Professor Brian Kennett
Areas of expertise
- Seismology And Seismic Exploration 040407
- Geophysics 0404
- Geodynamics 040402
- Acoustics And Acoustical Devices; Waves 020301
Research interests
The exploitation of the seismic wavefield for better charcterisation of the structure of the Earth and the character of seismic sources. Much of my work has been directed towards understanding the properties of the lithosphere and subduction zones, as well as the fate of subducted material.
Studies include methods for improved location of seismic events, and the development of reference models for the global structure of the Earth which are widely used for earthquake location and as a basis for seismic tomography.
A long term program of work on the 3-D structure under the Australian region has resulted in the Australian Seismological Reference Model (AuSREM) in 2012 whch incorprates results from a wide range of previous studies using both body waves and surface waves. AuSREM has been exploited in a number of ways to enhance knowledge of smaller-scale structure across the continent.
Biography
Brian Kennett is now Emeritus Professor of Seismology at the Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University and was Director from September 2006 to January 2010. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Seismology from the University of Cambridge in 1973. He was a Lindemann Fellow at IGPP, University of California, San Diego and then a University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. He moved to Australia in 1984, and was President of IASPEI from 1999-2003.
His research has covered a very wide range of topics in seismology, from reflection seismology to studies of the deep Earth and from theoretical to observational studies. He has received recognition through many medals and awards including the Gold Medal in Geophysics from the Royal Astronomical Society, the Gutenberg Medal from the European Geosciences Union, the Murchison Medal from the Geological Society of London, the Jaeger and Flinders Medals from the Australian Academy of Sciences, and the Lehmann Medal from the American Geophysical Union. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society (London). He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2019.
Publications
- Kennett, B & Liang, S 2021, 'The transition from the Thomson Orogen to the North Australian Craton from seismic data', Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 68, no. 5, pp. 628-640.
- Furumura, T & Kennett, B 2021, 'Azimuthal Variation of Lithospheric Heterogeneity in the Northwest Pacific Inferred From Po/So Propagation Characteristics and Anomalously Large Ground Motion of Deep In-Slab Earthquakes', Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, vol. 126, no. 5.
- Kennett, B 2021, 'The relative behaviour of bulk and shear modulus as an indicator of the iron spin transition in the lower mantle', Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 559.
- Shasha, L & Kennett, B 2020, 'Passive seismic imaging of a craton edge - Central Australia', Tectonophysics, vol. 797, pp. 1-10.
- Kennett, B 2020, 'Radial earth models revisited', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 222, no. 3, pp. 2189-2204.
- Kennett, B 2020, 'Unveiling a continent', Astronomy & Geophysics, vol. 61, no. 6, pp. 34-40.
- Kennett, B & Davies, R 2020, 'Intra-plate volcanism in North Queensland and eastern new Guinea: A cryptic mantle plume?', Gondwana Research, vol. 79, pp. 209-216.
- Furumura, T & Kennett, B 2020, 'Propagation of distinct Love-wave pulses from regional to teleseismic distances in continental and oceanic environments', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 221, no. 1, pp. 665-682.
- Kennett, B 2020, 'Towards constitutive equations for the deep Earth II: Shear properties under pressure', Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, vol. 307, pp. 1-7.
- Sun, W & Kennett, B 2020, 'Common-reflection-point-based prestack depth migration for imaging lithosphere in Python: Application to the dense Warramunga array in northern Australia', Seismological Research Letters, vol. 91, no. 5, pp. 2890-2899.
- Qashqai, M, Saygin, E & Kennett, B 2019, 'Crustal Imaging With Bayesian Inversion of Teleseismic P Wave Coda Autocorrelation', Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, vol. 124, no. 6, pp. 5888-5906.
- Kennett, B & Furumura, T 2019, 'Significant P wave conversions from upgoing S waves generated by very deep earthquakes around Japan', Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, vol. 6.
- Furumura, T & Kennett, B 2019, 'The Significance of Long-Period Ground Motion at Regional to Teleseismic Distances From the 610-km Deep Mw 8.3 Sea of Okhotsk Earthquake of 24 May 2013', Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, vol. 124, no. 8, pp. 9075-9094.
- Kennett, B & Pham, T 2018, 'The nature of Earth's correlation wavefield: late coda of large earthquakes', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, vol. 474, no. 2214, pp. 11pp.
- Kennett, B & Sippl, C 2018, 'Lithospheric discontinuities in Central Australia', Tectonophysics, vol. 744, pp. 10-22pp.
- Wei, Z, Kennett, B & Sun, W 2018, 'Sn-wave velocity structure of the uppermost mantle beneath the Australian continent', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 213, no. 3, pp. 2071-2084pp.
- Furumura, T & Kennett, B 2018, 'Regional Distance PL Phase in the Crustal Waveguide: An Analog to the Teleseismic W Phase in the Upper Mantle Waveguide', Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, vol. 123, no. 5, pp. 4007-4024.
- Kennett, B & Pham, T 2018, 'Evolution of the correlation wavefield extracted from seismic event coda', Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, vol. 282, pp. 100-109.
