Professor
Office: 222 Williamson Hall
Education: Ph.D. Geophysics, University of Toronto, 1989
Areas of Interest / Research:
- Global Geophysics
- Computational Geodynamics
- Mantle Convection Modeling
- Global Seismic Tomographic Imaging
- Geophysical Inversions
- Data Assimilation
- Time-Reversed Convection
- Mantle Rheology
- Plate Tectonics
- Global Geoid and Gravity Anomalies
- Global Surface Topography
- Global Sea Level Changes
- True Polar Wander
Dr. Alessandro Forte employs high-performance computers to numerically simulate how the rocky mantle, deep below the Earth’s crust, creeps slowly over geological time and how this global movement of mass and heat - a process called "thermal convection" - is manifested at the surface in the horizontal motions of Earth's tectonic plates and the ‘drift’ of continents. These numerical simulations are used to explain the origin of a broad range of surface geological processes, such as topography and gravity changes and sea level variations, in terms of the global dynamics deep inside our planet. He also has an ongoing project at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (in France) that involves mapping the detailed spatio-temporal links between Earth’s internal dynamics and climate related signals recorded by surface geological markers. These signals include sea level variations and astronomical (Milankovitch) forcing of paleoclimate variations recorded by cyclostratigraphic data. The sea level data of special interest are highstands recorded during past geological warm periods (e.g. Pleistocene interglaciations, the Pliocene and Paleoce-Eocene).
