Research: Earthquake Seismology
For the past c.50 million years the Indian subcontinent has been penetrating deeper and deeper into Eurasia. This collision has uplifted the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau, the highest mountain range and plateau on Earth. The effects of the collision, which are evident 2500 km to the north in Mongolia, attest to the great strength of the Indian lithosphere. While it has long been acknowledged that the Himalayas and Tibet result from the northward penetration of India into Eurasia, the process by which the Indian lithosphere raises and supports the Himalayas and Tibet is still unknown. Although various models have been proposed, there is as yet no agreement as to which, if any, is correct. A great deal is now known about the structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Tibet, but the crucial piece of information required to understand the uplift and support of the Himalayas and Tibet – how the Indian shield is successively deformed and modified as it collides with Eurasia – is still missing. To determine this process is the goal of our seismological research.
Current research projects:
- More than 100,000 multi-mode surface waveforms have been inverted, providing a 3-D shear wavespeed and anisotropy model of the Asian upper mantle to depths of approximately 400 km.
Older Publications by Professor Keith Priestley
Publications: 2006-Present
Last updated on 06-Aug-10 06:58