Koppers, A., Becker, T.W., Jackson, M., Konrad, K., Müller,
R.D., Romanowicz, B., Steinberger, B. and Whittaker, J.:
The role of mantle plumes in deep earth and surface processes.
Nature Rev. Earth & Environ., 2021.
Faccenna, F., Becker, T. W., Holt, A. F., and Brun,
J. P.: Mountain building, mantle convection, and
supercontinents: Holmes (1931) revisited. Earth
Planet. Sci. Lett., Frontiers, 2021.
We are always looking for motivated students with a keen interest
and solid background in the Earth sciences, physics, engineering, or
computer science. Please take a look at some of our recent publications to
give you an idea of current projects, but I like to work with students who think and work
independently and challenge and extend my expertise and
interests.
Please consider applying for our program should you be interested
in pursuing a PhD in my research group, and see the
JSG pages for admission
procedures. The (important) Fellowship deadline is December 1 each
year.
If you think this could be a match, please do reach out by email.
Older news items
20 years of linking seismic topography and mantle convection
(01/2020)
Lapo Boschi, Steve Grand and I chat about the last 20 years of
linking seismic tomography and
global mantle dynamics as well interdisciplinary collaboration from our perspective, sponsored by the
Modeling Collaboratory for Subduction RCN.
AGU Union Session and Eos piece celebrating
Humboldt's 250th birthday anniversary (12/2019)
A team of G3 editors chaired a fantastic Union session
on Two Hundred Fifty Years of Alexander von Humboldt:
Humboldtian Systems Science in the 21st Century at the
2019 AGU Fall meeting.
You can still view the amazing talks on this
Faccenna, C., Glisovic, P., Forte, A., Becker, T. W.,
Garzanti, E., Sembroni, A. and Gvirtzman, C.: Role of dynamic
topography in sustaining the Nile River over 30 million years.
Nat. Geosc., 12, 1012-1017, 2019.
(PDF)
Jackson, M. G., Konter, J. G., and Becker, T. W.: Primordial
helium entrained by the hottest mantle plumes. Nature,
doi:10.1038/nature21023, 2017. (PDF)
Holt, A. F., Royden, L., Becker, T. W., and Faccenna, C.: The
dynamics of double slab subduction from numerical and
semi-analytic models. SIT11-12. Japan Geoscience Union Meeting,
2016.
Becker, T. W., Lowry, A. R., Faccenna, C., Schmandt, B., Borsa, A.,
and Yu, C. (2015): Western U.S. intermountain seismicity caused by
qchanges in upper mantle flow. Nature, 524, 458-461.
(PDF)
at the 2015 EGU General Assembly in Vienna. The related research is
now published in:
Holt, A. F., Buffett, B. A., and Becker, T. W.: Overriding plate
thickness control on subducting plate
curvature. Geophys. Res. Lett., 42,
doi:10.1002/2015GL063834,
2015. (PDF)
We show that two subduction zones, active at the same time, may
explain the anomalously fast motion of the Indian plate in the past.
Jagoutz, O., Royden, L., Holt, A. F., and Becker, T. W.:
Anomalously fast convergence between India and Eurasia caused by
double subduction. Nature Geosc., 8, 475-479, 2015.
(PDF)
PBO/EarthScope
provides crustal GPS velocities which are now plotted from 2006 - 2014
in a consistent reference frame. See the visuals page.
Presentation on Topography in the Mediterranean mobile
belt (09/2014)
Keynote at the TopoEurope meeting in Barcelona, September 2014,
summarizing some of the findings from:
Faccenna, C., Becker, T. W., Miller, M. S., Serpelloni, E.,
Willett, S. D.: Isostasy, dynamic topography, and the elevation of the
Apennines of Italy. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 407, 163-174,
2014. (PDF)
Miller, M. S. and Becker, T. W.: Reactivated lithospheric-scale
discontinuities localize dynamic uplift of the Moroccan Atlas
Mountains. Geology, 42, 35-38,
2014. (PDF)
Faccenna, C., Becker, T. W., Auer, L., Billi, A., Boschi, L.,
Brun, J.-P., Capitanio, F. A., Funiciello, F., Horvath, F., Jolivet,
L., Piromallo, C., Royden, L., Rossetti, F., and Serpelloni, E.:
Mantle dynamics in the Mediterranean.
Rev. Geophys., 52, doi:10.1002/2013RG000444, 283--332, 2014.
