The Rio Grande Rift splits the state of New Mexico. To the northwest lies the uplifted Colorado Plateau. To the east lies the tectonically stable Great Plains region. This project seeks to understand the causes of the striking tectonic events that have occured in the recent geologic past and continue today. To acheive this goal, 54 seismometers were deployed from July 1999 until May 2001 along a line crossing the three geologic terrains. A suite of seismic imaging techniques are being combined with surface geology to yeild high resolution images of Earth's crust and upper mantle. Illuminating the deep features beneath this region is vital to understanding the dramatic volcanism, faulting and uplift observed on the surface.
The RISTRA project is a collaboration between New Mexico State University, The University of Texas at Austin, New Mexico Tech, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Dine College. People at each of these institutions have contributed to many parts of the project. The main RISTRA website has been maintained by Dave Wilson at New Mexico Tech (main RISTRA page). Complete details of the project and ongoing efforts can be found there.
Most of my involvement in the RISTRA project occurred while I was at New Mexico State University. Much of my effort went into developing models and interpretations consistent with the surface wave dispersion acorss the array. The technique and results are presented in West et al., JGR, 2004. This work was extended into a joint inversion with body wave data in West et al., GRL, 2004. Several other papers have been published which incorporate results from a multiple analyses. A comprehensive list can be found on the main RISTRA page. A partial list is given here.
Result summaries
Overview of project and results from the Albuquerque Journal, February 24, 2005
Figure illustrating rift mechanics, created by NSF
Related Papers
| Wilson, D., R. Aster, M. West, J. Ni, S. Grand, W. Gao, W. S. Baldridge, S. Semken, and P. Patel (2005) Lithospheric structure of the Rio Grande rift, Nature, 433, 851-854. (offprint) |
| Wilson., D, M. West, R. Aster and J. Ni. The pure shear mechanics of the Rio Grande rift. Submitted to Nature, 2004. |
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West, M., Gao, W., S. Grand (2004), A simple approach to the joint inversion of seismic body and surface waves applied to the southwest U.S. Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L15615, doi:10.1029/2004GL020373. (offprint)
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West, M., J. Ni, W. S. Baldridge, D. Wilson, R. Aster, W. Gao, and S. Grand (2004), Crust and upper mantle shear wave structure of the southwest United States: Implications for rifting and support for high elevation, J. Geophys. Res., 109, B03309, doi:10.1029/2003JB002575. (offprint)
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Gao, W., S. P. Grand, W. S. Baldridge, D. Wilson, M. West, J. F. Ni, and R. Aster (2004), Upper mantle convection beneath the central Rio Grande rift imaged by P and S wave tomography, J. Geophys. Res., 109, B03305, doi:10.1029/2003JB002743. (offprint)
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Wilson, D., R. Aster, W. S. Baldridge, W. Gao, R. Gok, S. Grand, J. Ni, E. Sandvol, S. Semken, M. West (2003), Imaging crust and upper mantle seismic structure in the southwestern United States using teleseismic receiver functions, The Leading Edge, v.22, n.3, p.232-237. (offprint)
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| Gök, R., J. Ni, M. West, E. Sandvol, D. Wilson, R. Aster, W. S. Baldridge, S. Grand, W. Gao, F. Tilmann, and S. Semken (2003), Shear Wave Splitting and Mantle Flow Beneath LA RISTRA, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, doi:1614,10.1029/2002GL016616. (offprint) |
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West, M. E., Gao, W., Grand, S.P. (2003), Joint tomographic inversion of body and surface waves for upper mantle structure, Eos Trans. AGU, 84(46), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract S31E-0806. (mini-poster)
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Adams, D., M. West, J. Ni (2003), Pn Tomography at the Intersection of the Rio Grande Rift and Jemez Lineament, Eos Trans. AGU, 84(46), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract S31E-0815. (poster)
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West, M., J. Ni, D. Wilson, R. Aster, S. Baldridge, W. Gao, S. Grand, R. Gok (2003), Passive rifting and support for high elevation in the Southwest U.S., 2003 IRIS Workshop., Yosemite, CA. (mini-poster)
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West, M., R. Gok, and the RISTRA Team (2002), Structure and deformation of the uppermost mantle beneath the RISTRA array, 2002 IRIS Workshop, Kona, HI. (mini-poster)
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West, M, J. Ni, D. Wilson, R. Aster, S. Grand, W. Gao, R. Gok, S. Baldridge, S. Semken, J. Schlue (2002), Structure of the Uppermost Mantle Beneath the RISTRA Array From Surface Waves, Eos Trans. AGU, 83(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract S61A-1116. (mini-poster)
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