Derek Keir

Derek Keir (born 1979 in Johannesburg, South Africa) has since 2015 been an associate professor of geophysics at the University of Southampton. In 2013 he received the Bullerwell Lecture [1] award from the British Geophysical Association (BGA) for significant contributions to geophysics.

He was educated at Redhill School in Johannesburg. At the age of 19 he moved with his family to England where during 1998-2002 he read geology and geophysics at Imperial College London, gaining a first class degree. His PhD thesis conducted during 2002-2006 at Royal Holloway University of London was on the earthquake activity of the East African rift. In 2007 he moved to the University of Leeds as a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) research fellow. He moved to the University of Southampton in 2011 to start a lectureship. His major contribution to science has been to study how continents break apart by analyzing the earthquake and volcanic activity of the Afar Triangle. He has researched many volcanoes in Ethiopia and Eritrea, including Mount Ayalu,[2] Adwa (volcano),[2] Erta Ale, Dabbahu Volcano,[3] Dallol,[4] and Nabro Volcano. He has conducted much of his research in collaboration with Kathryn Whaler and Ian Bastow.

References

  1. ↑ "Bullerwell Lecturers and Lectures".
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Keir, D; Pagli, C; Bastow, I; Ayele, A (March 2011). "The magma-assisted removal of Arabia in Afar: Evidence from dike injection in the Ethiopian rift captured using InSAR and seismicity". Tectonics 30 (2). doi:10.1029/2010TC002785.
  3. ↑ Wright, TJ; Ebinger, C; Biggs, J; Ayele, A; Yirgu, G; Keir, D; Stork, A (July 2006). "Magma-maintained rift segmentation at continental rupture in the 2005 Afar dyking episode". Nature 442 (7100): 291–294. doi:10.1038/nature04978. PMID 16855588.
  4. ↑ Nobile, A; Pagli, C; Keir, D; Wright, TJ; Ayele, A; Ruch, J; Acocella, A (October 2012). "Dike-fault interaction during the 2004 Dallol intrusion at the northern edge of the Erta Ale Ridge (Afar, Ethiopia)". Geophysical Research Letters 39 (19). doi:10.1029/2012GL053152.