Anne Sheehan is a geologist known for her research using seismometer data to examine changes in the Earth's crust and mantle.

Education and career

Sheehan has a B.S. from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

(1984) and earned her Ph.D. from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

in 1991. Following her Ph.D, she was a postdoc at

Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is the scientific research center of the Columbia Climate School, and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. It focuses on climate and earth sciences and is located on a 189-acre (64 ...

and the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

. In 1993 she moved to the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado s ...

, where she was promoted to professor in 2006. In 2014 Sheehan was elected a fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's ...

who cited her "for developing methods to image the Earth using seismometer arrays, to explain deformation processes of mountains, oceanic, and continental plates."

Research

Sheehan's research centers on the Earth's crust and mantle with a focus on formation of the

lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of up to thousands of years ...

and the impact of

Induced seismicity Induced seismicity is typically minor earthquakes and tremors that are caused by human activity that alters the stresses and strains on Earth's crust. Most induced seismicity is of a low magnitude. A few sites regularly have larger quakes, such ...

. She uses field data collected from seismic instruments deployed in a variety of locations including oceanic lithosphere near the Bermuda Rise and the East Pacific Rise, the subduction zone near New Zealand, and the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

mountain range in California. Her research on the impact of induced seismicity describes the process by which earthquakes occur following fluid injection. While Sheehan was working with

ocean-bottom seismometer An ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) is a seismometer that is designed to record the earth motion under oceans and lakes from man-made sources and natural sources. Sensors at the sea floor are used to observe acoustic and seismic events. Seismic and ...

s in New Zealand she realized that small waves detected by the instruments could be expanded to outfit cargo ships with instrumentation to detecting tsunamis. This research would benefit coastal communities in the path of tsunamis formed after earthquakes at the seafloor.

Selected publications

* * * * *

Awards and honors

*Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2014) *EarthScope Distinguished Lecturer (2013) *New Zealand Geophysics Prize, Geoscience Society of New Zealand for papers in 2016 and 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheehan, Anne Fellows of the American Geophysical Union University of Kansas alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of Colorado Boulder faculty Living people Women geologists American seismologists Year of birth missing (living people)