Dr. Michael S. Steckler

Associate Director, Marine and Polar Geophysics, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia Climate School
Lamont Research Professor, Marine and Polar Geophysics, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)
Affiliated with: Undergraduate Special Concentration and Major in Sustainable Development
208 Oceanography 61 Route 9W PO Box 1000 Palisades, NY 10964

BIOGRAPHY:

I am a geophysicist who works mainly on sedimentary systems with projects related both to tectonics and earthquakes, and to sea level and stratigraphy. A particular interest is vertical motions of the Earth’s surface and their preservation in the sedimentary record. My main field area is currently Bangladesh where I work both on the heavily-sedimented IndoBurma subduction zone (IBSZ), including the earthquake hazard, and on deltaic processes in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD), including sea level rise, land subsidence, sedimentation and river avulsions. I have worked in Bangladesh, and adjacent parts of India and Myanmar, for 20 years, taking part in and leading a number of field campaigns. I am also currently working on tectonics in Western Turkey, and on fresh and salty groundwater in both Bangladesh and offshore New Jersey.

How This Campbell Award Winner Creates Impact Through Climate Policy

Carissa O’Donnell talks about her connection to nature, and how that led the way to the Climate School and a career in environmental policy.

May 08, 2025

Chipping Away at the Ice Ceiling: Women Scientists Explore Nepal’s Ponkar Glacier

The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development launched the first Hindu Kush Himalaya Women on Ice expedition in December.

May 08, 2025

All of the Biggest U.S. Cities Are Sinking

From the coasts to the interior, urban areas are sinking. The main culprit: pumping of groundwater.

PROJECTS

Only select projects listed below

Name	Start Date	End Date
Collaborative Research The North Anatolian Fault system in the Marmara Sea, Turkey Insights from the Quaternary evolution of a multi-stranded transform	2/15/13	1/31/15
Collaborative Research: Subduction below Extreme Sedimentation – A multidisciplinary transect from the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta to the IndoBurma Backarc	9/1/17	8/31/22
Collaborative Research: The North Anatolian Fault in the Marmara Sea, Turkey: The Growth of Continental Transform	9/1/09	12/31/12
Collaborative Research: The North Anatolian Fault system in the Marmara Sea, Turkey - Insights from the Plio-Quaternary evolution of a multi-stranded transform	10/1/15	9/30/19
Collaborative Research: Uplift and Faulting at the Transition from Subduction to Collision - A Field and Modeling Study of the Calabrian Arc	8/1/06	9/30/14
Collision of the Burma Arc Accretionary Prism and Foldbelt with the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh	2/1/07	3/31/13
Forward and Inverse Modeling the Neogene Evolution of the NJ Continental Margin Based on Results from IODP EXP 313	4/23/10	10/3/12
Life on a Tectonically Active Delta: Convergence of Earth Science and Geohazard Research in Bangladesh with Education and Capacity Building	6/1/10	8/31/18
Long Term Monitoring, Research and Analysis of Bangladesh Coastal Zone (Sustainable Polders Adapted to Coastal Dynamics) Under Coastal Embankment Improvement Project	11/1/18	5/1/21
Research Opportunities In Space And Earth Sciences 2010 (ROSES-2010)	2/7/12	2/28/17
Seasonal COSEE: Environmental Stress and Human Migration in Two Developing Coastal Nations: A Comparison of Co-evolving Natural and Human Landscapes in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka	6/1/11	9/30/17
Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of the Ganges Brahmaputra Delta: Field-Validated, Multi-Sensor Analysis of Interannual Flooding and Channel Movement	7/18/12	6/16/18
Tectonics in the Western Anatolian Extensional Province from sequence stratigraphic modeling of multichannel seismic data in the Gulf of Kusadasi	3/15/16	2/28/22
Collaborative Research: RAPID: Submarine Record of Disastrous Earthquakes at a Strain Partitioned Transpressional Boundary: Haiti 2010 and 2021	11/1/21	11/30/22
GNSS and InSAR Surface Deformation Constraints on a 3-D Geodetic Model of the Indo-Burma Subduction Zone	2/23/23	2/22/26

8 PUBLICATIONS ON COLUMBIA | ACADEMIC COMMONS

Only select publications listed below

Name	Published Date
Synthesis of the distribution of subsidence of the lower Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, Bangladesh	2022
Locked and loading megathrust linked to active subduction beneath the Indo-Burman Ranges	2016
Evidence for widespread creep on the flanks of the Sea of Marmara transform basin from marine geophysical data	2012
Evidence for widespread creep on the flanks of the Sea of Marmara transform basin from marine geophysical data: Supplementary figures	2012
Reconstruction of Tertiary Progradation and Clinoform Development on the New Jersey Passive Margin by 2-D Backstripping	1999
Early Mesozoic rift basins of eastern North America and their gravity anomalies: The role of detachments during extension	1988
Thermal consequences of lithospheric extension: Pure and simple	1988
Conrad Deep: a new northern Red Sea deep. Origin and implications for continental rifting	1986

PUBLICATIONS

Most Cited Papers (>300 citations)

Steckler, M.S., and A.B. Watts, Subsidence of the Atlantic-type Continental Margin off New York, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 41, 1-13, 1978.

van Geen, A., Y. Zheng, R. Versteeg, M. Stute, A. Horneman, R. Dhar, M. Steckler, A. Gelman, C. Small, H. Ahsan, J. Graziano, I. Hussein, and K. M. Ahmed. Spatial Variability of Arsenic in 6000 Contiguous Tube Wells of Araihazar, Bangladesh, Water Resources Res. 39, 1140, 2003.

