Measuring the aspect ratio of pseudotachylyte injection veins, Santa Rosa Mylonite Zone

The Earthquake Processes research group at McGill incorporates seismology, numerical and theoretical modeling, structural geology, field mapping, and minerology in the study of fault geometry and slip behaviours. We address questions about rheology, spatial and temporal controls on fault creep, tremor and earthquakes, mineral- earthquake interactions and the role of fluids.

See faculty websites for more information about other research interests, including volcano seismology (Harrington), marine geology and inversion tectonics (Kirkpatrick), soft sediment deformation and ore deposits (although usually not at the same time; Rowe), subducting seamounts and glacier sliding (Liu).

Potential students and postdocs: If you are interested in joining our group, contact any of the faculty members by email. Also see Christie's information for prospective applicants.

Rebecca Harrington
Earthquake seismology
Now at: Ruhr Universitat Bochum
James Kirkpatrick
Fault mechanics
EPSC350: Tectonics (Winter)
EPSC303: Structural Geology (Fall)
EPSC503: Advanced Structural Geology (Fall)
Yajing Liu
Theoretical and numerical modeling and seismology
EPSC 320: Elementary Earth Physics (Fall)
EPSC 520: Physics and Geology of Earthquakes (Winter)
Christie Rowe
Field & structural geology
EPSC 231: Field School I (Summer)
EPSC 240: Geology in the Field (Fall)
EPSC 551: Crustal Rheology (Fall)
EPSC 645: Tectonics in the Field (Summer)

News and Updates

Fall 2021: Welcome lots of new students! MS students Erin Eves, Amy Lu, Emily Perry, Lan Xi Zhu, PhD student Julia Baumgarte, and visiting student Ricarda Wache
Virtual field trips developed by the EPS department including lots of EQP folks! Metro@Monteregie

Fall 2020: Jamie and Christie are convening the 2022 Penrose Conference on the Geology of Slow Slip
Welcome new postdoc Veronica Prush from UC Davis

Summer 2020: Group Meeting calendar for the semester

Fall 2019: Advanced undergrad / Graduate level course Crustal Rheology, to include collaborative research built around a field trip. Welcome to new PhD students Meghomita Das and Moses Angombe, undergraduate Maggie Whelan!

Summer 2019: New graduate level field skills course "Tectonics in the Field" -- email Christie for details (enrollment deadline March)

Winter 2019: Welcome to the group: PhD student Inga Boianju, Undergraduates Audrey Woo and Ava Ghods (John Abbott)

Events and Activities

Fall 2021: Happy to say that in-person and/or hybrid group meetings will resume! Schedule continually updated here: schedule

Winter 2021: Pore pressure reading group? Summer 2019: Only occasional group meetings, check schedule for details.

Winter 2019: A new plan for weekly group meetings to discuss science, careers, skills, and whatever other topics people want to learn about. Schedule here.
Jamie and Yajing organizing a reading group on rate and state friction (Click here for reading list)




Current
Post-doctoral researchers Ph.D. Students M.S. Students Undergraduates
Dr. Taka Kanaya - Mechanics of induced seismicity

Dr. Matthew Tarling - Creeping faults, serpentinization, mineralogy, fault architecture

Dr. Wenqiang Zhang - subduction zone earthquake sequence model

Julia Baumgarte - Experimental rock friction and geometry effects

Justin Chien - Environmental Seismology

Moses Angombe - Seismic cycle and pressurization in a low-angle thrust system

Meghomita Das - Structures in the subduction plate boundary at tremorgenic depths

Inga Boianju - Fold-thrust belt architecture and seismic behaviour

Amy Lu - slow slip and megathrust earthquake rupture simulation

Lan Xi Zhu - Whale calls and marine noise

Chang Guo - Dynamic rupture simulations

Aube Gourdeau - Geomorphic expressions of recent faulting, greater Montreal area Lekima Yakuden - Direct Shear Experiments on Natural Fault Surfaces

Dana Marino - Surface expression of the northern Calaveras fault zone

Nehale Matheus - Ptygmatic folds in the Naukluft Mountains cap carbonates
Co-supervised with Martin Harris

