Richard Hugh Sibson FRS (born 1945) is a New Zealand structural geologist and emeritus professor at the University of Otago, who has received numerous honors and awards for his work in the field of earthquake research.
[1][2] He has caused a 'fundamental shift' in the interpretation of the relationship between earthquakes and fault zone geology and on the origin of fault-hosted mineral deposits.
[4] Sibson's subsequent decision to study geology was significantly influenced by his uncle, the paleontologist and naturalist Sir Charles Fleming, who suggested this subject to him.
[6] From 1982 to 1990 he worked at the Institute for Crustal Studies and Department of Geological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara.
His doctoral thesis dealt with pseudotachylites of the Outer Hebrides, he proved that these rocks are due to earthquake events, as is currently accepted.