a few recent graduates
Chemistry/Biochemistry
Environmental Studies
Geography
Geology

Charlie Wilson, Ph.D.

Advisor: Craig Jones, Geological Sciences
Funding: Department of the Navy (Geothermal Programs Office) and NSF

Constraining Lithospheric Deformation Mechanisms with Teleseismic Conversions

This dissertation project was directed at understanding processes in the crust that were observable using arrays of closely spaced seismometers. Dr. Wilson developed several techniques that are becoming more widely used in analyzing such data. He found in the Coso Geothermal Field in California that a large, probably partially molten, body lay some 5 km below the geothermal field, and that it does not extend far in any direction outside the field. This is probably where magma resides under this volcanic area. He also showed that there is not an equivalent body in the lower crust, which is important in understanding the chemical evolution of these volcanic rocks. In New Zealand, Dr. Wilson helped run a network of seismometers across the northern end of the Alpine Fault, which separates the Australian and Pacific plates. Although a discrete fault at the surface, he showed that the deformation is more diffuse in the lower crust and that the surface fault does not cut the base of the crust. Instead, rocks are pervasively deformed in the lower crust and deformation is spread out over a wider zone. This has important implications for our understanding of the way that the lower crust deforms.