-
James Wookey leads the CoMITAC project and is a proleptic lecturer in the School of Earth Sciences. His research interests cover the observation and theory of the entire Earth, focussing on how seismic anisotropy can constrain processes in the upper mantle, transition zone, D″ and the inner core. James’s recent publications have elucidated the role post-perovskite plays in the lowermost mantle, and introduced new methods to measure shear wave splitting in this region. His interests also include subduction in the Sumatra–Andaman arc, the structure of the Seychelles microcontinent, finite-frequency waveform modelling of anisotropy and the feasibility of using meteorite impacts as a seismic source on Mars.
-
Neil Goulding is a mathematician with research interests including inverse problems, continuum mechanics and wavelets. The primary research he will be carrying out will be the development of analytical methodologies for modelling the development of texture in deep Earth minerals under deformation, in collaboration with colleagues from the FAST laboratory in Orsay, Paris. Techniques developed will be integrated with current simulations to enable higher resolutions in the next generation of integrated models, which will be used to interpret observations of seismic anisotropy.
-
Anna Horleston is a seismologist currently working as the technician for the ERC funded CoMITAC project overseeing the group’s seismic and computational equipment. She has several years experience in broadband seismology, managing deployments in locations scattered all over the world. Her own research interests are slowly expanding from their roots in subduction zone structure and sediment recycling, to a broader interest in global seismicity and all that we can learn from it.
-
Andy Nowacki is a seismologist whose interests have covered measuring and modelling deformation in D″ and at mid-ocean ridges through observations of seismic anisotropy. Other research has included investigating microseismicity in rifting regions.
His current responsibilities with CoMITAC include forward-modelling of seismic observations using the flow-derived textural models in the lowermost mantle produced by the group, and maintaining this website.
-
Andrew Walker is a mineral physicist with diverse research interests including the development of new methods in computational mineral physics and materials chemistry, the physical processes leading to the deformation of the Earth’s deep interior, studies of defects and disorder in minerals and aspects of high performance and high throughput scientific computation. Andrew’s main responsibility in the CoMITAC project is to bridge length-scales and link models of mantle convection with models of the development of anisotropic elasticity and rheology in D″.
-
Jack Walpole
Jack Walpole is a CoMITAC PhD student investigating automated global approaches to observing shear wave splitting in D″. Using a quality-controlled worldwide seismic dataset, he will produce potentially thousands of measurements of anisotropy in the lowermost mantle, which will constrain future models of deep mantle processes.
