Home -> Research Focus Areas -> Geodynamics and Tectonics
Tectonics and Seismology
Faculty
Kazuya Fujita — Global Tectonics, Earthquake Seismology
Brian Hampton — Clastic sedimentology, Tectonics
Julie C. Libarkin — Paleoaltimetry
Kevin Mackey — Earthquake Seismology
Emeritus Faculty
William F. Cambray — Petrology, Mineralogy, Structural Geology
Selected Research Topics
Intraplate activity in northeast Siberia and northern Alaska
We use seismic waveform and travel-time analysis of teleseismic, Russian regional and Alaskan local network data, to study intraplate activity in northeast Siberia and northern Alaska. In cooperation with the Yakut Science Center, Russia, and the University of Alaska, we have deployed digital recording systems in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia.
Seismology and tectonics of eastern Russia, western Alaska, the Arctic, and Michigan is studied using multiple data sets, including seismicity, seismotectonics, travel-time analysis, image and map interpretation, geology, and geochronology. These results are applied to earthquake prediction, nuclear monitoring, resource evaluation, plate interactions, seismic hazards, crustal structure, and tectonic evolution. In cooperation with the Yakut Science Center, Russia, and the University of Alaska, we have deployed digital recording systems in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia.
Related Publications:
Rautian, T., Khalturin, V., Fujita, K., Mackey, K., and Kendall, A., 2007. Origins and methodology of the Russian energy K-class system and its relationship to magnitude scales: Seismological Research Letters, v. 78(6), in press.
Hindle, D., Fujita, K., and Mackey, K., 2006. Current deformation rates and extrusion of the northwestern Okhotsk plate, northeast Russia: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 33, doi:10.1029/2005GL024814.
Long-term evolution of sedimentary basins and mountain belts
Tectonics-oriented research is geared towards a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in creating topographic features such as mountains and plateaus, as well as other structures related to uplift.
Related Publications:
Garzione C.N., Hoke G.D., Libarkin J.C., Withers S., MacFadden B., Eiler J., Ghosh P., Mulch A., 2008,
Rise of the Andes: Science, v.320(5881), 1304-1307.
Hampton, B. A. and Horton, B. K., 2007, Sheetflow fluvial processes in a rapidly subsiding basin, Altiplano plateau, Bolivia, Sedimentology, 54(5), 1121-1148.
BOOK CHAPTER: Libarkin, J.C. and Riihimaki, C., 2007. Ch. 12. Terrestrial Cosmogenic Nuclides as Paleoaltimetric Proxies, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry volume; Paleoelevation: geochemical and thermodynamic approaches, Edited by M. Kohn,
v.66, 269-278.
Farley, K.A., Libarkin, J., Mukhopadhyay, S., and Amidon, W., 2006. Cosmogenic 3He in apatite, titanite, and zircon: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 248, 436-446.
Hampton, B. A., Ridgway, K. D., and Gehrels, G. E., 2005, Detrital Zircon record of the configuration and evolution of the Alaska Range suture zone, South-Central Alaska. GSA Annual Meeting,
Salt Lake City, Utah.
Hampton, B. A., Horton, B. K., Fink, R. J., and LaReau, B. N., 2003, Paleogene basin development and synorogenic sedimentation in the Altiplano plateau, southwest Bolivia: Revista Técnica de Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos, v. 21, p. 229-234.
Libarkin, J.C., and Chase, C.G., 2003. Timing of Colorado Plateau Uplift: Initial constraints from vesicular basalt-derived paleoelevations: Comment and Reply: Geology, v. 31, 191-192.
Horton, B. K., Hampton, B. A., LaReau, B. N., and Baldellón, E., 2002, Tertiary provenance history of the northern and central Altiplano (central Andes, Bolivia): A detrital record of plateau-margin tectonics: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 72, p. 711-726.
