physics

Rachel Abercrombie

Rachel Abercrombie is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Rachel Abercrombie rather than just read about it. In short: Rachel Abercrombie is a seismologist at Boston University known for her research on the process of earthquake ruptures. Education and career Abercrombie has a B.A. from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University (1987) and a Ph.D. from the University of Reading (1991).

Key takeaways

Rachel Abercrombie belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rachel Abercrombie to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rachel Abercrombie from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rachel Abercrombie is a seismologist at Boston University known for her research on the process of earthquake ruptures.

Education and career Abercrombie has a B.A. from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University (1987) and a Ph.D. from the University of Reading (1991). Following her Ph.D. she worked in California at the Southern California Earthquake Center and at the University of Southern California. After three years in New Zealand (1995–1998) at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, she went to Harvard University from 1998 to 2001. She joined Boston University in 2001, and became a Research Associate Professor in 2006. Abercrombie is on the board of directors at the Southern California Earthquake Center which started in 1991 as a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. She has also served on the board for the Seismological Society of America (2003–2005, and 2007–2009).

Research Abercrombie has worked on earthquakes along a wide geographic range including California, Nevada, Wyoming, the 1981 Gulf of Corinth earthquakes in Greece, and the 1994 Arthur's Pass earthquake in New Zealand. In marine systems, Abercrombie works on earthquakes on oceanic faults in the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and on the Java subduction zone. Using measurements of small earthquakes at the Cajon Pass drill hole, Abercrombie's research revealed attenuation of the signals used to characterize earthquakes in the upper portion of the Earth's crust and tracked small earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault. Abercrombie has also investigated foreshocks of earthquakes in the hopes of developing tools to predict when an earthquake will occur. Through her research, she notes the need for more efforts in documenting smaller earthquakes in order to adequately capture variability in the type and magnitude of earthquakes. She was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2020 "For groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of earthquakes over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales".

Selected publications Abercrombie, Rachel E. (1995). "Earthquake source scaling relationships from −1 to 5 ML using seismograms recorded at 2.5-km depth". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 100 (B12): 24015–24036. Bibcode:1995JGR...10024015A. doi:10.1029/95JB02397. ISSN 2156-2202. Abercrombie, Rachel E.; Mori, Jim (1996). "Occurrence patterns of foreshocks to large earthquakes in the western United States". Nature. 381 (6580): 303–307. Bibcode:1996Natur.381..303A. doi:10.1038/381303a0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4329310. Abercrombie, Rachel E.; Ekström, Göran (2001). "Earthquake slip on oceanic transform faults". Nature. 410 (6824): 74–77. Bibcode:2001Natur.410...74A. doi:10.1038/35065064. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 11242043. S2CID 4397063. Abercrombie, Rachel E.; Rice, James R. (2005). "Can observations of earthquake scaling constrain slip weakening?". Geophysical Journal International. 162 (2): 406–424. Bibcode:2005GeoJI.162..406A. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246x.2005.02579.x. ISSN 0956-540X.

Awards and honors Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2020)

References

External links Rachel Abercrombie publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rachel Abercrombie

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rachel Abercrombie claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rachel Abercrombie before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rachel Abercrombie ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rachel Abercrombie

In research: Rachel Abercrombie appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rachel Abercrombie in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rachel Abercrombie is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American women scientists, 20th-century women physicists, 21st-century American women scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rachel Abercrombie outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Rachel Abercrombie in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rachel Abercrombie means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rachel Abercrombie out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rachel Abercrombie in simple terms?

Rachel Abercrombie is a seismologist at Boston University known for her research on the process of earthquake ruptures. Education and career Abercrombie has a B.A. from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University (1987) and a Ph.D. from the University of Reading (1991).

Why does Rachel Abercrombie matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rachel Abercrombie?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rachel Abercrombie.