Telephone 512-471-0463
Fax 512-475-6338
email: gail@utig.ig.utexas.edu

Check out Megan's and Cameron's web page (updated June, 2006).
 

Research Scientist
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1994)
B.S., Texas A&M University (1988)

Marine Geophysics
Ocean bottom seismology, mid-ocean ridge structure and emplacement processes, crustal structure, impact craters.
 
 

Research Interests
I am interested in crustal structure at various geological environments.  My early work focused on the formation of oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges.  Since my employment at UTIG I have expanded my interests to the structure of subducting crust near Costa Rica and Barbados, the size and morphology of the Chicxulub impact crater, and the nature of the crust within Bransfield Strait.  In order to characterize the structure in these various environments I collect wide-angle seismic data using a large air-gun source and ocean bottom seismograph receivers; this is often done in conjunction with the collection of multi-channel seismic reflection profiles.  I then use various techniques, including 1D reflectivity modeling, 2D ray-tracing, and 2D and 3D tomography to constrain crustal structure.

Current and Recent Research Projects:

Bransfield Strait	Chicxulub Impact Crater	TICOSECT - Costa Rica	Lesser Antilles

Recent, in press, and submitted publications:

Christeson, G.L., D.H.N. Barker, J.A. Austin, Jr., and I.W.D. Dalziel, Deep crustal structure of Bransfield Strait: Initiation of a backarc basin by rift reactivation and propagation, J. Geophys. Res., 108(B10), 2492, doi:10.1029/2003JB002468, 2003.

Christeson, G.L., N.L. Bangs, and T.H. Shipley, Structure of the Lesser Antilles subduction zone backstop and its role in a large accretionary system, J. Geophys. Res., 108(B7), 2358, doi:10.1029/2002JB002040, 2003.

Bangs, N.L., G.L. Christeson, and T.H. Shipley, Structure of the Lesser Antilles subduction zone backstop and its role in a large accretionary system, J. Geophys. Res., 108(B7), 2358, doi:10.1029/2002JB002040, 2003.

Barker, D.H.N., G.L. Christeson, J.A. Austin Jr., and I.W.D. Dalziel, Back-arc basin evolution and cordilleran orogenesis:  Insights from new ocean bottom seismograph refraction profiling in Bransfield Strait, Antarctica, Geology, 31, 107-110, 2003.

Karson, J.A. and G.L. Christeson, Comparison of geologic and seismic structure of uppermost fast-spread oceanic crust: Insights from a crustal cross section at the Hess Deep Rift, in Heterogeneity in the Crust and Upper Mantle:  Nature, Scaling and Seismic Properties, edited by J. Goff and K. Holliger, Kluwer Academic, New York, 99-129, 2002.

Morgan, J.V., G.L. Christeson, and C.A. Zelt, 3D velocity tomogram across the Chicxulub crater: Testing the resolution, Tectonophysics, 355, 215-226, 2002.

Christeson, G.L., Y. Nakamura, R.T. Buffler, J. Morgan, and M. Warner, Deep Crustal Structure of the Chicxulub Impact Crater, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 21751-21769, 2001.

McIntosh, K., F. Akbar, C. Calderon, P. Stoffa, S. Operto, G. Christeson, Y, Nakamura, T. Shipley, E. Flueh, A Stavenhagen, and G. Leandro, Large aperture seismic imaging at a convergent margin: Techniques and results from the Costa Rica seismogenic zone, Mar. Geophys. Res., 21, 451-474, 2000.

Christeson, G.L., K.D. McIntosh, and T.H. Shipley, Seismic attenuation in the Costa Rica margin wedge: Amplitude modeling of ocean bottom hydrophone data, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 179, 391-405, 2000.

Morgan, J.V., M.R. Warner, G.S. Collins, H.J. Melosh, and G.L. Christeson, Peak ring formation in large impact craters: Geophysical constraints from Chicxulub, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 183, 347-354, 2000.