Michael Ritzwoller

Professor. Ph.D. University of California San Diego, 1987. Fellow, American Geophysical Union.

Center for Imaging the Earth's Interior
Department of Physics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0390
phone: (303) 492-7075
fax: (303) 492-7935
email: michael.ritzwoller@colorado.edu

Michael Ritzwoller is the Director of the Center for Imaging the Earth's Interior.

Professor Ritzwoller is a global seismologist. His early work was mainly in normal mode seismology and helioseismology. Research in the last decade has concentrated on developing methods to focus seismic models derived from surface wave dispersion information to tectonic scales. Recent emphasis has included applying physical constraints from geodynamical models and thermodynamics into seismic inversions and using ambient noise in surface wave tomography. Considerable emphasis has also been placed on developing seismic methods in nuclear monitoring to improve event locations and the ability to discriminate nuclear explosions from earthquakes. Large scale data handling and computing underlie much of this research.

Publications. Vitae

Recent Classes: General Physics I (Physics 2010), Intermediate Mathematical Physics I, II (Physics 5030, Physics 5040), Methods in Theoretical Physics (Physics 2140), Earth and Planetary Physics I (Physics/Geology/APS 6610) , Modern Physics (Physics 2130) .

Selected Publications

Shapiro, N.M. M. Campillo, L. Stehly, and M.H. Ritzwoller, High resolution surface wave tomography from ambient seismic noise, Science, 307(5715), 1615-1618, 11 March 2005.
Ritzwoller, M.H., N.M. Shapiro, S. Zhong, Cooling history of the Pacific lithosphere, Earth Planet. Sci. Letts., 226, 69-84, 2004.
Shapiro, N.M. and M.H. Ritzwoller, Thermodynamic constraints on seismic inversions, Geophys. J. Int., 157, 1175-1188, doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2004.02254.x, 2004.
Shapiro, N.M., M.H. Ritzwoller, P. Molnar, and V. Levin, Thinning and flow of Tibetan crust constrained by seismic anisotropy, Science, 305, 233-236, 9 July 2004.
Ritzwoller, M.H., N.M. Shapiro, and G.M. Leahy, A resolved mantle anomaly as the cause of the Australian-Antarctic Discordance, J. Geophys. Res., 108, no. B12, 2559, doi:10.1029/2003JB002522, 2003.
Ritzwoller, M.H., N.M. Shapiro, A.L. Levshin, E.A. Bergman, and E.R. Engdahl, The ability of a global 3-D model to locate regional events, J. Geophys. Res., 108, no. B7, 2353, ESE 9-1 - ESE 9-24, 2003.