Simon Klemperer

I lead the "Crustal" research group that studies structure, tectonics, deformation, growth and composition of the continental lithosphere, largely using active and passive seismology. Our emphasis is the creative combination of the full range of geologic and geophysical data, existing or of our own collection, analyzed often using relatively standard techniques, rather than striving to create entirely new methodologies. For 25 years I have studied Tibet and the Himalaya, including the INDEPTH reflection/refraction transect across the Plateau, analysis of broadband campaign data from India, Nepal and China, and most recently geochemical and isotopic studies of geothermal fluids to tackle the questions that seismology can’t reach. My graduate students are working on projects as diverse as detecting and understanding mantle earthquakes beneath the Arabian craton/Red Sea rift margin; measuring patterns of uplift and subsidence offshore southern California as a proxy for strike-slip tectonics and glacio-eustatic sea-level variation; imaging the Ruby Mountains Core Complex at a full-crustal scale; and improvement of the Virtual Deep Seismic Sounding imaging method. I helped institute, and have continued to be faculty director of, the SE3 Summer Undergraduate Research program that places and mentors >20 Stanford frosh/sophomores in SE3 research opportunities each year, and until last year was Director of Undergraduate Studies in Geophysics.