Group members:
Group affiliates:
We collaborate with a number of UVic-affiliated researchers at the Geological Survey of Canada, based at the nearby Pacific Geoscience Center in Sidney, BC. These include Kelin Wang (subduction zone geodynamics; earthquake cycle modelling), Honn Kao (earthquake source characterization; induced seismicity), John Cassidy (earthquake seismology; seismic hazard assessment), and Andrew Schaeffer (earthquake seismology; Earth structure).
We also work closely with other UVic faculty, including SEOS's Lucinda Leonard (regional tectonics; seismic and tsunami hazard assessment) and Ruohong Jiao (low-temperature thermochronology; mountain building; landscape evolution), and Geography's Chris Bone (lidar and UAV-based remote sensing) and Sophie Norris (quaternary geology; geomorphology; geochronology).
Ph.D. Students
Theron Finley
Theron is studying the active tectonics of Cascadia and Yukon using a variety of techniques including remote sensing, geodesy, seismology, and field investigation. He is co-supervised with John Cassidy at the Pacific Geoscience Center and is supported by the prestigious Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship from NSERC.
Theron's published articles include:
• Finley, T., Nissen, E., Cassidy, J. Salomon, G., Leonard, L., and Froese, D. Exceptionally long intervals between large earthquakes on the low-slip-rate Tintina fault. Submitted to Nature Geoscience.
• Finley, T., Salomon, G., Stephen, R., Nissen, E., Cassidy, J. and Menounos, B. (2022). Preliminary results and structural interpretations from drone lidar surveys over the Eastern Denali fault, Yukon. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology 2021 K.E. MacFarlane (ed.), Yukon Geological Survey, p. 83–105.
• Finley, T.D., Johnston, S.T., Unsworth, M.J., Banks, J. and Pana, D-I. (2022). Modern dextral strain controls active hydrothermal systems in the southeastern Canadian Cordillera. GSA Bulletin doi: 10.1130/B36500.1.
• Finley, T., Morell, K., Leonard, L., Regalla, C., Johnston, S.T. and Zhang, W. (2019). Ongoing oroclinal bending in the Cascadia forearc and its relation to concave-outboard plate margin geometry. Geology, 47, 155-158.
Theron's awards:
Dr Margaret Perkins Hess Graduate Fellowship in Earth, Ocean, Astronomy and Environmental Sciences (UVic; 2023),
John & Myrtle Tilley Graduate Scholarship (UVic; 2023), Northern Scientific Training Program grant (Government of Canada; 2023, 2024),
President’s Research Scholarship (UVic; 2020, 2021, 2022), Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (NSERC; 2020-2023)
Yan Rahmawan
Yan is new to the research group, having joined just this fall. Yan will be working on the GNSS velocity field and tectonic models for western Canada with his primary superviser, Yan Jiang of the Geological Survey of Canada.
Guy Salomon
Guy has led the development of our state-of-the-art drone lidar system, and is using it to map fault geomorphology on Vancouver Island. He's also used InSAR to map and model a large earthquake in eastern Siberia that helps illuminate the active tectonics of the North Pacific cordillera. During his Masters at the University of Cape Town, Guy studied the geomorphology of newly identified intraplate faulting in Namibia.
Guy's published articles include:
• Salomon, G., Nissen, E., Tan, F., Bergman, E., Sloan, A., and Pousse-Beltran, L. The 2020 Mw 6.4 Koryak Highlands earthquake illustrates hidden seismic hazards in the northern Pacific Cordillera. Submitted to Geophysical Journal International.
• Salomon, G., Finely, T., Nissen, E., Stephen, R. and Menounos, B. (2024). Mapping fault geomorphology with drone-based lidar. Seismica, 3 (1), doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i1.1186.
• Salomon, G.W., New, T., Muir, R.A., Whitehead, B., Scheiber-Enslin, S., Smit, J., Stevens, V., Kahle, B., Kahle, R., Eckhart, F.D., and Sloan, R.A. (2021). Geomorphological and geophysical analyses of the Hebron fault, SW Namibia: Implications for stable continental region seismic hazard. Geophysical Journal international, 229, 235–254.
• Stevens, V.L., Sloan, R.A., Chindandali, P.R., Wedmore, L.N., Salomon, G.W. and Muir, R.A. (2021). The Entire Crust can be Seismogenic: Evidence from Southern Malawi. Tectonics, e2020TC006654.
