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Dr. Sean Gulick
Research Associate
Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin
Contact: sean@ig.utexas.edu
Website: http://www.ig.utexas.edu/
Q. What does your typical workday look like?
A. At the lab: I spend my days working with colleagues over email, dealing with planning for upcoming scientific cruises, proposing new science I would like to work on to the government to see if they will give me money to work on it, teaching my graduate students how to process data, interpreting data and writing scientific papers, reading other peoples scientific papers, and processing and interpreting my data and writing my own papers. In general I spend much of every day problem solving whether they are problems with how to do the science, with helping my students or colleagues, or what exactly the data means in terms of the processes that form the Earth.
At sea: I am at sea 2-3 months a year collecting new scientific data and there my day involves being awake for my shift which may be in the middle of night, overseeing the collection of data, deploying or recovering scientific equipment from the ocean, processing the data that is coming in, and dealing with whatever challenges the day has in terms of regulations, weather, equipment malfunction, etc. It is usually very fast paced and exciting at sea!
Q. What advice would you give middle & high school students who are interested in a career similar to yours?
A. Get excited about science through your classes, camps, science programing on TV or in movies (but realize that they often get the science only partly right). Take courses in all the sciences and in math in order to get ready for college. Its a good idea to have a well rounded base. Learn to write well and speak well both in conversations and as a speaker.
Q. What are some of the challenges of doing what you do?
A. Being able to adequately communicate my ideas to others in science and to those not in science. Figuring out the puzzles in the data (one of the most fun things). Writing proposals and papers...it is always a challenge to write well! When at sea it is a challenge being away from home for a long time but also the physical challenges of storms and weather and working with heavy scientific gear on a ship.
Q. Who are/were some of your role models?
A. Science role models: Jacques Custeau, Bill Ryan, Ken Hsu, characters in stories that ran around the world solving scientific problems.
Q: Which websites do you visit on a regular basis?
A. American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, USGS websites on recent earthquakes, and our own website, the Institute of Geophysics - the University of Texas at Austin
Biography
Sean Gulick
Research Associate
Ph.D., Lehigh University (1999); B.S. University of North Carolina (1993)
Active tectonics, marine geology, marine geophysics, seismic hazards, convergent margins, microplates, and transitional tectonics
Research InterestsSean’s primary scientific interest is in the examination of deformation in convergent margins and the complex transitional tectonics that occur in microplate environments. Convergent margins represent the most numerous and potentially most deadly locales for earthquake production requiring a greater understanding of the interplay of subduction zone tectonics, structural deformation, accretionary prism development, and continental margin geology. Deformation in active tectonic regimes affects the geologic record of the continental margins and forearc basins through sediment deformation, uplift and/or subsidence, and forced migration of fluids and gases from deep in the accretionary margin to the seafloor. Seismic reflection techniques provide both regional and/or local information regarding the nature and timing of the deformation, yield partial geologic histories of the associated forearc basins, and can be used to examine the physical properties of the fault zones. Information gathered by the marine geophysical techniques is even more powerful when ground-truthed using ocean drilling and/or direct submersible observations.
Currently, Sean is using an 80x8 km 3-D seismic reflection dataset of the Nankai convergent margin to examine the 3-D structure of the outer portion of the subduction zone. As a shipboard scientist on the Ocean Drilling Program’s Leg 196, he has been able to use logging-while-drilling data combined with the seismic data to investigate the physical properties of the outer thrust faults in the prism. This work is further expanded using manned and unmanned submersible observations with colleagues in Japan to look for direct evidence at the seafloor of fault-channeled fluid flow.
Recent additions to Sean's work include examining the shallow subsurface off New Jersey using CHIRP high-resolution seismic data and shallow drilling (Geoclutter) and imaging the impact structure off the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. The New Jersey project is funded by ONR's Geoclutter program and is focusing on the creation of shallow buried channels systems possibly created near the last glacial maximum. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and is focusing on examining the crustal deformation caused by the bolide impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.
Ongoing Projects