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Daniel M. Davis Professor Office: ESS 354 Phone: (631) 632-8217 Fax: (631) 632-8240 E-mail Address: daniel.davis@sunysb.edu For more information on Professor Davis, please see his website: CLICK HERE A.B., Princeton University, 1978 Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983 Postdoctoral Fellow, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, 1983-84 Associate Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, 1984-86 Faculty member at Stony Brook since 1986 |
Mechanics of Thin-skinned Tectonics
Davis is using numerical and scale modeling to study how the mechanical properties of mountain belts affect their fundamental attributes, including size, shape, and the rate, style, and distribution of strain. His work focuses on understanding the roles of such factors as the thicknesses and lithologies of the regional stratigraphic column, the presence of basement structure, and the distribution of excess pore fluid pressures. Davis is studying the seismicity of the Sulaiman Range and the other mountain belts of Pakistan to understand better the kinematics of oblique convergence and the mechanics of overthrusting in an extremely thick continental margin sedimentary sequence. A large analog modeling apparatus is used to study processes associated with oblique convergence. Using automated quantitative analysis of digital images of experiments, Davis and his students have been studying strains associated with convergence in models of varying obliquities and with different rheologies and boundary conditions.
Field Geophysics and Quaternary Geology
Davis and and his students have been applying field geophysical techniques to the study of young geological features on Long Island. Through a combination of ground-penetrating radar surveys and traditional field geology, they have been characterizing the internal structure of the push moraines of Long Island, which contain folds and thrusts that are in many ways analogous to structures in tectonic foldbelts. These contractional features are often immediately adjacent to glaciofluvial features such as subglacial tunnel valleys. Other glacial features under study include kettle holes, some of which hold proglacial loess deposits that can be mapped out using a combination of GPR and resistivity surveys. They are also using GPR and subsurface sampling to study the internal structure of active parabolic dunes that are advancing across a forest. These features provide a useful analog for Pleistocene parabolic dunes that they have also studied using the same techniques.
Selected Publications
Davis, D.M., J. Suppe, and F.A. Dahlen, Mechanics of fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges, J. Geophys. Res., 88, 1153-1172, 1983.
Davis, D.M., and S.C. Solomon, True Polar Wander and plate driving forces, J. Geophys. Res., 90, 1837-1841, 1985.
Davis, D.M., and T. Engelder, The role of salt in the mechanics of fold-and-thrust belts, Tectonophysics, 119, 67-88, 1985.
Sykes, L.R. and D.M. Davis, Yields of Soviet strategic weapons, Scientific American, 255, no. 1 (January 1987), 29-37, 1987.
Davis, D.M., and R. von Huene, Inferences on material strength and fault friction from structures at the front of the Aleutian Trench, Geology, 15 517-522, 1987.
Byrne, D., Davis, D.M., and L. Sykes: Loci and maximum size of thrust earthquakes and the mechanics of the shallow region of subduction zones. Tectonics, 7, 833-857, 1988.
Zhang, J., T.-f. Wong, and D.M. Davis, Micromechanics of pressure-induced grain crushing in porous rocks, J. Geophys Res., 95, 341-352, 1990.
Byrne, D., Davis, D.M., and L.R. Sykes: Great thrust earthquakes and aseismic slip along the plate boundary of the Makran subduction zone, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 449-478, 1992.
Zhang, J., Davis, D.M., and Wong, T.-f.; Brittle-ductile transition in porous sedimentary rocks: geological implications for accretionary wedge aseismicity. J. Structural Geol. 15, 819-830, 1993..
Byrne, D.E., Wang, W.-H., and Davis, D.M.;Mechanical role of backstops in the growth of forearcs. Tectonics 12, 123-144, 1993.
Davis, D.M. and Lillie, R.J.; Changing mechanical response during continental collision: active examples from the foreland thrust belts of Pakistan. J. Structural Geol. 16, 21-34, 1994.
Wang, W.-H. and Davis, D.M., Sandbox model simulation of forearc evolution and noncritical wedges. J. Geophys. Res., 101, 11329-11339, 1996.
Davis, D.M., Accretionary Mechanics with Properties that Vary in Space and Time, in, G.E. Bebout, D.W. Scholl, S.H. Kirby, and J.P. Platt (eds.), Subduction: Top to Bottom, Geophysical Monograph 96, p.39-48, American Geophysical Union, 1996.
Haq, S.S.B and Davis, D.M. (1997). Oblique convergence and the lobate mountain ranges of western Pakistan, Geology, 25, 23-26, 1997.
Nyffenegger, R., Davis, D.M., and G.J. Consolmagno, Frictional Faulting and Tectonic Lineations on a Relatively Simple Body (Ariel), Planetary and Space Science, 45, 1069-1080, 1997.
Pacanovsky, K. M.., Davis, D. M. , Richardson, R. M., and Coblentz, D. D., Intraplate stresses and plate-driving forces in the Philippine Sea Plate J. Geophys. Res.. 104, 1095-1110, 1999.
Davis, D. M., and L.R. Sykes, Geologic constraints on clandestine nuclear testing in South Asia, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., USA, 96, 11,090-11,095, 1999.
Bernard, M., B. Shen-Tu, W.E. Holt, and D.M. Davis, Kinematics of active deformation in the Sulaiman Lobe and Range, Pakistan, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 13,253-13,279., 2000.
Davis, D.M., Pangaea Two: a geophysicist's perspective, Erwagen Wissen Ethic, 14, 1, 90-91, 2003.
Girardi, J. and D.M. Davis, GPR imaging of the internal structure of modern migrating dunes, Napeague, NY, Conference on the Geology of Long island and Metropolitan New York, April 2004.
Goetz, K. and D.M. Davis, Glacial tectonics at Hither Hills, eastern Long Island, Evidence from Ground Penetrating Radar, Conference on the Geology of Long island and Metropolitan New York, April 2004.
Klein, E.C. and D.M. Davis, Surface sample bias and clast fabric interpretation, in preparation.
Davis, D.M., and S.S.B. Haq, Mechanics of Forearc Slivers: Theoretical Predictions and Insights from Modeling, to Tectonics, in preparation.
Haq, S.S.B., and D.M. Davis, interpreting Strain and Bulk
Deformation at Plate Boundaries: Geodetics in Analog Models
and Natural Margins, to J. Geophys. Res., in preparation.
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