John Louie

Office: 217 LME.
Phone: (775) 784-4219
Fax: (775) 784-1833 (shared)


E-Mail: louieseismo.unr.edu


Home page: http://www.seismo.unr.edu/~louie

Areas of Interest:
geophysics, seismology, resource exploration and development, seismic reflection, geophysical imaging and inversion, tomography, modeling, scientific visualization, earthquake hazards, tectonics.

The goal of my research is to accurately image and characterize subsurface structures in seismically difficult areas, with high-resolution experiments. I constrain these inversions with independent geophysical and geological data. The seismic imaging, tomography, and monte-carlo optimization techniques I develop improve the productivity of resource exploration and development, and of hazards assessments. In particular I try to describe the characteristics of earthquake faults and of sites in order to mitigate seismic hazards to life and property.

Education:
Ph.D., Caltech, 1987
M.S., Caltech, 1983
B.A., Occidental College , 1982

Research Affiliations:
Nevada Seismological Laboratory (http://www.seismo.unr.edu) Geophysics Program (http://www.seismo.unr.edu/geophys/)

Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy (http://www.unr.edu/geothermal/) Collaboratory for Computational Geosciences (CCoG) (http://quake.seismo.unr.edu/ccog)

Selected Publications (preprints linked from Home Page):

• J. B. Scott, M. Clark, T. Rennie, A. Pancha, H. Park and J. N. Louie, 2003, A shallow shear-velocity transect across the Reno , Nevada area basin: submitted to Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., Oct. 7.
• John N. Louie, Weston Thelen , Shane B. Smith, Jim B. Scott, Matthew Clark, 2003, The northern Walker Lane refraction experiment: Pn arrivals and the northern Sierra Nevada root: submitted to Tectonophysics, July 2, revised Dec. 14.
• John N. Louie, Sergio Chávez-Pérez, Stuart Henrys, and Stephen Bannister, 2002, Multimode migration of scattered and converted waves for the structure of the Hikurangi slab interface, New Zealand: Tectonophysics, 355, no. 1-4, 227-246.
• Ken Mela and John N. Louie, 2001, Correlation length and fractal dimension interpretation from seismic data using variograms and power spectra: Geophysics, 66, 1372-1378.
• John N. Louie, 2001, Faster, better: shear-wave velocity to 100 meters depth from refraction microtremor arrays: Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., 91, no. 2 (April), 347-364.
• R. E. Abbott, J. N. Louie, S. J. Caskey, and S. Pullammanappallil, 2001, Geophysical confirmation of low-angle normal slip on the historically active Dixie Valley fault, Nevada : Jour. Geophys. Res., 106, 4169-4181.
• Z. Kanbur, J. N. Louie, S. Chavez-Perez, G. Plank, D. Morey, 2000, Seismic reflection study of Upheaval Dome, Canyonlands National Park, Utah : Journal of Geophysical Research (Planets), 105, 9489-9505.
• Robert E. Abbott and John N. Louie, 2000, Depth to bedrock using gravimetry in the Reno and Carson City , Nevada area basins: Geophysics, 65, 340-350.