Guy's awards: James A. Laurette Agnew Memorial Award (UVic; 2022)
Aarti Sharma
Aarti joined the group in Fall 2023 and is studying active tectonics in northwestern Canada, primarily using instrumental seismology. Aarti is co-supervised by Andrew Schaeffer at the Pacific Geoscience Center. Before coming to UVic, Aarti completed an M.Sc. at the University of Manitoba focused on Raleigh wave tomography of Canada, and also worked for two years at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad.
Aarti's awards: Science Emerging Researcher Award (UVic; 2024)
Hang Xu
Hang is visiting from Peking University, where his PhD supervisor is Teng Wang. His expertise lies in fine-tuning InSAR algorithms to measure subtle surface deformation signals, with a current focus on episodic tremor and slip (ETS) in the Cascadia fore-arc. Hang's visit to UVic is sponsored by the China Scholarship Council and is co-supervised by Kelin Wang of the Geological Survey of Canada.
Hang's published articles include:
• Xu,H., Chen, F., Zhou, W. and Wa, C. (2022) Reducing the Residual Topography Phase for the Robust Landscape Deformation Monitoring of Architectural Heritage Sites in Mountain Areas: The Pseudo-Combination SBAS Method. Remote Sensing, 14 (5), 1178.
• Xu,H., Chen, F. and Zhou, W. (2021) A comparative case study of MTInSAR approaches for deformation monitoring of the cultural landscape of the Shanhaiguan section of the Great Wall. Heritage Science, 9, 71.
Hang's awards: China Scholarship Council Scholarship (China; 2024-2025), Principal's Scholarship (Peking University, 2021-2022)
Lei Zhao
Lei is a visiting Ph.D. student from the Central South University in China, where his main supervisor is Wenbin Xu. He uses InSAR and GPS observations to study earthquake cycle deformation, with a current focus on Taiwan and Afghanistan. Lei is co-supervised by Kelin Wang of the Geological Survey of Canada and his visit is sponsored by the China Scholarship Council.
Lei's published articles include:
• Zhao, L., Nissen, E., Xu, W., Jamalreyhani, M., Bergman, E.A., Zhao, D., and Xie, L. Variable fault geometry controls the cascading 2023 Herat, Afghanistan multiplet sequence. In revision for Nature Communications: Earth and Environment.
• Zhao,L., Xu, W., Xie, L., Zhao, D., Zhu, Z., Wu, P. and Guo, H. (2023) Fault geometry and low frictional control of the near-field postseismic deformation of the 2021 Mw 7.3 Maduo earthquake. Tectonophysics, 863.
Lei's awards: China Scholarship Council Scholarship (China; 2023-2025)
Yijie Zhu
Yijie is working on deformation, rheology, and geodynamics of the Cascadia subduction zone, under the primary supervision of Kelin Wang of the Geological Survey of Canada. For his Masters, also at UVic, Yijie studied interseismic strain localization along strike-slip faults using numerical modelling and GPS data.
Yijie's published articles include:
• Zhu, Y., Wang, K., Xie, S., Jiang, Y., and Zhou, X. (2024). Dominance of transient rheology in far-field postseismic deformation following the 2012 Mw 7.8 Haida Gwaii and 2013 Mw 7.5 Craig earthquakes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 636, 118698.
• Wang, K., Zhu, Y., Nissen, E., and Shen, Z.-K. (2021). On the Relevance of Geodetic Deformation Rates to Earthquake Potential. Geophysical Research Letters, 48 (11), e2021GL093231.
• Zhu, Y, Wang, K., and He, J. (2020). Effects of earthquake recurrence on localization of interseismic deformation around locked strike‐slip faults. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, e2020JB019817.
Yijie's awards: China Scholarship Council Scholarship (China; 2021-2024)
M.Sc. students
Taryn Neligan
Taryn is mapping active faulting across western Vancouver Island, taking advantage of newly available Provincial lidar imagery. Taryn is co-supervised with Sophie Norris, at UVic Geography.
Taryn's published articles include:
• Norris, S.L., Organ, J., Dyke, A.S., Neligan, T., Stanton, C.C., Strickland, K., and Gosse, J.C. (2024). Glacial geomorphology of Newfoundland, Canada,. Journal of Maps,20, 2386296.