Watts, A.B., G.D. Karner, and M.S. Steckler, Lithospheric Flexure and the evolution of sedimentary basins, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London A, 305, 249-281, 1982.Bodine, J.H., M.S. Steckler and A.B. Watts, Observations of Flexure and the Rheology of the Oceanic Lithosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 86, 3695-3707, 1981.

Bodine, J.H., M.S. Steckler and A.B. Watts, Observations of Flexure and the Rheology of the Oceanic Lithosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 86, 3695-3707, 198

Buck, W.R., F. Martinez, M.S. Steckler and J.R. Cochran, Thermal consequences of extension: pure and simple, Tectonics, 7, 213-234, 1988.

Watts, A.B. and M.S. Steckler, Subsidence and Eustasy at the Continental Margin of Eastern North America, Maurice Ewing Series, 3, 218-234, 1979.

Watts, A.B., J.H. Bodine and M.S. Steckler, Observations of Flexure and the State of Stress in the Oceanic Lithosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 85, 6369-6376, 1980.

Auerbach, L., Goodbred, S., Mondal, D., Wilson, C., Ahmed, K.R., Roy, K., Steckler, M., Gilligan, J., Ackerly, B. In the Balance: Natural v. Embanked Landscapes in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Tidal Delta Plain, Nature Climate Change. 5, 153-157, doi: 10.1038/nclimate2472, 2015.

Recent Publications

Steckler, M.S., Stein, S., S.H. Akhter, L. Seeber, The wicked problem of earthquake hazard in developing countries, EOS, 99, doi: 10.1029/2018EO093625, 2018.

Grall, C., M.S. Steckler, J.L. Pickering, S. Goodbred, R. Sincavage, C. Paola, S.H Akhter, V. Spiess. A base-level stratigraphic approach to determining Holocene subsidence of the Ganges–Meghna–Brahmaputra Delta plain. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 499, 23–36, 10.1016/j.epsl.2018.07.008, 2018.

Mondal, D., C.M. McHugh, R.M. Mortlock, M.S. Steckler, S. Mustaque, Microatolls document the 1762 and prior earthquakes along the southeast coast of Bangladesh, Tectonophysics, 745, 196–213, 10.1016/j.tecto.2018.07.020, 2018.

Betka, P.M., L. Seeber, S. Thomson, M.S. Steckler, R. Sincavage, C. Zoramthara, Slip partitioning above a shallow, weak décollement beneath the Indo-Burman accretionary prism, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 503, 17–28, 10.1016/j.epsl.2018.09.003, 2018.

Grimaud, J.-L., C. Grall, S. Goodbred, M.S. Steckler, R. Sincavage, C. Paola, J.L. Pickering, N. Seeber, M. S. Hossain,. Late Quaternary sediment partitioning related to deep structure in the Garo-Rajmahal Gap, northwest Bengal Basin, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 32, 1242–1260. https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12425, 2020.

Chamberlain, E.L., S.L. Goodbred, R. Hale, M.S. Steckler, J. Wallinga, C. Wilson, Integrating geochronologic and instrumental approaches across the Bengal Basin, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 45, 56-74., https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4687, 2020.

Sincavage,R., P.M. Betka, S.N. Thomson, L. Seeber, M.S. Steckler, C. Zoramthara, Neogene shallow marine and fluvial sediment dispersal, burial, and exhumation in the ancestral Brahmaputra delta: Indo-Burman Ranges, India, Journal of Sedimentary Research, 90, 1–20, doi: 10.2110/jsr.2020.60, 2020.

Betka, P.M, S.N. Thomson, R. Sincavage, C. Zoramthara, C. Lalremruatfela, K.A. Lang, M.S. Steckler, D. Bezbaruah, P. Borgohain, L. Seeber, Provenance Shifts During Neogene Brahmaputra Delta Progradation Tied to Coupled Climate and Tectonic Change in the Eastern Himalaya, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 22, e2021GC010026. doi: 10.1029/2021GC010026, 2021.

Steckler, M.S., B. Oryan, C.A. Wilsan, C. Grall, S.L. Nooner, D.R. Mondal, S.H. Akhter, S. DeWolf, S.L. Goodbred, Synthesis of the Distribution of Subsidence of the Lower Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, Bangladesh, Earth-Science Reviews, 224, 103887, doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103887, 2022.

Okay Gunaydin, S., C.C. Sorlien, M.-H. Cormier, B. Barın, L. Seeber, M.S. Steckler, G. Çifci, D. Dondurur, H. Kurt, H.M. Küçük, O. Atgın, Ö. Özel, Post-500 ka and Holocene Activity on Distributed Faults of the North Anatolian Fault System Along the Southern Shelf of Marmara Sea, Turkey, Tectonophysics, 840, 229547, doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2022.229547, 2022.

Zumberge, M.A., S. Xie, F.K. Wyatt, M.S. Steckler, G. Li, W. Hatfield, D. Elliott, T.H. Dixon, J.G. Bridgeman, E.L. Chamberlain, M. Allison , T.E. Törnqvist, Novel Integration of Geodetic and Geologic Methods for High-Resolution Monitoring of Subsidence in the Mississippi Delta, Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 127, e2022JF006718, doi: 10.1029/.2022JF006718, 2022.

Staff and Affiliates Directory