I am a Postdoctoral Researcher (in Solid Earth Geophysics) at the University of Lausanne. I obtained a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MSc. from University College London and a BSc. from the University of the West Indies.
I like the analogy of the Earth as an apple where the skin is the crust and the mantle the “meat” because it puts into perspective the extent of the processes happening below us that we do not readily see. This outlook drives my research into the tectonic processes that shape and affect the Earth which includes but is not limited to the creation and destruction of lithosphere, volcanism, seismicity, orogenesis and mantle dynamics. My other interest lies in sharing this research not only with the scientific community but also with the general public through educational outreach activities.
My PhD was focused on the Andean Margin, specifically the Pampean flat slab where the Nazca plate subducts beneath the South American Plate in Central Chile and Argentina. We imaged this region through a joint inversion of P and S arrival times of local body waves from earthquakes and phase delays from surface wave dispersion measurements from both ambient noise and earthquakes. Presently, I am continuing my research on the Andean Margin while also expanding it to include the Alpine Region.
Publications
- Maharaj, A., Roecker, S., Alvarado, P., Trad, S., Beck, S., & Comte, D. (2023). Are volatiles from subducted ridges on the Pampean flat slab fracking the crust? Evidence from an enhanced seismicity catalog. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24(10), e2023GC011021. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GC011021
- Roecker, S., Maharaj, A., Meyers, S., & Comte, D. (2021). Double differencing by demeaning: applications to hypocenter location and wavespeed tomography. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 111(3), 1234-1247. https://doi.org/10.1785/0120210007
Conferences
AGU Poster Presentations – Presenting Author
- Roecker, S. W., Maharaj, A., Alvarado, P. M., Beck, S. L., & Comte, D. (2022, December). Are Volatiles from the Pampean Flat Slab Fracking the Crust? Evidence from an Enhanced Seismicity Catalogue. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 2022, pp. T15E-0163).
- Roecker, S. W., Maharaj, A., Navarro-Aránguiz, A. P., Venerdini, A. L., Saez, M., Comte, D., & Trad, S. (2022, December). Reanalyzing Existing Seismic Observations to Image the Pampean Flat Slab Region. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 2022, pp. DI32C-0025).
- Roecker, S., Maharaj, A., Comte, D., Navarro-Aranguiz, A., & Alvarado, P. (2021, December). Imaging a Potential Lithospheric Root Trapped Above the Pampean Flat Slab. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 2021, pp. DI45D-0041).
2nd IEEE Workshop on Machine Learning for Big Data Analytics in Remote Sensing – Oral Presentation (Virtual) and Paper
- Maharaj, A., & Munasinghe, T. (2020, December). Investigating the Relationship Between High-Latitude Dust and Precipitation. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) (pp. 3934-3942). IEEE.
IEEE Poster Presentation
- Ngweta, L., Bhanot, K., Maharaj, A., Bogle, I., & Munasinghe, T. (2019, December). Identifying the Relationship between Precipitation and Zika Outbreaks in Argentina. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) (pp. 6163-6165). IEEE.