Professor Thomas M. Hearn

Physics Department Head

B.S. Physics, Univ. of California, Riverside, 1978;
M.S. Geophysics, Caltech, 1980;
Ph.D. Geophysics, Caltech, 1985;

California Seismic Network to find lateral variations in crust and mantle velocity structure in the region. After graduating, Hearn went to Cornell and worked with the COCORP project and did further work in tomography. In 1990, Hearn moved to the Physics department of New Mexico State University. There, he has continued his work in tomography and worked on data sets covering the Turkish-Iranian Plateau, the Western United States, Southern Great Basin, and Europe. Recently, he has extended the tomography to include the effects of anisotropy.

Dr. Hearn is our current Department Head and is known for his work in seismic tomography and its application to regional tectonic problems. Tomography is an imaging method most commonly known for its application in medial "CAT-scans". However, in seismic tomography the data sources are earthquakes. Seismic tomography reconstructs the sonic velocity structure of the earth and this can be interpreted in the context of regional tectonics.

Publications

Rondenay, S., M. Bostock, T. Hearn, D. White, H. Wu, G. Senechal, S. Ji, M. Mareschal, Teleseismic studies of the lithosphere below the Lithoprobe Abitibi-Grenville transect, Canadian J. Earth Sci., submitted to Abitibi Transect volume, 1998, will be published when everybody else gets their papers for this volume done.

Rondenay, S., M. Bostock, T. Hearn, D. White, R. Ellis, Lithospheric assembly and modification of the SE Canadian Shield: The Abitibi-Grenville teleseismic experiment, accepted to the Journal of Geophysical Research with minor revisions, April 1999.

Hearn, T., Uppermost mantle velocities and anisotropy beneath Europe, J. Geophys. Res., 104 (#B7), 15,123-15,139, July 10, 1999.

Durrani, B., D. Doser, G. Keller, and T. Hearn, Velocity structure of the upper crust under the San Francisco volcanic field, Arizona, Bull. Seismo. Soc. Am., 89 (#1), 239-249, Feb. 1999.

Tandon, K., L. Brown, and T. Hearn, Deep Structure of the northern Rio Grande Rift beneath the San Luis Basin (Colorado) from a seismic reflection survey: Implications for rift evolution, Tectonophysics 203, nos 1-2, 41-56, 1999.

Mele, G., D. Rovelli, D. Seber, T. Hearn, M. Barazangi, Compressional velocity structure and anisotropy in the uppermost mantle beneath Italy and surrounding regions, J. Geophys. Research, 103,12529-12543, 1998.

Rapine, R., J. Ni, and T. Hearn, Regional wave-propagation in China and its surrounding regions, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 87, 1622-1636, 1997.

Rodgers, A., J. Ni, and T. Hearn, Propagation characteristics of short period Sn and Lg in the Middle East, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 87, 396-413, 1997.

Hearn, T. Anisotropic Tomography in the Western United States, Journal of Geophysical Research, 101, 8403-8414, 1996.

Wu, Jianxin, J.F. Ni, and T.M. Hearn, Lg wave attenuation and propagation characteristics in Iran, in Monitoring a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, NATO ASI Volume, Eds., E. Husebye and A. Dainty, 655-662, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996.

Hearn, T., A. Rosca, and M. Fehler, Pn Tomography beneath the Southern Great Basin, Geophysical Research Letters, 21, 2187-2190, 1994.

Sandvol, E., J. Ni, T. Hearn, and S. Roecker, Seismic Azimuthal Anisotropy beneath the Pakistan Himalayas, Geophysical Research Letters, 21, 1635-1638, 1994.

Sandvol, E., and T. Hearn, Bootstrapping Shear-Wave Splitting Errors, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 84, 1971-1977, 1994.

Hearn, T., and J. Ni, Seismic Velocities beneath Continental Collision Zones: The Turkish-Iranian Plateau, Geophysical Journal International, v117, 273-283, 1994.

Hearn, T.M., M.N. Beghoul, and M. Barazangi, Tomography of the Western United States from regional arrival times, Journal of Geophysical Research, 89, 1843-1855, 1991.