ROB McCAFFREY
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
110 8th Street
Room 1W08 Science Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180-3590
Phone: 518.276.8521 Fax: 518.276.2012 Cell: 518-369-5268
Email: mccafr@rpi.edu
Website: www.rpi.edu/~mccafr
Education
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Ph.D., Geophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1981 (Advisor:
E. Silver)
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B.S., Geophysics, Boston College, 1976
Professional Appointments
- Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1999-present
- Visiting Research Scientist, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, New Zealand, 2003
- Visiting Professor, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, 2001.
- Associate Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1993-1999 (Chair 1996-1999)
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Visiting Associate Professor, Oregon State University, 1995-1996 academic
year
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Assistant Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1988 to 1993.
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Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985-1988.
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Air Force Geophysics Scholar, Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, 1986-1988.
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Postdoctoral Research Associate, (Advisor: P. Molnar), Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, 1982-1985.
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Lecturer in Applied Geophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1981.
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Teaching/Research Assistant, University of California, Santa Cruz 1976-1980.
Keynote Lectures
- German-American Frontiers of Science, Potsdam, 1999
- Penrose Conference on Subduction to Strike-slip transitions, Dominican Republic, 1999
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Tectonic Evolution of Southeast Asia Symposium, London, 1994.
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Snellius II Symposium, Jakarta, 1987.
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Rheology of the Lithosphere and Australian Earthquakes Symposium, Canberra,
1985.
Field Experience and Professional Visits
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GPS campaign measurements and permanent site installation in Oregon, 1996-2004
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PASSCAL RAMP deployment and GPS measurements at Biak, Irian Jaya, 1996
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PASSCAL array deployment at Toba caldera, N. Sumatra, 1995
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GPS measurements in Eastern Indonesia, 1991 - 2002
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GPS measurements in Papua New Guinea, 1993-1994
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GPS measurements in Sumatra, 1989 - 1994, 2001
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Visit to Earthquake Research Institute, Japan (GPS cooperation), 1989
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Visit to Institute of Earth Sciences, Taiwan (GPS cooperation), 1989
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Microearthquake and gravity surveys in Lae, Papua New Guinea, 1988
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Visit to Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics, Jakarta, 1987
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Visit to Port Moresby Geophysical Observatory, PNG, 1987
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PASSCAL Northern Nevada Lithospheric Experiment, 1986
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Visit to Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia, 1985
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Microearthquake survey in northern Utah, 1983
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Microearthquake survey in the eastern Sunda Arc, Indonesia, 1982
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Gravity survey of the Ben Lomond Fault, Santa Cruz, California, 1981
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Marine geophysical survey in the eastern Sunda Arc, Indonesia (RAMA Leg
12), 1981
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Microearthquake surveys in the Molucca Sea and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia,
1978
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Visit to Scripps Institution of Oceanography (seismic refraction analysis),
1978
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Gravity survey of the Sulawesi ophiolite complex, Indonesia, 1977
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Marine geophysical survey in the Molucca Sea, Indonesia (INDOPAC Leg 10),
1977
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Gravity survey of the Narragansett Basin edge in southeastern Massachusetts,
1976
Foreign Languages Indonesian, some French
Professional Affiliations AGU
Ph.D. Students Supervised G. Abers (1989), C. Stevens (1999), Fauzi (1999), Masturyono (2000)
M.S. Students Supervised Masturyono (1993), D. vanValkenburg (1993), J. Vollick (2006)
Current Research Interests
My research interests include the analysis of geological, seismological,
gravity, and geodetic data from convergent margins with attention to the
structure, tectonics, and dynamics of subduction and collision. I am interested
in the impact of oblique convergence on subduction zone deformation and
why some have great earthquakes and others do not. I use teleseismic body
waves and microearthquake networks to constrain the depths and mechanisms
of earthquakes in order to understand variations with depth of arc-continent
and arc-arc collision processes. Regions studied have included Indonesia,
New Guinea, Taiwan, Panama, New Zealand and Central Asia. I have studied the source
processes of large Australian earthquakes. I use slip vectors at oblique
subduction zones to constrain the deformation rates and rheology of forearcs.
I also use the Global Positioning System to measure crustal deformation
with the aim of understanding the surface strain, from which we hope to
understand geologic processes at depth. I have advised hydrology students
on quantitative approaches to hydrology.
Current Projects
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Analysis of thermal properties of subduction zones and relationship to
seismicity
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Deformation of forearcs at subduction zones (observations and modeling)
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Deformation of southern Tibet as response to oblique convergence
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Study of aftershocks and coseismic displacements from the M8.2 Irian and Sumatra M9.2 and M8.7
earthquakes
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Travel-time and attenuation tomography of Toba Caldera, Sumatra
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GPS measurements in Indonesia
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GPS measurements in Oregon (installing permanent sites and campaigns)
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Modeling deformation of the Cascadia subduction zone and Pacific Northwest
- Deformation in New Zealand
Classes Taught
Geology I (Earth's Interior), Planet Earth I, Introduction to geophysics, Flow through
porous geologic media, Applied geophysics, Geodynamics, Global tectonics,
Solid Earth geophysics, Geographical Information Systems, Groundwater Contaminant Transport
Publications