Taryn's awards: Undergraduate Student Research Awards (NSERC; 2024), Women in Science 2024 Research Symposium Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award (UVic; 2024).
Lekima Yakuden
Lekima recently joined the UVic Earthquakes group from McGill, where he conducted Honours research on friction experiments using natural faults. He is co-supervised by Honn Kao at the Geological Survey of Canada.
Former group members
Dr. Grace (Israporn) Sethanant
Grace's PhD (EOS, UVic, 2024) focused on recent strike-slip earthquakes in Laos and Nevada, using InSAR imagery and elastic dislocation modelling. Grace is now a postdoctoral researcher at University of Melbourne, Australia.
Grace's published articles include:
• Sethanant, I., Nissen, E., Bergman, E., Oliva, S. J., Pousse-Beltran, L., Karasözen, E., and Pananont, P. Recent earthquakes on unmapped faults highlight hidden seismic hazards within the Golden Triangle region of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. In revision for Geophysical Journal International.
• Sethanant, I. and Nissen, E. The InSAR lookbook: an illustrated guide to earthquake interferograms. In revision for Seismica.
• Sethanant, I., Nissen, E., Pousse-Beltran, L., Bergman, E. and Pierce, I. (2023). The 2020 Mw 6.5 Monte Cristro Range (Nevada) earthquake: anatomy of a large rupture through a region of highly-distributed faulting. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, doi: 10.1785/0120220166
Dr. Fengzhou Tan
During his Ph.D. (EOS, UVic, 2024) Fengzhou developed automated methods for detecting and locating earthquakes from continuous seismic waveform data and is an expert in imaging large earthquake ruptures using the back projection technique. Fengzhou's M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies were co-advised with Honn Kao of the Geological Survey of Canada. Fengzhou is now a postdoctoral researcher at University of California–San Diego.
Fengzhou's published articles include:
• Tan, F., Kao, H., Yi, K.M., Nissen, E., Goerzen, C., Hutchinson, J., Gao, D., ans Farahbod, A.M. Next Generation Source Detection by Computer Vision: Untangling the Complexity of the 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake Sequence. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 129 (5), e2024JB028735.
• Tan, F., Kao, H., Nissen, E., and Visser, R. (2020). Tracking Earthquake Sequences in Real Time: Application of Seismicity-Scanning based on Navigated Automatic Phase-Picking (S-SNAP) to the 2019 Ridgecrest, California Sequence. Geophysical Journal International, 223, 1511–1524.
• Tan, F., Kao, H., Nissen, E., and Eaton, D. (2019). Seismicity-Scanning based on Navigated Automatic Phase-picking. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124, 3802-3818.
• Tan, F., Ge, Z., Kao, H., and Nissen, E. (2019). Validation of the 3-D Phase-Weighted Relative Back Projection Technique and its Application to the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura Earthquake. Geophysical Journal International, 217, 375-388.
Dr. Siyu Wang
Siyu's Ph.D. (EOS, UVic, 2024) comprised studies of secular variations of rock uplift rates along Quaternary detachment- and fault-related folds in the northern Tian Shan (China), using InSAR time series analysis, GPS data and thermochronological methods. She is interested in landscape evolution in tectonically-active areas and links between tectonics, climate and surface processes. Siyu's primary Ph.D. advisor was Ruohong Jiao.
Siyu's published articles include:
• Wang, S., Nissen, E., Pousse-Beltran, L., Craig, T.J., Jiao, R., and Bergman, E.A. (2022) Structural controls on co-seismic rupture revealed by the 2020 Mw 6.0 Jiashi earthquake (Kepingtag belt, SW Tian Shan, China). Geophysical Journal International, 230 (3), ggac159.
Dr. Sarah Jaye Oliva
Sarah was part of our group for two years as a postdoc and an inaugural Dr Margaret Perkins Hess Research Fellow, working with Ed and Andrew Schaeffer on using waveform modelling to investigate the structure and seismicity beneath and offshore Haida Gwaii. Sarah is now a Geophysics faculty at the Universidad de Chile.
Sarah's published articles include:
• Oliva, S. J., Bostock, M. G., Schaeffer, A. J., Nissen, E., Merrill, R., Hughes, A., Roecker, S. W., Nedimovic, M. R., Roland, E., Worthington, L. L., Walton, M. A. L., and Gase, A. (2024). Incipient Subduction and Slip Partitioning at High Obliquity: the Haida Gwaii Plate Boundary. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 129 (5), e2024JB028752.
