Courses
Quantitative Reasoning in Environmental Science; Hydrology; Earth Forces

Research Interests
Geodynamics.  Professor Phillips' group is interested in the interior evolution of the terrestrial planets and how a planet's evolution affects and modifies its outer rigid shell or lithosphere through magmatic and tectonic activity. In this research, a variety of geophysical and geological data sets are used in conjunction with computer modeling of physical processes. The underpinning of this activity is application of the concepts of continuum mechanics, with emphasis on computational fluid and solid dynamics, to a variety of geodynamical environments (convection and Stokes flow in viscous fluids, surface and subsurface water flow, elastoviscoplastic deformation of the lithosphere). A variety of approaches are employed, including analytical and numerical methods, and the solid mechanics finite element package MARC©.

Selected Publications:

Hauck, S. A., II, A. J. Dombard, R. J. Phillips, and S. C. Solomon, Internal and tectonic evolution of Mercury, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 222, 713-728, 2004.

Portle, K. B., and R. J. Phillips, Gravity/topography admittance inversion on Venus using niching genetic algorithms, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, doi:10.1029/2003GL017515, 2003.

Nunes, D. C., R. J. Phillips, and C.D. Brown, Relaxation of compensated topography and the evolution of crustal plateaus on Venus, J. Geophys. Res., 109, doi:10.1029/2003JE002119, 2004.

Seu, R., D. Biccari, R. Orosei, L. V. Lorenzoni, R. J. Phillips, L. Marinangeli, G. Picardi, A. Masdea and E. Zampolini, SHARAD: The MRO 2005 shallow radar, Planet. & Space Sci., 52, 157-166, 2004.

Dombard, A. J., M. L. Searls, and R. J. Phillips, An alternative explanation for the “Buried Channels” on Mars: The gravity signal from a sharp boundary on partially compensated, long-wavelength topography, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, doi:10.1029/2003GL019162, 2004.