Cynthia Ebinger

Professor of Geophysics

Editor-in-Chief, Geophysical Journal International

President, Tectonophysics Section, American Geophysical Union

Ph.D, MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, 1988

S.M., Department of Earth, Atmospheric, & Planetary Sciences, M.I.T., 1986

B.S., Geology with Marine Geophysics, Duke University, 1982

Research Interests

Current research aims to understand the partitioning of strain between faulting and magmatic processes within continental and oceanic rift zones, over time scales of hours to millennia. A primary aim of collaborative earthquake monitoring, geodetic, structural, and petrological studies in East Africa and the Galapagos Archipelago is to develop predictive models of volcano-tectonic crises to mitigate natural hazards. A second theme is the longer-term evolution of continental rift zones from initiation to continental rupture. The superposition of tectonic and magmatic processes over multiple deformation episodes creates broad uplifts and basins that may accumulate thick sedimentary sequences; the rise and storage of magma permanently alters the plate. Passive and controlled source seismic experiments, satellite remote sensing, structural, and geodetic studies probe the plate structure, constraining predictive thermo-mechanical models.

Selected Publications

Keir, D., A. Ayele, E. Calais, I. Hamling, C. Ebinger, T. J. Wright, E. Jacques, M. Kassim, J.O.S. Hammond, M. Belachew, E. Baker, J. Rowland, Repeated dike injection sourced beneath the center of the Dabbahu segment in the Afar rift, Geology, January, 2009.

Hamling, I., A. Ayele, E. Calais, C. Ebinger, D. Keir, E. Lewi, T. Wright, G. Yirgu, Geodetic observations of new dyke intrusions in the Dabbahu rift segment, Afar, Ethiopia, Geophys. J. Int., in press, 2009.

Calais, E., N. d'Oreye , J. Albaric , A. Deschamps , D. Delvaux , J. DŽverchre , C. Ebinger , R. Ferdinand , F. Kervyn , A. Macheyeki , A. Oyen , J. Perrot , E. Saria , B. Smets , D. Stamps, C. Wauthier, Aseismic strain accommodation by dyking in a youthful continental rift, East Africa, Nature, in press, 2008.

Waltham, D., R. Hall, H. P. Smyth, and C. Ebinger, Basin formation by volcanic arc loading, Geol. Soc. Amer. Spec. Pub. 436, 11-26, 2008.

Ebinger, C., Keir, D., Ayele, A., Belachew, M., Calais, E., Wright, T., Campbell, E., Buck, R., Magma intrusion and faulting processes in a zone of continental rupture: Seismicity of the Dabbahu (Afar) rift, Geophys. J. Int., doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2008.03877.x, 2008.

Ranganai, R., and C. Ebinger, Aeromagnetic and Landsat TM structural interpretation for identifying regional groundwater exploration targets, south-central Zimbabwe craton, J. Applied Geophysics, 65, 73-83, 2008.

Stamps, S., Calais, E., Saria, E., Mbede, E., Hartnady, C., Nocquet, J.-M., Ebinger, C., Fernandes, R., A kinematic model for the East African rift system, Geophys. Res. Lett., L05304, doi:10.1029/ 2007GL032781, 2008.

Daly, E., D. Keir., C. Ebinger, G. Stuart, A. Ayele, & D. Waltham, Crustal structure of the northern Main Ethiopian Rift from a tomographic inversion of local earthquakes, Geophys. J. Int., 172, 1033–1048, 2008.

Ebinger, C., Yirgu, G., Wright, T., Calais, E., Lewi, E., Ocean birth through rifting and rupture, McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology, 161-165, 2007.

Rowland, J., E. Baker, C. Ebinger, D. Keir, T. Kidane, J. Biggs, N. Hayward, Fault growth at a nascent slow-spreading ridge: 2005 Dabbahu rifting episode, Afar, Geophys. J. Int., doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2007.03584.x, 2007.

Tiberi, C., S. Leroy, E. dÕAcremont, N. Bellahsen, C. Ebinger, A. Pointu, Structure of the northeastern Gulf of Aden from receiver functions, Geophys. J. Int., doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.03294.x, 2007.

Wright, T., C. Ebinger, J. Biggs, A. Ayele, G. Yirgu, D. Keir, A. Stork, Magma-maintained rift segmentation at continental rupture in the 2005 Afar dyking episode, Nature, 442, doi:10.1038/nature04978, 2006.

Keir, D., C. Ebinger, G. Stuart, E. Daly, and A. Ayele, Strain accommodation by magmatism and faulting at continental breakup: Seismicity of the northern Ethiopian rift, J. Geophys. Res., 111, B05314, doi:10.1029/2005JB003748, 2006.

Calais, E., C. Hartnady, C. Ebinger, and J.M. Nocquet, Kinematics of the East African Rift from GPS and earthquake slip vector data, In: Yirgu, G., Ebinger, C.J. and Maguire, P.K.H. (eds) The Afar volcanic province within the East African rift system, Geological Society of London Special Publications, 259, 9-22, 2006.

Keir, D., J.-M. Kendall, & C. Ebinger, Variations in late syn-rift melt alignment inferred from shear-wave splitting in crustal earthquakes beneath the Ethiopian rift, Geophys. Res. Letts., 32, doi:10.1029/2005GL024150, 2005.

Tiberi, C., C. Ebinger, V. Ballu, G. Stuart, and B. Oluma, Inverse models of gravity data from the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden-Ethiopian rift triple junction zone, Geophys J. Int., 163, 775-787, 2005.

Ebinger, C., Continental breakup: The East African perspective, Astronomy & Geophysics, 46, 2.16-2.21, 2005.

Kendall, J.-M., G. Stuart, C. Ebinger, I. Bastow, D. Keir, Magma-assisted rifting in Ethiopia, Nature, 433, 146-148, 2005.