Research Interests
My work is focused on issues related to the evolution and structure of complex plate boundaries, using approaches primarily from seismology. My Ph.D. research involved both the evolution of the Mendocino triple junction and formation of the San Andreas system in northern California and the Pacific:Australian plate boundary through New Zealand. I have developed tools to resolve three-dimensional crustal structure and properties with receiver functions at medium-resolution seismic networks, straightforward approaches to extract the velocity ratio properties of the seismogenic upper crust and the aseismic shallow crust, and methods to analyze high-resolution plate motions and rotations. Since coming to the National Earthquake Information Center in September 2007, I have been developing approaches to constrain the three-dimensional geometry of the seismogenic part of subducting plates using global earthquake catalogs and probabilistic assessments of location uncertainties.