(PDF)
Miller, M. S. and Becker, T. W.: Reactivated lithospheric-scale
discontinuities localize dynamic uplift of the Moroccan Atlas
Mountains. Geology, 42, 35-38, 2014.
(PDF)
Miller, M. S. and Becker, T. W.: Mantle flow deflected by
interactions between subducted slabs and cratonic keels.
Nature Geosc., doi:10.1038/ngeo1553, 2012.
(PDF)
G-Cubed 2010 impact factor up to 3.4, now ranking 10th
out of all Geochemistry/Geophysics journals (06/2011)
As of the 2011 ISI report, AGU's
Geochemistry,
Geophysics, Geosystems (G3) impact factor went up to
3.368 for 2010, from 2.626 in 2009. G3 is now ranked #10, up from
#13, out of 77 Geochemistry and Geophysics journals.
Thomas wins a Best Student Presentation Award at
SSA 2011 (05/2011)
USC Geodynamics grad student
Thomas Goebel won a
Best student presentation award, at the Annual Meeting of the
Seismological Society of America, Memphis, TN, in April 2011 on
his poster on
Goebel, T. H. W., Becker, T. W., Schorlemmer, D., Stanchits,
S. Rybacki, E., Dresen.G: Connecting Acoustic Emission Event
Locations, Aftershock Density and b-values before and after
Stick-Slips to Changes in Topography of Rough Fracture Surfaces
during Frictional Sliding Experiments. Meeting of the
Seismological Society of America Abtsract, Memphis TN, 2011.
Also see
Goebel, T. H. W., Becker, T. W., Schorlemmer, D., Stanchits, S.,
Sammis, C., Rybacki, E., and Dresen, G.: Identifying fault
heterogeneity through mapping spatial anomalies in acoustic
emission statistics. J. Geophys. Res., 117, B03310,
doi:10.1029/2011JB008763,
2012. (PDF)
Small-scale convection study published in Nature
(06/2010)
Results on the role of small-scale mantle convection on microplate
motions and dynamic topography in the Mediterranean were published
in Nature.
This project is a long-standing collaboration with Claudio Faccenna of
Roma TRE. See
Terra Daily,
got a Cool on FARK,
Futurity, Science Daily, LiveScience, PhysOrg, ScienceCodex, Eureka
Science News, Lab Spaces, E Science News, News Blaze, Sify News, ABC
Espana, New Kerala, Science Centric, Thai Indian, News Track India,
One India, Mysterium at Blogosfere.
San Andreas Fault Zone study hits top spot in G-Cubed
downloads (07/2010)
A fully contained set of lecture notes and accompanying Matlab
exercises on Numerical Geodynamics are
now online.
Becker, T. W. and Kaus, B. J. P.: Numerical Geodynamics. An
introduction to computational methods with focus on solid Earth
applications of continuum mechanics. Lecture notes (162
pages). University of Southern California, Los Angeles,
2010.
Updated:: Becker, T. W. and Kaus, B. J. P (2016):
Numerical Modeling of Earth Systems: An introduction to
computational methods with focus on solid Earth applications of
continuum mechanics, University of Southern California, v. 1.2,
2016.(PDF)
USC High performance computing center 5th in US (06/2010)
USC's Geophysics graduate program has been ranked ninth in the US in
the
2010
version of the US News and World Report, right after Harvard and
Princeton, and before the University of Washington.
Michael Kaplan awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
(04/2010)
USC Geodyanmics Grad student
Michael Kaplan was awarded
a prestiguous National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
on April 6, 2010. Congrats Mike!
USC undergrad paper hits top spot in G-Cubed downloads
(08/2009)
Former USC Earth science undergrad Brad Foley's paper
Foley, B. and Becker, T. W.: Generation of plate-like behavior and
mantle heterogeneity from a spherical, visco-plastic convection
model. Geochem., Geophys., Geosys., 10, Q08001,
doi:10.1029/2009GC002378, 2009.
(PDF)
hits the top weekly download spot at
G-Cubed and gets picked as
highlighted image in August 2009
(G-Cubed "cover" from
08/2009). Brad is now a PhD student at Yale University.
USC graduate student Sean Loyd, faculty Frank Corsetti, and myself
were among the authors of a study on Cenozoic heat flux and plate
tectonics that got published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. Read the PNAS
paper, or news releases by UPI
and USC.
