Rachel Abercrombie is a seismologist at Boston University known for her research on the process of earthquake ruptures.
After three years in New Zealand (1995–1998) at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, she went to Harvard University from 1998 to 2001.
She joined Boston University in 2001, and became a Research Associate Professor in 2006.
[15] Using measurements of small earthquakes at the Cajon Pass drill hole, Abercrombie's research revealed attenuation of the signals used to characterize earthquakes in the upper portion of the Earth's crust[6][16] and tracked small earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault.
[19] She was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2020 "For groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of earthquakes over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales".