Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni

Carolina Raquel Lithgow-Bertelloni is a geophysicist known for her research on the role of subsurface processes in shaping the Earth. She was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2021.

Education and career Lithgow-Bertelloni has a B.Sc. from the University of Puerto Rico (1987) and earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1994. particularly in the geological past. She has examined processes that contribute to variability in plate motion including mineralogy in the subsurface and chemical heterogeneity in the mantle. Her research has contributed to our understanding of the early history of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain and the role of changes in viscosity in establishing a boundary in the mantle at one megameter below the Earth's surface. Lithgow-Bertelloni has also described the movement of oceanic plates, potentially distinct from the movement of land masses, over geologic time.

Selected publications

Awards and honors

Kavli Frontiers of Science, National Academy of Sciences (2003) Francis Birch Lecture, American Geophysical Union (2018) Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2021)

Personal life Lithgow-Bertelloni's sister, Anna M. Lithgow-Bertelloni, is also a scientist and works on natural products from marine organisms, one of which may aid in fighting against SARS-CoV-2.

Lithgow-Bertelloni resides in Santa Monica, California.