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Rishav Mallick

Photo of Rishav Mallick

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive, M/S 300-323

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Website:

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Member of:

Earth Surface and Interior

NASA Postdoctoral Fellow

Biography

I am a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Earth Surface and Interior group at JPL, working on improving our understanding of various failure processes in rocks using geophysical observations, laboratory-derived constitutive relationships and numerical simulations. Before working at JPL, I conducted my PhD thesis work at the Earth Observatory of Singapore from 2016-2021 and later moved to Caltech Seismolab as a postdoctoral fellow from 2021-2023.

Highlights of my research from the past few years include developing a physics-informed inverse method that can estimate the spatial distribution of fault slip rates (and uncertainties) for the time in between earthquakes from sparse observations, without adding any unphysical regularization. This method was crucial in detecting the longest ever Slow-Slip-Event from paleo-geodetic observations. My other major focus has been to disentangle the contributions of elastic deformation, viscous flow and plastic failure in the Earth’s lithosphere across timescales varying from individual earthquakes (seconds-minutes) to the growth of geological structures (millions of years).

Education

  • 2016-2021: PhD from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • 2013-2015: M.Tech from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
  • 2009-2013: B.Tech from National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India

Professional Experience

  • 2023-present NASA Postdoctoral Fellow (JPL)
  • 2023-present Visiting Scientist at Caltech Seismolab
  • 2021-2023 Texaco Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech
  • 2019-2020 Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley
  • 2016-2021 Graduate Student Researcher at NTU Singapore

Research Interests

I am interested in various problems related to earthquake cycle processes, rock deformation, active tectonics and landslides. My work involves combining geophysical observations of these processes (kinematics) with numerical simulations of the relevant dynamics to gain a better understanding of the overall mechanics and material properties of the Earth’s interiors.

Selected Publications

  1. Mallick, R., Lambert, V.R., Meade, B.J. (2022); On the choice and implications of lithospheric rheologies that maintain mechanical consistency over the entire earthquake cycle; Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 127, e2022JB024683. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JB024683
  2. Meade, B.J., Mallick, R., Carrero-Mustelier, E. (2022); Kinematic representations of linear and power-law deformation through the earthquake cycle; Geophysical Research Letters, 49, e2022GL100266. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100266­
  3. Mallick, R., Bürgmann, R., Johnson, K.M., Hubbard, J.A. (2021); A unified framework for earthquake sequences and the growth of geological structure in fold-thrust belts. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 126, e2021JB022045. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB022045
  4. Mallick, R., Meltzner, A. J., Tsang, L. L. H., Lindsey, E. O., Feng, L., and Hill, E. M. (2021); Long-lived shallow slow-slip events on the Sunda megathrust. Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00727-y
  5. Lindsey, E., Mallick, R., Hubbard, J., Bradley, K., Almeida, R., Moore, J. D. P., Bürgmann, R., Hill, E. M. (2021); Slip rate deficit and earthquake potential on shallow megathrust. Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00736-x
  6. Morgan, P., Meltzner, A.J., Feng, L., Mallick, R., Hill, E.M. (2020); Diverse slip behavior of the Banyak Islands sub-segment of the Sunda megathrust in Sumatra, Indonesia. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 125, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB020011 Impact Factor: 3.84
  7. Mallick, R., Hubbard, J. A., Lindsey, E. O., Bradley, K. E., Moore, J. D. P., Ahsan, A., et al. (2020). Subduction initiation and the rise of the Shillong Plateau. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 543, 116351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116351
  8. Bradley, K., Mallick, R., Andikagumi, H., Hubbard, J., Meilianda, E., Switzer, A., Du, N., Brocard, G., Alfian, D., Benazir, B., Feng, G., Yun, S., Majewski, J., Wei, S., Hill. E.M. (2019). Earthquake-triggered 2018 Palu Valley landslides enabled by wet rice cultivation. Nature Geoscience. 12, 935–939. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0444-1
  9. Mallick, R., Lindsey, E.O., Feng, L., Hubbard, J., Banerjee, P., Hill, E.M., (2019). Active convergence of the India‐Burma‐Sunda plates revealed by a new continuous GPS network. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 124, 3155– 3171. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JB016480
  10. Lindsey, E. O­., Almeida, R., Mallick, R., Hubbard, J., Bradley, K., Tsang, L. L. H., et al. (2018). Structural Control on Downdip Locking Extent of the Himalayan Megathrust. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 123(6), 5265–5278. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JB015868
  11. Almeida, R., Lindsey, E. O., Bradley, K., Hubbard, J., Mallick, R., Hill, E. M. (2018). Can the Up-Dip Limit of Frictional Locking on Megathrusts be Detected Geodetically? Quantifying the Effect of Stress Shadows on Near-Trench Coupling. Geophysical Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077785
  12. Mallick, R., Parameswaran, R. M., Rajendran, K. (2017). The 2005 and 2010 Earthquakes on the Sumatra–Andaman Trench: Evidence for Post‐2004 Megathrust Intraplate Rejuvenation. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 107(3). https://doi.org/10.1785/0120160147 Impact Factor: 3.14
  13. Parameswaran, R. M., Natarajan, T., Rajendran, K., Rajendran, C. P., Mallick, R., Wood, M., Lekhak, H. C. (2015). Seismotectonics of the April–May 2015 Nepal earthquakes: An assessment based on the aftershock patterns, surface effects and deformational characteristics. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 111, 161–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2015.07.030