomography, waveform modeling, and full waveform inversion
- Integrating geophysical, geochemical and geodynamic observations.
- Modeling of physical processes
Links to Research projects
- Santorini magma plumbing structure (2015 PROTEUS cruise report)
- Newberry volcano magma system and geothermal energy
- Mid-ocean ridge magma and hydrothermal plumbing
- Galapagos crustal and mantle structure
- Cascadia Initiative: An onshore/offshore experiment to study megathrust earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest and also volcanic arc structure, the formation, deformation and hydration of the Juan De Fuca and Gorda plates.
