Associate Professor Maximiliano Bezada

This group uses seismic information to image the interior structure of Earth. This allows them to gain insight into Earth processes that simply cannot be obtained through surface observations. The group's primary methodology is seismic tomography, which translates earthquake arrival times at arrays of seismometers into the velocity structure of the subsurface. Other active research areas are seismic anisotropy and seismic attenuation, both of which can be used in conjunction with seismic velocity to decipher the local physical state of Earth's mantle. Most recently the group began using a technique called full-waveform (FWF) seismic tomography. For this technique, they simulate the Earth response (strain green tensors and velocity) through Earth and compare these signals against data acquired at seismometers. This technique is computationally expensive and requires frequent large data storage. Additionally, the group has been testing a new near-surface seismic technique using a Transdimensional Bayesian Monte Carlo Inversion (BMCI). This computationally expensive method requires forward modeling several thousand 1D velocity profiles to find the best fit to the real data.