The Himalaya mountains are the product of the largest continental collision in the world today, and are home to large and deadly earthquakes, such as the Pakistan earthquake of October 8, 2005. To understand how the mountains were created and to help quantify the earthquake hazards of this vulnerable region, Dr. Sheehan led a National Science Foundation funded project that included placement of ground motion recorders (seismometers) throughout eastern Nepal and southern Tibet. The seismic stations were installed in areas that are remote and logistically difficult, with challenges including the mountains, weather, scorpions, cobras, and political unrest and guerrilla warfare in Nepal. Much like a medical CT scan, ground motion recordings from earthquakes provide a detailed image of the Earth beneath the seismic stations. The earthquake recordings collected in Nepal and Tibet produce a first-ever glimpse of the earthquake faults beneath the Himalayan mountains, and can be used to determine details of the earthquake faulting processes.
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