2024-2025: Seismology: Richard C. Aster

Richard C. Aster
Colorado State University Department of Geosciences

Biography 

Rick Aster is a Professor of Geophysics in the department of Geosciences at Colorado State University.  He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.  His research focuses on using seismic waves to uncover Earth structure and to understand the diverse seismogenic processes that contribute to our planet’s incessant seismic wavefield, including signals due to wave action in the oceans.   He has led or participated in field investigations that include Antarctic investigations into active volcanism, deep Earth structure, and glacial -oceanic processes.
Rick has served as a president of the Seismological Society of America (2009-2011) and is a fellow of the Geological Society of America (2018) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2022).  He has recently served on the US Geological Survey Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee, the Advisory Council for the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), and as Chair of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology leading up to its 2023 merger with UNAVCO to form the EarthScope Consortium of over 170 US geophysical research institutions.
For his work in seismology, he has received the NSF Antarctic Service Medal (1999), the New Mexico Institution of Science and Technology’s Faculty (2005) and Distinguished Research (2010) Awards, the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2017) and was elected a Fellow of the AGU (2021).


Abstract: Seismic Exploration of Earth’s Oceans, Cryosphere, and Atmosphere

Seismology, the science of elastic waves and their sources, is perhaps best known for imaging the planet’s interior and for its central role in the monitoring, assessment, and science of earthquakes. However, humanity’s extraordinarily sensitive global seismic sensors also record an immense quantity and variety of non-earthquake related signals. This rich background field of seismic waves reflects forces arising from a diversity of processes occurring across our dynamic planet. This talk will address how long-term and long-range observations of Earth’s background seismic waves reveal interconnected processes of the atmosphere, cryosphere, oceans, and solid Earth within the multi-decade and continually accruing seismic record. Examples presented will include recent seismologically driven discoveries on the stability Antarctica’s vast glacial systems, in global signals from large volcanic eruptions, and how climate change is reflected in and quantified by seismic signals originating and/or propagating within the oceans.