KU News Release

KU researcher selected to present geophysics work around the globe

Don Steeples

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas researcher and administrator has been chosen to speak around the world on geophysical imaging, a process that can detect everything from drug-smuggling tunnels to earthquake faults.

Don Steeples, Dean A. McGee Distinguished Professor of Applied Geophysics and vice provost for scholarly support, was selected by the Society for Exploration Geophysicists as distinguished lecturer for fall 2007. The society has more than 25,000 members in more than 130 countries.

Steeples will deliver the lectures from August through the end of 2007. Past lecturers have spoken in Brazil, Venezuela, Nigeria, South Africa, China, Canada and universities throughout the United States. The society will make the topic of the lecture available on the Internet, and organizations that want to host a presentation can make a request. The society covers all costs of the presentation.

Steeples’ topic will be near-surface geophysical imaging, a method that uses seismic technology and radar to search below the Earth’s surface, similar to ultrasound imaging in medicine. The method has been used to detect clandestine smuggling tunnels, buried earthquake faults and underground pathways for groundwater pollutants. He has consulted with the government of South Korea to use the technique to look for tunnels in the demilitarized zone, and the United States has used the method to search for drug-smuggling tunnels beneath the border with Mexico.

The imaging methods also have great potential in public safety. They can help detect and monitor underground faults and the safety of levees.

“Our researchers have been real leaders in developing a method for evaluating the structural integrity of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers levees with these methods,” Steeples said.

The methods could help prevent flood damage from broken levees, such as those in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“A complete geophysical survey ahead of time could have told them where those weak spots were,” Steeples said.

During his lectureship, Steeples will continue as vice provost for scholarly support at KU. He will use mobile technology to conduct university business while traveling. The lectureship will not affect his professorship, as he teaches primarily in the spring semester.

A native of Palco in Rooks County, Steeples has been with KU since 1975. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kansas State University, he earned another master’s and a doctorate in geophysics from Stanford University before joining KU. He has won numerous awards, a fellowship from the Geological Society of America and a life membership in the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. He also maintains wheat and milo fields on a family farm in northwest Kansas.

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