Richard Walters

NCEO Research Student

Department of Earth Sciences
University of Oxford

Email: richard.walters@earth.ox.ac.uk
Homepage:  www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~richardw

D.Phil Thesis Title: Continental deformation and seismic hazard in the Alpine-Himalayan belt using InSAR.

My research involves the use of satellite-based remote sensing techniques to study active tectonic deformation of the Earth's crust and to investigate the associated seismic hazard.

I am particularly interested in the tectonics of the Alpine-Himalayan belt, and have used satellite-based radar interferometry to study a number of medium/large earthquakes in this region. These include the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake (Italy), the 2008 Gerze earthquake (Tibet) and several smaller earthquakes across the Tibetan Plateau.

I am now using the same technique to obtain measurements of interseismic strain accumulation across the North and East Anatolian Faults, Turkey, with the aim of testing and developing models of continental deformation and the earthquake cycle.

Publications

Walters, R. J., J. R. Elliott, N. D’Agostino, P. C. England, I. Hunstad, J. A. Jackson, B. Parsons, R. J. Phillips and G. Roberts (2009). The 2009 L’Aquila earthquake (central Italy): A source mechanism and implications for seismic hazard, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L17312, doi:10.1029/2009GL039337.

J. R. Elliott, R. J. Walters, P. C. England, J. A. Jackson, Z. Li, B. Parsons (2010).
Extension in Tibet: Recent Normal Faulting measured by InSAR and Body Wave Seismology, GJI, in review