[1] Jackson was born and raised in India, which probably established his interest in all aspects of Asia, which is where much of his current research has been concentrated.
His research was within geophysics and used earthquakes to study the processes that produce the major surface features of the continents, such as mountain belts and basins.
It included field work with seismometers in Iran and with the Seismic Discrimination Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[3] Using evidence from earthquakes, remote sensing, geodesy and geomorphology he is able to observe, quantitatively, the geometry and rates of deformation processes while they are active.
[1] In addition to seismology, his current research uses space-based remote sensing (including radar interferometry, GPS measurements and optical imagery) combined with observations of the landscape in the field, to study the evolution and deformation of the continents on all scales, from the movement of individual faults in earthquakes to the evolution of mountain belts.