Dale S. Sawyer Professor of Earth Science Department of Earth Science Rice University MS-126 6100 South Main Street Houston, TX 77005 USA Tel: 713-348-5106 FAX: 713-348-5214 email: dale@rice.edu Research Interests: Geodynamics, Seismology, Remote Sensing

Dale Sawyer's CV

"Discovering Plate Boundaries" Website

Harry, D.L., Oldow, J.S., and Sawyer, D.S., 1995 The Growth of Orogenic Belts and the Role of Crustal Heterogeneities in Decollement Tectonics, GSA Bull.

My research focuses on the dynamic processes which have created continental margins. I use two tools in my studies: geodynamic modeling and wide-angle ocean bottom seismology. Geodynamic models of the rifting of continental lithosphere are now explaining many previously enigmatic observations at divergent continental margins. I use the finite element method running on a variety of machines up to supercomputer class to simulate the plate tectonic deformation of the upper 125 km of the earth. Along with a colleague at Rice, I have recently published a model which can explain why the character (location and style of rifting) of some rifts (including the U.S. Atlantic margin and Australian Exmouth Plateau margin) changes during rifting from so called "simple" shear to "pure" shear.

I also use Ocean Bottom Seismometers to acquire wide-angle seismic data on divergent and convergent continental margins. Wide-angle seismic data are obtained when receivers are located both close to the shots, as in the more typical near-offset seismology, and also far from the shots. The data at a range of offsets (the distance between shot and receiver) are very useful for determining the velocity of sound waves in rocks, and from that identify the type of rocks, at great depth (up to about 40 km in the experiments I have done). During the last five years, I have been involved in fieldwork in Cook Inlet Alaska, offshore South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, and Antarctica. I have data from those cruises that can be used by my students, and I plan to continue acquiring these type of data.

Students Advised

• John Dunbar (Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, 5/89) Dynamics of Continental Rifting, now Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Baylor University
• David Tett (M.A. Rice University Geophysics, 5/94) Dynamic models of continental rifting: Multiphase rifting to form the Newfoundland/Iberia margins, now at BP.
• Zerong Jiang (M.A. Rice University Geophysics, 5/96) Separating Compressional and Shear Waves in 3 and 4 Component Ocean Bottom Seismograph Data
• Francis Condi (Ph.D. Rice University Geophysics, 5/99) Inversion of gravity data from rifted continental margins, now Research Scientist at University of Texas at Austin.
• Laurel Kirkland (Ph.D. Rice University Planetary Remote Sensing, 5/99) Multispectral imaging of Mars, now Research Scientist at Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX.
• John Bradford (Ph.D. Rice University Geophysics, 12/98) High resolution seismic reflection data from a glacial environment, now Research Professor at Boise State University.
• Mike Unger (M.A. Rice University Geology and Geophysics, 12/2000) Tectonics of rifting in the Galicia Bank Basin, now at Conoco/Phillips.
• Sunitha Kesavan (M.A. Rice University Geophysics, 12/2000) Use of Geostatistical Methods to map variation in rifting style, now at Shell Oil.
• Tyler Knoll (M.A. Rice University Geophysics, 5/2001) Tectonics of rifting in the Iberia Abyssal Plain, now at Marathon Oil.
• Alison Henning (Ph.D. Rice University Geophysics, 9/2004) Seismic Structure of the Peridotite Ridge, Iberia Abyssal Plan and Galicia Bank Basin, now Post-Doctoral Investigator at Rice University.
• Stoney Clark (Ph.D. Rice University Geophysics) Multichannel and wide angle sxeismology, onshore and offshore northern Venezuela
  
  

Post-Docs Advised

• Dennis Harry, now Chaired Associate Professor of Exploration Geophysics at Colorado State University


Last updated 22 September, 2004 by dale@rice.edu