Eva Goblot - Seismic detection of whales in the St Lawrence

Olivia Locke - Ambient noise and permafrost velocity changes




Alumni
Post-doctoral researchers Ph.D. Students M.S. Students Undergraduates
Dr. Clément Estève, 2022 - Beaufort Sea seismicity and fault structure

Dr. Veronica Prush, 2022 - Recent faulting in Canada

Dr. Alissa Kotowski, 2022 - Mechanical behavior of phyllosilicates in plate boundary shear zones

Dr. Alessandro Verdecchia, 2021 - Seismotectonics

Dr. Carly Faber, 2020 - Structural evolution and strength changes during eclogite retrogression

Dr. Julia Kubanek, 2019 - Geodetic observations of fluid injection and earthquakes in western Canada

Dr. Hongyu Yu, 2019 - Subduction zone earthquake modeling at Manila and Chile

Dr. Randy Williams, 2018 - Formation of clay gouge in the San Andreas Fault

Dr. Kai Deng, 2017 - Poroelastic model for induced earthquakes, now Associate Professor at Chengdu University of Technology, China

Dr. Guoyan Jiang, 2015 - Interseismic slip deficit models using GPS and InSAR

Dr. Christine Regalla, 2015 - Effect of seamount subduction on fault geometry and rupture propagation

Dr. John Onweumeka, 2022 - Charlevoix and lower St Lawrence seismicity

Dr. Caroline Seyler, 2021 - Deformation along the subduction plate interface above and below the seismogenic zone

Dr. Ge Li, 2020 - Fault geometrical complexcity and material contrast on earthquake rupture propagation: Observation and modeling

Dr. Andres Peña-Castro, 2020 - Human Induced Earthquakes, Naturally Triggered Seismicity, and Their Interactions

Dr. Noah Phillips, 2019 - The mechanics of slip at the updip limit of the seismogenic zone

Dr. Bei Wang, 2019 - Remote dynamic triggering across Canada and hydraulic fracturing-induced seismicity in British Columbia

Dr. Duo Li, 2018 - Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes and slow slip events

Dr. Hongyu Yu, 2016 - Malina subduction zone seismicity, Charlevoix seismicity

Dr. Ben Melosh, 2015 - Earthquake cycling in the brittle-plastic transition of a transform boundary

Dr. Nils Backeberg, 2015 - Damaged goods: Regional deformation history and structural controls on the Hammond Reef gold deposit

Emily Perry, 2023 - Co-seismic fluid-rock reaction in the Naukluft Thrust
(co-sup by Galen Halverson)

Erin Eves, 2023 - Origins and impacts of flow banding in pseudotachylytes

Arvid Gonzalez Gonzalez, 2022 - Mantle flow in the Cordillera from xenoliths (co-sup by Bill Minarik)

Julia Moreles-Aguirre, 2022 - Glacier seismology (co-sup by Natalya Gomez)

Tim Howell - Sphalerite mobilization during high temp deformation

Ricarda Wacha, visiting student 2022 - Induced seismicity

Lise Alouf, 2021 - Relationship between slow slip events and earthquakes in subduction zones using numerical modeling

Sam Metteer, 2020 - Strength implications of recycle pseudotachylyte fault veins within mylonites of the Norumbega Shear Zone, Southern Maine, USA

Brindley Smith, 2020 - Dynamic Triggering in Northeast BC

Ruholla Keshvardoost, 2020 - Western Quebec seismicity

Nick Ogasa, 2019 - Strength of faults in the brittle to ductile transition

Samantha Carruthers, 2019 - Tectonic tremor-like signal reproduced with fracture, slip, and flow in laboratory deformation experiments on natural blueschist

Catherine Ross, 2017 - Strain distribution around pseudotachylyte faults

Erik Young, 2017 - Distribution of earthquake slip surfaces in a mid-crustal shear zone

Kelian Daschier-Cousineau, 2017 - Roughness evolution with slip

Nick Harrichhausen, 2016 - Role of colloidal transport in the formation of high-grade gold veins at Brucejack, British Columbia

Naomi Barshi, 2015 - Linking deformation and diffusion to develop a strain speedometer

