This P.I. will conduct research on thermal convection in the Earth, which is the driving force of plate tectonics and hence of earthquakes, volcanoes, and other geological processes. This research will help in the understanding of the mechanisms by which convection drives geological processes by using three dimensional numerical models of mantle flow interacting with overlying plates. The research is unique because she has the expertise to add geochemical constraints to geophysical models for convective flow. She will model specific fundamental surface features of the crust (rifts, hot spots, and subduction zones), trying to find the limits of the mantle models required to produce them.