Roger Stephen
As the group's research technician, Roger lead the construction, development, and testing of a new lidar drone – euqipment funded through a grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. This drone is now used to collect high-resolution topographic data along active faults on Vancouver Island and elsewhere in Canada. Building this drone was part of a collaborative remote sensing laboratory together with Chris Bone in UVic's Geography department, where Roger previously completed his Masters.
Peter Blenman
Peter's M.Sc. thesis (EOS, UVic, 2023) studied InSAR time series to detect and monitor permafrost degradation and deep-seated landsliding in order to better understand the underlying geological processes. He was co-supervised by Andrew Schaeffer of the Geological Survey of Canada.
Dr. Élyse Gaudreau
Élyse's Ph.D. (EOS, UVic, 2023) focused on imaging large earthquake ruptures in space and time using InSAR data and modelling, satellite optical image correlation, and back-projection seismology. Élyse's studies were supported by an Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship from NSERC.
Élyse's published articles include:
• Gaudreau, É., Hollingsworth, J., Nissen, E. and Funning, G.J. (2023) Complex 3-D surface deformation in the 1971 San Fernando, California earthquake reveals static and dynamic controls on off-fault deformation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 128 (3), e2022JB024985.
• Gaudreau, É., Nissen, E., Bergman, E. A., Benz, H., Karasözen, E., and Tan, F. (2019). The August 2018 Kaktovik earthquakes: active tectonics in northeastern Alaska revealed with InSAR and seismology. Geophysical Research Letters, 46.
Emilie Vautier
Emilie visited our group during the summer of 2023 from the École Nationale des Sciences Géographiques (ENSG) in Paris, where she is a Masters student in Geomatics Engineering. At UVic, Emilie explored how to capture three-dimensional deformation in large earthquakes by differencing "before" and "after" drone-based lidar data.
Jinrui Liu
Jinrui visited us as a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration in 2022-2023 on a China Scholarship Council Scholarship. He is interested in fault evolution and deformation features of strike-slip faults and exploring the combination with geodetic data and working on active tectonics of the Tibetan Plateau using tectonic geomorphology methods.
Jinrui's published articles include:
• Liu, J., Ren, Z., Nissen, E., Zhang, C., Li, Z., Zhang, Z., and Wu, D. Spatially variable, multi-mm/yr late Pleistocene-Holocene slip rates along the South Riyueshan fault highlight limitations to block-like behaviour in the NE Tibetan Plateau, China. Submitted to Tectonics.
Julia Walker
For her B.Sc. Honours thesis (EOS, UVic, 2022), Julia investigated the utility of aftershock forecasting software through retrospective tests on the 2012 Haida Gwaii sequence. She was co-supervised with John Cassidy at the Pacific Geoscience Centre.
Dr. Haipeng Luo
For his Ph.D. (EOS, UVic, 2022) Haipeng used numerical models to better understand the spectrum of crustal deformation associated with subduction megathrust faults, in all three parts of the earthquake cycle: interseismic, coseismic and postseismic. Following a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, Haipeng is now an Associate Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology.
Haipeng's published articles include:
• Luo, H., and Wang, K. (2021). Postseismic geodetic signature of cold forearc mantle in subduction zones. Nature Geoscience.
Dr. Léa Pousse-Beltran
As a post doc in our group Léa worked on a number of notable recent earthquakes, including the 2020 Mw 6.8 Elazığ rupture — the largest instrumental event on the East Anatolian fault — as well as a potential induced earthquake in the Zagros mountains of Iran. Lea now works at her alma mater, the Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre) at Université Grenoble Alpes.
Léa's published articles include:
• Pousse Beltran, L. Nissen, E., Bergman, E., Cambaz, M.D., Gaudreau, É., Karasözen, E., and Tan, F. (2020). The 2020 Mw 6.8 Elazığ (Turkey) earthquake reveals rupture behavior of the East Anatolian Fault. Geophysical Research Letters, 47.
Anna Diederichs
For her M.Sc. (EOS UVic, 2020), Anna investigated how to assess building damage in large earthquakes using InSAR correlation maps and studied three-dimensional deformation in the 2016 Kaikoura, New Zealand earthquake using differential lidar.