Tim Sherry, 2014 - Earthquakes at stressed ramps emplace injectites

Meng Pang, 2014 - Double-difference earthquake relocation of Charlevoix seismicity, eastern Canada, and implication for regional geological structures

Lukas Lehner, research intern 2023 - Lightening deformation in dolomites

Kiera Hamel, 2023 - Kinematics of hanging wall structures in the Muddy Mountain Thrust

Briana Bellomo, 2023 - Structural setting of monazite in Proterozoic pelites

Kaiyuan Wang, 2023 - Geomorphic expressions of recent faulting, westernmost Quebec

Nathalie Redick, 2023 - Montreal Earthquakes outreach and other projects

Danny Richard, 2022 - Blueschist rocks of Angel Island, California

Aube Gourdeau, 2022 - Neotectonics of Montreal area

Charles Lapointe, 2022 - Petrology of Zn Ores from the Balmat District, NY
(co-sup by Jeanne Paquette)

Maximilien Laly - Geomorphic expressions of recent faulting, western Quebec east of Montreal

Maude Bilodeau, 2021 - Fluid-rock interaction in the Muddy Mountain Thrust

Emily Perry, 2021 - Carbonate fault rocks from the Naukluft

Alexandra Del Aguila, 2020 - Poroelastic stress modeling

Quentin Sapin, 2020 - 3D models and imagery of rock outcrops

Dana Silerova, 2020 - Effects of fault roughness on shear stress

Arvid Gonzalez Gonzalez, 2020 - Mantle flow recorded in Cordilleran xenoliths

Julia Morelas-Aguirre, 2020 - Glacier seismology

Maggie Whelan, 2019 - Underground and surface mapping of the Balmat sphalerite deposit

Audrey Woo, 2019 - Microstructures of blueschist-greenschist transition rocks

Shanshan Li, 2019 - The Quantification and Implication of Fault Surface Roughness

Ty Amorosano, 2019 - project

Mario Nucciarone, 2018 - Water weakening of quartz in high-temperature shear zone

Ava Ghods (John Abbott), 2019 - Coordination of Muddy Mountain field data

Lea Hansen, 2019 - InSAR data processing in Western Canada

Mitchell May, 2018 - Fault Surface Evolution: The Application of In Situ Tribometry and While Light Interferometry

Daphne Saint Denis, 2018 - Mineralogy and microstructure of blueschist and eclogite

Ellie Seery, 2017 - Mineralogy of fault gouges in oceanic basalt

Fiona Clerc, 2017 - Source properties of induced earthquakes in western Alberta and NE British Columbia, now PhD student at MIT/WHOI

Alexander Martell, 2016 - Charlevoix earthquake focal mechanism solutions

Meng Li, 2016 (Mitacs Globalink summer intern from Peking University) - Icequakes in Antarctica, now PhD student at ETHZ

Paul Rakoczy, 2016 - Structure-from-motion using Scanning Electron Microscope imagery

Kassandra Sofonio, 2016 - Comparative study of impact and fault pseudotachylytes

Alex Carey, 2015 - Charlevoix seismicity focal mechanism solutions, now PhD student at U. Toronto

Carla Gonzalez, 2016 - Vein reflections: microstructural study of the Dixie Valley fault mirror surfaces

Catherine Ross, 2016 - A comparison between modelling and field observations of off-fault strain around pseudotachylyte fault veins, Norumbega fault system

Mack Muntwyler, 2016 - Marin Headlands fault gouge analysis, now Pilot

Kelian Daschier-Cousineau, 2015 - Fault rocks of the Champlain Thrust

Emily Griffiths, 2015 - Earthquake relocations of shallow seismicity along the SAF

Matthew Tarling, 2015 - Slip distribution in scaly fabrics

Charlotte Bate, 2014 - Development of Quantitative Measures of Seismically-Induced Brittle Fracture

Kelsey Lamothe, 2014 - Characterization of wear material asssociated with silica lubrication

Veronica Schnitzer, 2014 - Variables controlling desiccation cracking and polygon formation




Images in Title: "Earthquake" patterns from Liu and Rice (2005) JGR, Fig. 5. slip/strike plot in model subduction zone earthquakes. "Processes" image is nano-scale image of core from the 2012 IODP Expedition 343 to the Japan Trench.