Research Interests
Allan R. Sanford, Emeritus Professor of Geophysics

Surface uplift coincident with the location of the magma body is occurring at an average rate of 1.8 millimeters/year and indicates that injection of magma is currently taking place at mid-crustal levels. The stresses induced by this inflation as well as upward migration of small quantities of magma into the upper crust are producing an abnormally high level of seismic activity - the highest observed anywhere along the rift and in New Mexico and West Texas. My graduate students and I use recordings of these earthquakes, primarily the very numerous microearthquakes, to determine the location and characteristics of magma bodies and the physical properties of the crustal rocks, for example their velocities, attenuation coefficients, and state of stress.

We also have research interests on the seismo-tectonics of the Rio Grande rift. New Mexico Tech, in collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the U.S. Geological Survey, has developed an extensive instrumental data set on earthquakes which have occurred in or bordering the rift since 1960. Much has been learned about the spatial and temporal behavior of rift seismicity from this data. However, much remains to be done, particularly in those regions where information is sufficiently detailed to examine relations between seismicity, detachment surfaces, young surface ruptures, and injection of magma.
 

Links
New Mexico Tech Geophysics Open-File Reports
The Socorro Midcrustal Magma Body