- Pham, T-S, Tkalčić, H, Sambridge, M et al 2018, 'Earth's Correlation Wavefield: Late Coda Correlation', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 45, no. 7, pp. 3035-3042.
- Kennett, B 2017, 'Towards constitutive equations for the deep Earth', Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, vol. 270, pp. 40-45.
- Kennett, B & Wei, Z 2017, 'High-frequency ground motion from Australian earthquakes', Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 64, no. 6, pp. 769-777.
- Kim, S, Kennett, B & Tauzin, B 2017, 'Pervasive seismic low-velocity zones within stagnant plates in the mantle transition zone: Thermal or compositional origin?', Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 477, pp. 1-13pp.
- Kennett, B, Yoshizawa, K & Furumura, T 2017, 'Interactions of multi-scale heterogeneity in the lithosphere: Australia', Tectonophysics, vol. 717, pp. 193-213pp.
- Furumura, T & Kennett, B 2017, 'Unusual Strong Ground Motion Across Japan From the 680 km Deep 30 May 2015 Ogasawara Islands Earthquake', Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, vol. 122, no. 10, pp. 8143-8162pp.
- Wei, Z, Kennett, B & Zhao, L 2017, 'Lg-wave attenuation in the Australian crust', Tectonophysics, vol. 717, pp. 413-424pp.
- Kennett, B & Sun, W 2017, 'Mid-lithosphere discontinuities beneath the western and central North China Craton', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 1302-1310.
- Sippl, C, Brisbout, L, Spaggiari, C, Gessner, K. Tkalčić, H., Kennett, B.L.N. and Murdie, R., 2017, 'Crustal structure of a Proterozoic craton boundary: East Albany-Fraser Orogen, Western Australia, imaged with passive seismic and gravity anomaly data', Precambrian Research, vol. 296, pp. 78-92.
- Sippl, C, Kennett, B, Tkalčić, H et al 2017, 'Crustal surface-wave velocity structure of the east Albany-Fraser Orogen, Western Australia, from ambient noise recordings', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 210, 1641-1651, 2017.
- Stipčević, J, Kennett, B & Tkalčić, H 2017, 'Simultaneous use of multiple seismic arrays', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 209, pp. 770-783.
- Furumura, T, Kennett, B & Padhy, S 2016, 'Enhanced waveguide effect for deep-focus earthquakes in the subducting Pacific slab produced by a metastable olivine wedge', Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, vol. 121, no. 9, pp. 6779-6796.
- Sun, W & Kennett, B 2016, 'Uppermost mantle structure of the Australian continent from Pn traveltime tomography', Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, vol. 121, no. 3, pp. 2004-2019.
- Kennett, B & Furumura, T 2016, 'Multiscale seismic heterogeneity in the continental lithosphere', Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 791-809.
- Sun, W. & Kennett, B., 2016, 'Receiver structure from teleseisms: Autocorrelation and cross correlation', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 43, no. 12, pp. 6234-6242.
- Kennett, B & Saygin, E 2015, 'The nature of the Moho in Australia from reflection profiling: a review', GeoResJ, vol. 5, pp. 74-91.
- Chopping, R & Kennett, B 2015, 'Maximum depth of magnetisation of Australia, its uncertainty, and implications for Curie depth', GeoResJ, vol. 7, pp. 70-77.
- Yoshizawa, K & Kennett, B 2015, 'The lithosphere-asthenosphere transition and radial anisotropy beneath the Australian continent', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 42, no. 10, pp. 3839-3846.
- Kennett, B, Stipcevic, J & Gorbatov, A 2015, 'Spiral-arm seismic arrays', Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 105, no. 4, pp. 2109-2116.
- Kennett, B, Saygin, E & Salmon, M 2015, 'Stacking autocorrelograms to map Moho depth with high spatial resolution in southeastern Australia', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 42, no. 18, pp. 7490-7497.
- Chen, K, Tseng, Y, Furumura, T et al 2015, 'Anisotropy in the subducting slab: Observations from Philippine Sea plate events in Taiwan', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 42, no. 23, pp. 10248-10255.
- Kennett, B & Furumura, T 2015, 'Toward the reconciliation of seismological and petrological perspectives on oceanic lithosphere heterogeneity', Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, vol. 16, no. 9, pp. 3129-3141.
- Singh, A, Singh, C & Kennett, B 2015, 'A review of crust and upper mantle structure beneath the Indian subcontinent', Tectonophysics, vol. 644, pp. 1-21.
- Kennett, B 2015, 'Lithosphere-asthenosphere P-wave reflectivity across Australia', Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 431, pp. 225-235.
- Rawlinson, N, Kennett, B, Salmon, M et al 2015, 'Origin of Lateral Heterogeneities in the Upper Mantle Beneath South-east Australia from Seismic Tomography', in Khan, Amir, Deschamps, Frederic (ed.), The Earth's Heterogeneous Mantle, Springer, pp. 47-78.
- Kennett, B, Gorbatov, A & Spiliopoulos, S 2014, 'Tracking earthquake source evolution in 3-D', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 198, no. 2, pp. 867-879.