Anna's published articles include:
• Diederichs, A., Nissen, E. K., Lajoie, L. J., Langridge, R. M., Malireddi, S. R., Clark, K. J., Hamling, I. J, and Tagliasacchi, A. (2019). Unusual kinematics of the Papatea fault (2016 Kaikōura earthquake) suggest anelastic rupture. Science Advances, 5, eaax5703.
Elena Savidge
For her B.Sc. Honors (EOS, UVic, 2020), Elena worked on characterizing a unusual triplet of earthquakes in eastern Iran using InSAR and seismology, as well as a pair of earthquakes in western Turkey. Elena was supported through two USRA awards from NSERC and won several awards for her Honors work, including a Seismological Society of America Student Presentation Award (2019). Elena is now a Ph.D. student in Geophysics at Colorado School of Mines.
Elena's published articles include:
• Savidge, E., Nissen, E., Nemati, M., Karasözen, E., Hollingsworth, J., Talebian, M., Bergman, E., Ghods, A., Ghorashi, M., Kosari, E., Rashidi, A., and Rashidi, A. (2019). The December 2017 Hojedk (Iran) earthquake triplet – sequential rupture of shallow reverse faults in a strike-slip restraining bend. Geophysical Journal International, 217, 909-925.
Dr. Lia Lajoie
Lia's PhD in Geophysics (Colorado School of Mines, 2019) focused on imaging large earthquake ruptures using differential lidar and Structure-from-Motion topography. Lia now works as a geodetic engineer at UNAVCO in Colorado.
Lia's published articles include:
• Lajoie, L. J., Nissen, E., Johnson, K. L., and Lajoie, K. (2020): Sub-meter resolution surface rupture topography from legacy aerial photographs – a test case from the 1992 Landers earthquake. Earth and Space Science, 7.
• Lajoie, L., Nissen, E., Johnson, K. L., Arrowsmith, J R., Glennie, C. L., Hinojosa‐Corona, A., and Oskin, M. E. (2019). Extent of low‐angle normal slip in the 2010 El Mayor‐Cucapah (Mexico) earthquake from differential lidar. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124, 943-956.
Dr. Ezgi Karasözen
Ezgi's PhD in Geophysics (Colorado School of Mines, 2018) involved seismotectonic studies of the Iranian Zagros mountains and the graben of western Turkey, using calibrated earthquake relocations, InSAR observations and modelling, and regional and teleseismic waveform analysis. She is currently a Post Doc at the Alaska Earthquake Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Ezgi's published articles include:
• Karasözen, E., Nissen, E., Bergman, E. A., and Ghods, A. (2019). Seismotectonics of the Zagros (Iran) From Orogen‐Wide, Calibrated Earthquake Relocations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124, 9109-9129.
• Karasözen, E., Nissen, E., Büyükakpınar, P., Cambaz D., Kahraman, M., Kalkan, E., Abgarmi, B., Bergman, E., Ghods, A., and Özacar, A. A. (2018). The 2017 July 20 Mw 6.6 Bodrum-Kos earthquake illuminates active faulting in the Gulf of Gökova, SW Turkey. Geophysical Journal International, 214, 185-199.
• Karasözen, E., Nissen, E., Bergman, E. A., Johnson, K. L., and Walters, R. J. (2016). Normal faulting in the Simav-Gediz graben of western Turkey reassessed with calibrated earthquake relocations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 121, 4553-4574.
Dr. Kendra Johnson
Kendra's PhD in Geophysics (Colorado School of Mines, 2017) focused on developing Structure-from-Motion as a low-cost tool for mapping tectonic landforms. She also used airborne lidar to characterize the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake rupture. Kendra is currently a Post Doc at the Global Earthquake Model Foundation in Italy.
Kendra's published articles include:
• Johnson, K. L., Nissen, E., and Lajoie, L. (2018). Surface rupture morphology and vertical slip distribution of the 1959 Mw 7.2 Hebgen Lake (Montana) earthquake from airborne lidar topography. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 123, 8229-8248.
• Johnson, K., Nissen, E., Saripalli, S., Arrowsmith, J. R., McGarey, P, Scharer, K., Williams, P., and Blisniuk, K. (2014). Rapid mapping of ultra-fine fault zone topography with structure from motion. Geosphere, 10, 969-986.