Center Participants

Steven W. Roecker
Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Education:
Ph.D., Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981
B.S., Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1976

Career Highlights:
Roecker joined the Rensselaer faculty in 1986, and now holds the rank of professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He previously served as a postdoctoral researcher and as a principal research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Roecker is a member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the Seismological Society of America (SSA).

Research Areas:
Roecker is involved in the aspects of geophysics that are useful in the creation of subsurface images or in images of the active deformation of the planet to provide critical insights into how the Earth works. His research includes the areas of seismology, geodesy, and potential field methods, although the bulk of his current research effort is in the field of seismology.

Roecker recently received funding from a National Science Foundation and U.S. Geological Society project to produce enhanced fault images. The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) project involves plans to drill and instrument an inclined four-kilometer borehole across the central California fault zone. SAFOD seeks to answer fundamental questions about the physical and chemical processes controlling faulting and earthquake generation by working within a major plate-bounding fault. Roecker's imaging research aims to help determine the best drilling location and to allow scientists to understand the relationship between drilled areas and their surroundings. He and his team members are applying revolutionary techniques – time reversal and micro local techniques – to the seismic data they have recorded on the surface, in order to obtain better images on the subsurface.

For the past several years, Roecker's focus has been on the development and implementation of various seismological techniques such as travel time tomography, attenuation tomography, receiver function imaging, and characterization of anisotropy. Roecker has applied these techniques to problems in active tectonics in a variety of settings, such as central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan, Afghanistan, and western China), Taiwan, Indonesia, Peru, and Greece, as well as central California. His work often involves the collection of seismic and related data in these locales (i.e., field work) and a significant amount of signal processing.

Selected Publications:
C. Thurber, S. Roecker, K. Roberts, M. Gold, L. Powell, and K. Rittger, "Earthquake Locations and Three-Dimensional Fault Zone Structure Along the Creeping Section of the San Andreas Fault Near Parkfield, CA: Preparing for SAFOD," Geophysical Research Letters, 30, (3), doi: 10.1029/2002GL016004, (2003).

L.P. Vinnik, S.W. Roecker, G.L. Kosarev, S.I. Oreshin, and I. Yu. Koulakov, "Crustal Structure and Dynamics of the Tien Shan," Geophysical Research Letters, in press, (2003).

L.P. Vinnik, D. Peregoudov, L. Makeyeva, S. Oreshin, and S. Roecker, "Towards 3-D Fabric in the Continental Lithosphere and Asthenosphere: The Tien Shan," Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2001GL014588, (2002).

S. Oreshin, L.P. Vinnik, D. Peregoudov, and S. Roecker, "Lithosphere and Asthenosphere of the Tien Shan Imaged by S Receiver Functions," Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2001GL014441, (2002).

Masturyono, R. McCaffrey, D.A. Wark, S.W. Roecker, Fauzi, G. Ibrahim, and Sukhyar,
"Distribution of Magma Beneath the Toba Caldera Complex, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Constrained by Three-Dimensional P Wave Velocities, Seismicity, and Gravity Data," Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems - G 3, 2, doi: 20010109, (2001).

A. Calvert, E. Sandvol, D. Seber, M. Barazangi, S. Roecker, T. Mourabit, F. Vidal, G. Alguacil, and N. Jabour, "Geodynamic Evolution of the Lithosphere and Upper Mantle Beneath the Alboran Region of the Western Mediterranean: Constraints from Travel Time Tomography," Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth, 105, 10871-10898, (2000).

I. Dricker, L. Vinnik, S. Roecker, and L. Makeyeva, "Upper-Mantle Flow in Eastern Europe," Geophysical Research Letters, 26, 1219-1222, (1999).

C.H. Lin, Y.H. Yeh, H.Y. Yen, K.C. Chen, B.S. Huang, S.W. Roecker, and J.M. Chiu, "Three-Dimensional Elastic Wave Velocity Structure of the Hualien Region of Taiwan: Evidence of Active Crustal Exhumation," Tectonics, 17, (1), 89, doi: 97TC02510, (1998).

C.H. Lin and S.W. Roecker, "Evidence for Active Crustal Subduction and Exhumation in Taiwan," in When Continents Collide: Geodynamics and Geochemistry of Ultra-high Pressure Rocks, Hacker and Liou, eds., Kluwer Academic Publishers, 323, (1998).

Y.H. Chen, S.W. Roecker, and G.L. Kosarev, "Elevation of the 410 km Discontinuity Beneath the Central Tien Shan: Evidence for a Detached Lithospheric Root," Geophysical Research Letters, 24, 1591-1594, (1997).

Contact Information:
Steven W. Roecker
1W06 Jonsson-Rowland Science Center
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 Eighth Street
Troy, N.Y. 12180 U.S.A.
(518) 276-6773
roecks@rpi.edu
www.geophysics.rpi.edu/roecker/roecker.html

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