Using Carrierwave, I created 3 versions of an avatar - an original, a small_thumb and a large_thumb using the following lines:
process :resize_to_limit => [40
check this latest RailsCast:
http://railscasts.com/episodes/182-cropping-images-revised
after cropping one version of the image, you can then either calculate the cropping coordinates for the other versions, or probably easier, scale down the cropped image with the same aspect ratios as the other versions of the original image