Dennis L. Harry


Adjunct Professor


B.S. 1981, M.S. 1983, Texas A&M University,
Ph.D. 1989, The University of Texas at Dallas;
Petroleum Geophysicist, 1983-1985, ARCO Exploration Co.

Research Interests

Professor Harry's research focuses on the application of geophysical exploration methods and numerical modeling to problems in marine geophysics and continental tectonics. Current research projects are concerned with the formation of fold and thrust belts and foreland sedimentary basins, deformation and magmatism on rifted continental margins, and active tectonics in continental extensional provinces. Professor HarryÕs research includes studies in the western North American Cordillera, the Ouachita fold and thrust belt and associated foreland basins in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama, and the Iberia rifted continental margin in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean. These research projects make use of seismic and potential field exploration methods, numerical modeling methods, and geophysical inverse theory, and emphasize an integrated geological and geophysical approach to solving problems concerning the evolution and structure of the solid Earth.

Teaching Interests

Dr. Harry teaches undergraduate courses in Historical Geology, Introductory Geophysics (geophysical exploration methods), and Tectonophysics. Graduate courses include Applied Geophysics, Seismic Exploration, and Tectonophysics. These classes provide students with hands-on experience processing and interpreting geophysical data from a variety of geographic regions and tectonic settings, and introduce students to the theoretical concepts behind geophysical exploration techniques and tectonic processes.

Representative Publications

(in press) Harry, D.L., 4-D gravity surveying and active tectonics in the subsurface: A first year campaign in western Nevada and eastern California, Proceedings of the American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference on Migrogal Gravimetry: Instruments, Observations and Applications, IfAG.

1999, Harry, D.L. and J.C. Bowling, Inhibiting Magmatism on Non-volcanic Rifted Margins, Geology, 27, 895-989.

1999, Harry, D.L. and N. Green, Slab dehydration and basalt petrogenesis in subduction systems involving very young oceanic lithosphere, Chem. Geol., 160, 309-333, 1999.

1999, Green, N. and D.L. Harry, On the relationship between subducted slab age and arc basalt petrogenesis, Cascadia subduction system, North America, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 171,367-381, 1999.

1998, Harry, D.L., and K. Mickus, Gravity constraints on lithospheric flexure and the structure of the Ouachita orogen in Arkansas and Oklahoma, Tectonics, v. 17, 187-202, 1998.

1996, Harry, D.L. and M. Batzle, Acoustic properties of ultramafic rocks from the Iberia abyssal plain, in Whitmarsh, R.B., Sawyer, D.S., and Klaus, A. (Eds.), Proc. ODP, Sci. Results, v. 149, 343-351.

1996, Harry, D.L. and M. Batzle, In situ velocities of sedimentary rocks from the Iberia abyssal plain, in Whitmarsh, R.B., Sawyer, D.S., and Klaus, A. (Eds.), Proc. ODP, Sci. Results, v. 149, 425-429.

1995, Harry, D.L., J.S. Oldow, and D.S. Sawyer, The growth of orogenic belts and the role of crustal heterogeneities in decollement tectonics, GSA Bulletin., 107, 1411-1426.

1995, Harry, D.L. and W.P. Leeman, Partial melting of melt metasomatized subcontinental mantle and the magma source potential of the lower lithosphere, Journal Geophysical Research, 100, 10,255-10,269.

1993, Harry, D.L., D.S. Sawyer and W.P. Leeman, The mechanics of continental extension: implications for the magmatic and structural evolution of the Great Basin, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 117, 59-71.

1993, Leeman, W.P. and D.L. Harry, Magma generation during the early stages of extension in the Great Basin of western North America, Science, v. 262, 1550-1554.

1992, Harry, D.L. and D.S. Sawyer, Basaltic volcanism, mantle plumes and the mechanics of rifting: the Parana flood basalt province of South America, Geology, v. 20, 207-210.

1992, Harry, D.L. and D.S. Sawyer, A dynamic model of extension in the Baltimore Canyon trough region, U.S. Atlantic Margin, Tectonics, v. 11, 420-436.

1991, Harry, D.L. and J. F. Ferguson, Bounding the State of Stress at Oceanic Convergent Zones, Tectonophysics, v. 187, 305-314.

1991, Sawyer, D.S. and D.L. Harry, Dynamic modeling of divergent margin formation: application to the U.S. Atlantic margin, Marine Geology, v. 102, 29-42.

1984, Brooks, D., R. L. Carlson, D.L. Harry, P. Melia, R. Moore, J. Rayhorn and S. Tubb, Characteristics of back-arc basins, Tectonophysics, v. 102, 1-16.