research

My primary research interests concern the geodynamics of active tectonic processes at plate boundaries and in plate interiors. My main tool is Global Positioning System (GPS) geodesy, which I use to measure ground motions and deformations caused by tectonic, seismic, or magmatic processes. I combine this kinematic information with geologic or geophysical data into models to investigate the dynamics of the processes at work.

I am also interested in the use of GNSS signals for remote sensing of atmospheric properties such as tropospheric water vapor content and ionospheric electron content. The former is a key component of the weather and climate system, the later responds in interesting ways to earthquakes, explosions, rocket launches, etc. These quantities can be estimated from GPS measurements and serve to constrain atmospheric models.

A significant component of my research focuses on the northern Caribbean (Haiti, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica). I co-chaired the United Nations Haiti Earthquake Task Force after the devastating January 2010 earthquake and served as scientific advisor to the United Nations in Haiti from 2010 to 2013. I was subsequently stationed in Haiti from 2020 to 2023 where I accompanied research and higher education development efforts with Haitian and broader Caribbean partner institutions.

Specific research topics (current or not!) include:

• Seismo-sociology of earthquake risk in Haiti

• Toward a Regional Telluric Surveillance Platform in the Greater and Lesser Antilles: Interreg Caribbean web site, project web site

• The January 12, 2010, Mw7.0 Haiti earthquake and its tectonic context

• What is going on in the Cuban Oriente?

• Detection of transient signals in geodetic time series

• Intraplate deformation — why large earthquakes in plate interiors?

• Mantle/lithosphere coupling and continental deformation

• Kinematics and dynamics of continental deformation in Asia

• Stress transfer across complex plate boundaries: Caribbean active tectonics

• The Nubia-Eurasia plate boundary

• Kinematics and dynamics of continental rifting in East Africa

• A glimpse into lithospheric breakup: a tectono-magmatic event in Afar

• Ionospheric perturbations from GPS measurements

• Tropospheric water vapor from GPS measurements