Research Contributions Include Theory of Mountain Belt Formation
John Suppe, Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
This honor, bestowed on members 鈥渨hose visionary leadership and scientific excellence have fundamentally advanced research in their respective fields,鈥� is limited to only 0.1% of AGU membership in any given year.
Suppe-Davis-Dahlen Theory
Suppe, an AGU member since the 1960s, was nominated by one of his former students, Dan Davis, with whom he published a classic paper on the mechanics of mountain belt formation. This paper, published in 1983, outlined what is now known as the Suppe-Davis-Dahlen theory of critical-taper wedge mechanics.
鈥淲hen we started this off, we didn鈥檛 realize where it was going to lead,鈥� Suppe said.
This theory started as an undergraduate honors thesis, with Davis modeling mountain belt mechanics using models constructed with sand.
鈥淒ry sand has very similar mechanical properties to the Earth鈥檚 crust,鈥� Suppe said.
Their theory was that mountain belt formation is identical to the wedges of soil or snow that accumulate in front of a moving bulldozer or snow plow. This theory was supported by evidence from a sabbatical year Suppe spent in Taiwan, studying mountains formed by the collision of the Philippine Sea plate and China.
With the addition of an exact mathematical theory provided by geophysicist Tony Dahlen, this paper has been cited thousands of times and offers insight into crust deformation, petroleum exploration, as well as applications for assessing earthquake hazards.
Since then, Suppe has continued his work in mountain belt formation.
鈥淭his is a subject we published in papers, then quit to do other things, but it鈥檚 a little bit like swearing off cigarettes, you just keep coming back to it,鈥� Suppe said.
Center for Tectonics and Tomography: Using Seismic Tomography to Reconstruct Tectonic Plates
Suppe鈥檚 current research interests include his work as director of the University of Houston鈥檚 Center for Tectonics and Tomography. As part of the Center鈥檚 work, they use seismic tomography, which is information from waves generated from earthquakes or small explosions, to image the Earth鈥檚 subsurface. This allows them to reconstruct a history of the Earth鈥檚 tectonic plates.
鈥淚t turns out that when plates are subducted into the Earth鈥檚 interior, they don鈥檛
disappear,鈥� Suppe said.
鈥淲hat we鈥檝e found is that we can map these plates in 3D using tomography, then reconstruct
these plates to show where they were previously located on the Earth鈥檚 surface.鈥�
AGU Fellows will be honored at the 2019 AGU Meeting, which will be held in San Francisco from December 9 to 13.
- Rachel Fairbank, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics