Carl Tape

Carl Tape is a Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), affiliated with the Geophysical Institute (GI) and the Department of Geosciences. His research focuses on seismology, computational modeling of seismic wavefields, and imaging Earth’s internal structure using adjoint tomography and waveform inversion techniques.

• Current Students: Aakash Gupta, Nealey Sims, Amanda McPherson, Bella Seppi
• Former Students: Ulrika Cahayani Miller (MS 2014), Celso Alvizuri (PhD 2016), Vipul Silwal (PhD 2018), Kyle Smith (PhD 2020), Cole Richards (MS 2020)

His work leverages UAF’s high-performance computing resources to simulate 3D seismic wavefields for earthquakes in Alaska and global subduction zones. These simulations improve ground motion predictions and tectonic interpretations, particularly for regions like the Cook Inlet Basin and the Hikurangi Subduction Margin in New Zealand. Carl also develops open-source tools like adjTomo for automating seismic waveform inversion and adjoint tomography workflows.

Collaborations include projects with the Alaska Earthquake Center, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), and NASA-supported GNSS ground motion studies. He contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives like the NSF-funded Arctic Observing Network, which integrates seismic data with meteorological and geodetic observations to track climate-induced geophysical changes.