PAST NEWS ITEMS

Winter 2017: Rebecca has taken a new position at Bochum University in Germany - we are very happy she will stay an active (and frequently visiting) member of McGill's Earthquake Processes Group. We are pleased to welcome Dr. Lei Zhang who will be visiting from the Institute of Geology at the China Earthquake Administration. Dr. Zhang is a specialist in experimental fault friction so we are looking forward to exciting discussions. The group published several new papers in late 2016, including Yu et al. (BSSA), Deng et al. (GRL) and Li et al. (JGR).

Summer 2016: Congrats to our Graduates! Rebecca and Emily have a new paper in BSSA relocating earthquakes and LFEs near Parkfield. Yajing and Rebecca were coauthors on a paper in SRL demonstrating that hydraulic fracturing, rather than wastewater injection, probably caused a large earthquake in BC. Andres presented at the Chapman Conference on Tremor and Slow Slip, and Bei gave a talk at AGU. Fiona scored an IRIS internship for the summer at the USGS in Pasadena and will be on exchange at Woods Hole in the fall. Christie gave an invited keynote on earthquake indicators in the rock record at a meeting of the Royal Society of London. Ben's paper on seismic brecciation came out in JSG, and Matt's paper on using lentils to simulate scaly fabrics was published in Geology. Four students were awarded GSA Student Research Grants (Kelian, Sam, Noah and Erik) and Caroline won a research grant from the European Consortium for Ocean Drilling (ECORD)!! Jamie and Tucker's paper on the damage zone in the Japan Trench came out in JGR. Kelian, Mack and Jamie completed a field campaign measuring fault surface roughness in Utah. Hongyu successfully defended her thesis at Peking U. and is returning as a postdoc. Andres, Ge and Noah passed their qualifying exams. Duo is off to IPGP as a summer visiting student. Ge, Yajing and Rebecca have new paper in Journal of Structural Geology reviews the current state of knowledge about how to find evidence for ancient earthquakes in the rock record. We set up 8 broadband seismometers in the Montney Basin (BC) to record induced seismicity near a hydraulic fracturing site.

September, 2014: Graduate student orientation week (Sept 2-6) and dept BBQ. Rebecca has been awarded a grant from the Canadian Fund for Innovation to build the McGill Seismic Rupture Dynamics Observatory which will add 10 Trillium Compact broadband seismometers to the instrument pool! Yajing has a new paper out in JGR.

Fall 2014: EPSC551 Seminar in Crustal Rheology. See Course Page for most recent draft of reading list.

2013-2014 Reading Group: Water in Subduction Zones with FlexPet Group. Topics included geochemical and mechanical interactions between subducting fluids and the plate boundary faults in subduction zones, with emphasis on geochemical tracers, water budgets, and the feedbacks between water and slip behaviour at different depths.

August, 2014: Congratulations to Tim Sherry for passing his MS thesis! Getting ready for the arrival of new students- 3 PhD, 1 MS, and 2 postdocs. And, new geophones and field laptop have arrived - training will start in the fall for seismology students

July, 2014: Dr. Christine Regalla has arrived to start her NSF-funded postdoc with Yajing and Christie, working on the structural and seismological effects of subduction of seamounts.

June, 2014: Thesis submission by Meng Peng (MS) Congratulations to Meng! She is going to the Applied Geophysics program at IPGP in Paris.

May, 2014: Thesis submissions by Tim Sherry (MS), Veronica Schnitzer (BS), Kelsey Lamothe (MS), and Charlotte Bate (MS). Congratulations Graduates!!
Keynote talk by Christie (GAC-MAC meeting, Fredericton)

April, 2014: Rebecca Harrington giving a lunchtime talk on microseismicity and tremor on the San Andreas - insights for earthquake scaling

March, 2014: New video highlighting upcoming structural and hydrological studies on the Champlain Thrust (from Tom Gleeson, McGill Civil Engineering.
Rebecca awarded Teaching Improvement Grant, with matching funds from the EPS department and the Monteregion Society (undergraduate club) for the purchase of a Geode 24-geophone Vertical Seismic Profile imaging system! Thanks to the supporters!

December, 2013: Three papers in the journal Science this month announcing the results of IODP Expedition 343 (Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project). Christie is second author of the paper reporting geological observations from the plate boundary fault which produced the 2011 M9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake.

AGU 2013 Poster (3.5 MB pdf) by Horstmann, Harrington, and others on low-frequency EQ on the central San Andreas

October, 2013: Water in Subduction Zones Reading Group - Fridays at 10 in the coffee lounch starting 4 Oct. Plus - a Geology Research Focus on "seismites".

Keynote talk at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver, Colorado: Do Faults Preserve Records of the Seismic Cycle? 14 Years of advancements from field observations and laboratory experiments by Rowe, Griffith, Resor and Cowan
Invited talk at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver, Colorado: Silica lubrication in faults by Rowe, Rempe, Lamothe, Kirkpatrick, Mitchell, Andrews and Di Toro

September, 2013: New students arriving! And Two papers in the journal Geology and one in JGR this month.

READING LISTS

Tectonics of California and New Zealand
This is the reading list for winter 2015. Topics include: Anything related to the current or past evolution of California and New Zealand: subduction initiation, ore formation, accretion, collision, and hazards.

Water in Subduction Zones
This is the reading list for 2013-2014 with
FlexPet Group. Topics include geochemical and mechanical interactions between subducting fluids and the plate boundary faults in subduction zones, with emphasis on geochemical tracers, water budgets, and the feedbacks between water and slip behaviour at different depths.