Earth Imaging

Seismology, using controlled sources and earthquakes, is the primary tool for determining the subsurface structure of the Earth, at all scales. Other geophysical techniques also help, and the inversion of various geophysical data to produce models of subsurface geology is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Faculty members are active researchers in various facets of Earth imaging, as follows.

Crustal Seismology involves imaging of the Earth down several tens of kilometers to the crust/mantle boundary. It is used in interpreting the history of plate margin processes.

Dr. Jeremy Hall (Appalachians, Labrador, NW Atlantic rifted margin)
Dr. Charles Hurich

Basin Seismology is used to image and interpret the geological history of sedimentary basins, and to infer their potential for hydrocarbons.

Dr. Jeremy Hall (NW Atlantic rifted margin basins; Neogene basins of the Cyprus arc)

Theoretical Seismology is the applied mathematics of elastic wave propagation in the Earth.

Dr. Michael Slawinski
Geophysical Inversion is a numerical technique for making best estimates of subsurface structure from geophysical data constrained by limited geological information.

Dr. Colin Farquharson Missing - Earth Sciences
Dr. Charles Hurich