Cynthia J. Ebinger
Professor
Education & Affiliations
Biography
Dr. Cynthia J. Ebinger is an internationally recognized geoscientist whose research focuses on tectonic and volcanic processes in continental rift zones and their implications for earthquake and volcanic hazards, geothermal energy, and plate boundary evolution. She integrates seismic, geodetic, and satellite data to image Earth’s structure and model stress changes associated with natural and anthropogenic processes.
Dr. Ebinger earned her B.S. in marine geology from Duke University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in marine geophysics from the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. She has held faculty positions at the University of Leeds, University of London, and University of Rochester, and completed postdoctoral training at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Her work spans East Africa, the Galápagos, and other tectonic settings, advancing understanding of magma-fault interactions and continental breakup. She has published extensively on rift dynamics and magmatism, served as Editor-in-Chief for Geophysical Journal International and Basin Research, and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and Geological Society of America.
Dr. Ebinger also serves as a Jefferson Science Fellow with the U.S. Department of State, advising on critical minerals, energy resources, and climate resilience.
Courses
EENS 2100 Dynamic Planets
EENS 3050 Natural Hazards and Their Mitigation
EENS 4840 Solid Earth and Planetary Geophysics
Research
Research Areas:
Earthquake Seismology, Active Tectonics, Potential Fields, Crustal Dynamics and Critical Zone Imaging for Archaeology and Geosciences.
Research Projects:
KIVURIFT: On 22 May 2021, following an eruption along the southern flank of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a graben began opening southeast of the volcano in Rwanda and beneath Lake Kivu. Satellite imagery suggests at least a 10 km-long segment opened about seven meters by the end of May. This project with Georgia Tech, Penn State, Rwanda Environmental Management Authority, Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board, EAIFR, and Goma Volcano Observatory aims to investigate the magma-fault interactions achieving rift opening during and following the 2021 sequence, and to image crustal structure to understand the consequences of dike intrusion to active and time-averaged deformation. Tulane and partners maintain a temporary network of 9 seismometers, including 2 that were installed during the intrusion event, to both capture the detailed time history and kinematics of the rifting event. New and permanent seismic and 25 magnetotelluric imaging sites will enable determination of lateral variations in physical properties of the crust, and the degree of magmatic modification.
Crustal Loading and Causes of Intraplate Stress: The objectives of spectral analyses of regional gravity and magnetic anomaly data and earthquake catalogues are to systematically evaluate the geometries of crustal density and magnetic susceptibility contrasts (e.g., steep faults, intrusive bodies, Moho topography) giving rise to anomaly patterns. We map faults and sutures beneath New England to test fault interpretations in seismogenic zones. Our results indicate that earthquake epicenters lie within a few kilometers of steep density contrasts imaged using a variety of spectral methods. These maps include structures that are favorably oriented with respect to current stress field, and that could be reactivated.
More detailed descriptions of this work can be found at the website of the GATR Group.
Contributions
Kounoudis, R., I.D. Bastow, Ebinger, C.J., Zhou, P., Goes, S., Ogden, C.S., Musila, M., A. Ayele (2025),The importance of past rifting in Large Igneous Province development, Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09668-7.
Musila, M., F. Civilini, C.J. Ebinger, I.D. Bastow, R. Kounoudis, C. Ogden, (2025), Rayleigh wave tomographic imaging of heterogeneous crust in a magmatic rift: the Turkana Depression, Africa, Geophysical Journal International, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggaf282.
Aber, S., C.J. Ebinger, A. C. Gase, C. Kalugana, F. Illsley-Kemp, I. Hamling, M. Savage, J. Eccles, S. Sabir, J. Ristau, S. Hreinsdottir, J. James-Le (2025), Cascading earthquake swarms in the northern Taupo volcanic zone, New Zealand, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 26, e2024GC012079. Https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GC012079.
Sullivan, G., C. J. Ebinger, M. Musila, M. Perry, E.R. Kraus, R. Bendick (2024). Kinematics of Rift Linkage between the Eastern and Ethiopian rifts in the Turkana Depression, Africa, Basin Research, DOI: 10.1111/bre.12900.
Hurtado-Pulido, D. C., R. Amer, C. J. Ebinger, H. Holcomb (2024), Variations in subsidence along the Gulf of Mexico passive margin from Airborne-LiDAR data and time series InSAR, J. Geophysical Research - Earth Surfaces, 129, e2023JF007406, https://10.1029/2023JF007406.