- de Kool, M & Kennett, B 2014, 'Practical earthquake location on a continental scale in Australia using the AuSREM 3D velocity model', Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 104, no. 6, pp. 2755-2767.
- Rawlinson, N, Salmon, M & Kennett, B 2014, 'Transportable seismic array tomography in southeast Australia: Illuminating the transition from Proterozoic to Phanerozoic lithosphere', Lithos, vol. 189, pp. 65-76.
- Kennett, B 2014, Planning and Managing Scientific Research. A guide for the beginning researcher, ANU Press, Canberra.
- Kennett, B, Gorbatov, A & Spiliopoulos, S 2014, 'Tracking high-frequency seismic source evolution: 2004 M-w 8.1 Macquarie event', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 1187-1193.
- Kennett, B, Furumura, T, Zhao, Y, 2014, 'High-frequency Po/So guided waves in the oceanic lithosphere: II heterogeneity and attenuation', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 199, pp. 614-630.
- Gorbatov, A, Saygin, E & Kennett, B 2013, 'Crustal properties from seismic station autocorrelograms', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 192, no. 2, pp. 861-870.
- Aitken, A, Salmon, M & Kennett, B 2013, 'Australia's Moho: A test of the usefulness of gravity modelling for the determination of Moho depth', Tectonophysics, vol. 609, pp. 468-479.
- Salmon, M, Kennett, B & Saygin, E 2013, 'Australian Seismological Reference Model (AuSREM): crustal component', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 192, no. 1, pp. 190-206.
- Fichtner, A, Kennett, B & Trampert, J 2013, 'Separating intrinsic and apparent anisotropy', Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, vol. 219, pp. 11-20.
- Tajima, F, Mori, J & Kennett, B 2013, 'A review of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Mw 9.0): Large-scale rupture across heterogeneous plate coupling', Tectonophysics, vol. 586, pp. 15-34.
- Kennett, B & Furumura, T 2013, 'High-frequency Po/So guided waves in the oceanic lithosphere: I-long-distance propagation', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 195, no. 3, pp. 1862-1877.
- Thybo, H, Artemieva, I & Kennett, B 2013, 'Moho: 100 years after Andrija Mohorovicic Preface', Tectonophysics, vol. 609, pp. 1-8.
- Kennett, B, Fichtner, A, Fishwick, S, & Yoshizawa K., 2013, 'Australian seismological reference model (AuSREM): Mantle component', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 192, no. 2, pp. 871-887.
- Salmon, M, Kennett, B, Stern, T & Aitken ARA 2013, 'The Moho in Australia and New Zealand', Tectonophysics, vol. 609, pp. 288-298.
- Kennett, B & Blewett, R 2012, 'Lithospheric Framework of Australia', Episodes, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 9-22.
- Kennett, B & Fichtner, A 2012, 'A unified concept for comparison of seismograms using transfer functions', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 191, no. 3, pp. 1403-1416.
- Bodin, T, Salmon, M, Kennett, B et al 2012, 'Probabilistic surface reconstruction from multiple data sets: An example for the Australian Moho', Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 117, no. 10, pp. 1-13.
- Saygin, E & Kennett, B 2012, 'Crustal structure of Australia from ambient seismic noise tomography', Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 117, pp. B01304.
- Kennett, B & Salmon, M 2012, 'AuSREM: Australian Seismological Reference Model', Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 1091-1103.
- Kennett, B, Salmon, M, Saygin, E et al. 2011, 'AusMoho: the variation of Moho depth in Australia', Geophysical Journal International, vol. 187, no. 2, pp. 946-958.
- Kennett, B & Abdulah, A 2011, 'Seismic wave attenuation beneath the Australasian region', Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 285-295.
- Fichtner, A, Kennett, B, Igel, H et al 2010, 'Full waveform tomography for radially anisotropic structure: New insights into present and past states of the Australasian upper mantle', Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 290, no. 3-4, pp. 270-280.
- Kennett, B & Furumura, T 2010, 'Tears or thinning? Subduction structures in the Pacific plate beneath the Japanese Islands', Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, vol. 180, no. 1-2, pp. 52-58.
- Kennett B.L.N. & H.P. Bunge, 2008, Geophysical Continua, Cambridge University Press, pp xii+432
- Kennett, B & Tkalčić, H 2008, 'Dynamic Earth: crustal and mantle heterogeneity', Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 55, pp. 265-279.
- Tkalčić, H & Kennett, B 2008, 'Core structure and heterogeneity: a seismological perspective', Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 55, pp. 419-431.
- Kennett, B 2002, The Seismic Wavefield II: Interpretation of seismograms on regional and global scales, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
- Kennett, B 2001, The Seismic Wavefield I: Introduction and Theoretical Development, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Enhanced 3-D seismic structure for Southwest Australia (Secondary Investigator)
- Earth's Intra-Plate Volcanic Engine (Secondary Investigator)
- Craton modification and growth: the east Albany-Fraser Orogen in 3-D (Secondary Investigator)
- Multi-Array, Multi-Frequency Probing of the Earth's Heterogeneity (Secondary Investigator)