Hochstetter Lecture

The Hochstetter Lecturer (named in honour of Ferdinand von Hochstetter - see below) is chosen annually by the Awards Subcommittee. He or she gives a lecture at GSNZ branches during the year on recently completed and largely unpublished findings, and must have a reputation as a good speaker. Send your 2014 nomination to the Awards committee now!

The 2013 Hochstetter Lecturer is Mark Quigley from Canterbury University. Mark will be touring the country during the year (itinerary and lectures below). At University centres the Hochstetter and a Supplementary lecture are given (abstracts below).

About the speaker

Mark Quigley is a Senior Lecturer in Active Tectonics and Geomorphology at the University of Canterbury (UC) in Christchurch, New Zealand. He was appointed at UC in 2008.

Mark was born in London, Ontario, Canada. He obtained his Honours B.Sc. in Geology at the University of Toronto, Canada (1995-99), M.Sc. at the University of New Mexico, U.S.A. (2000-02), and Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne, Australia  (2003-2007). Mark is an active research scientist with over 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles on topics primarily related to earthquakes and active tectonics, climate change and landscape processes. Mark has active research projects in New Zealand, Australia, Tibet, Iran, Mexico, Timor Leste, and Antarctica. Due to the 2010-2012 Canterbury earthquake sequence, most of Mark’s present research is focused in Christchurch and the surrounding area of the eastern-central South Island of New Zealand.

Mark has appeared in the media several hundreds of times over the last few years, participating in numerous television programs and documentaries, and writing articles for the press, science blogs, and popular science magazines. In 2011 Mark was awarded the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Prize for Science Communication and the New Zealand Association of Scientists Science Communication Award for his work in communicating earthquake science to the public in the aftermath of the Darfield and Christchurch earthquakes. In 2012 Mark founded the SAVVY program for science communication in New Zealand in collaboration with the New Zealand Science Media Centre. Mark was awarded the 2012 Emerging Researcher Award from the College of Science at the University of Canterbury and is the 2013 Geoscience Society of New Zealand Hochstetter Lecturer.

Mark presently lives in Riccarton, Christchurch with his lovely partner Candice Egan and his big fluffy dog Luna.

Hochstetter Lecture

Geologic and geomorphic impacts of the 2010-2012 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence and local evidence for large prehistoric earthquakes

Abstract: The Canterbury earthquake sequence (CES) started with the 2010 moment magnitude (Mw) 7.1 Darfield earthquake and includes thousands of Mw ≥ 3 aftershocks, most notably the fatal 22 Feb Mw 6.2 Christchurch earthquake. The largest CES earthquakes caused geologic and geomorphic processes that changed the Canterbury landscape. Some of these changes lasted only hours and others will persist in the geologic record for 103 to 106 yrs or longer. Careful documentation of the geomorphic and geologic effects of the Canterbury earthquake sequence and comparing these with instrumental seismic data is important because it helps to define the seismic thresholds for generating these phenomena and it enables paleoseismologists to better interpret these features when they are observed in the geologic record. This talk will summarize the impacts of the CES and show new evidence for the timing, extent, and conditions of prehistoric earthquakes in this region, including penultimate rupture on the Greendale Fault, prehistoric liquefaction in eastern Christchurch, and prehistoric rockfall in the Port Hills south of Christchurch. Better attention to the geologic record will help us to avoid further land planning mistakes and increase societal and financial resilience to future earthquakes both in Christchurch and elsewhere in New Zealand.

Supplementary Lecture

Eroding Landscapes

The measurement of cosmogenic ¹⁰Be contained in rock and sediment can be used to characterise erosion rates on spatial scales ranging from a single outcrop to entire mountain ranges, and temporal scales spanning thousands to millions of years. This is important information when investigating the relative importance of climatic, topographic, and tectonic processes in governing how, and how fast, continental landscapes erode. This talk will present the results from hundreds bedrock erosion measurements from a variety of locations around the planet, including the desert close to the source of the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor - Cucapah earthquake in Baja California, Mexico, actively incising streams in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, and tropical, desert, and cool temperate climate landscapes spanning the entire Australia continent. New predictive relationships between lithology, climate, seismic strain rate and bedrock erosion rate will be proposed for discussion and debate.