Arjun Datta
IISER, Pune
Arjun Datta is Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (IISER Pune). He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2017 after earlier degrees in Physics (St. Stephen’s College, Delhi) and Applied Geophysics (IIT Roorkee). His research focuses on theoretical and computational seismology, including seismic tomography, ambient-noise interferometry and inverse theory, aimed at high-resolution crustal imaging and earthquake hazard assessment across India.
Session 1E: Special Session
Chairperson: Amol Dighe, TIFR, Mumbai
Underground science facility for studying earth’s density structure
Much of what is known about the internal structure of the Earth, is due to seismology. Beyond providing evidence for the radial stratification of the Earth into crust, mantle, core, seismology enables finer-scale studies of Earth structure in three dimensions, shedding light on the planet’s internal dynamics. However, the readily observable, short-period, seismic waves are not directly sensitive to density, because seismic wave speeds depend on density as well as elastic constants. Only the very long-period, 'free oscillations' or normal modes of the Earth, are sensitive to density. Therefore, the study of the Earth’s density structure relies specifically on normal mode seismology. Another independent approach to studying density within the Earth is neutrino tomography. Both approaches will be made possible by an Underground Science Facility, thereby opening up the exciting possibility of obtaining a better joint estimate of the Earth density field, than either approach can yield by itself.