Geology, Natural Hazards Tectonics and Active Tectonics Global Change Field Studies Much of my research has focused on understanding the geologic development of convergent plate boundaries and accretionary prisms in critical areas of the world. These plate boundaries produce nearly 90% of the Earth’s seismic energy and are responsible for generating the most devastating volcanic eruptions ever recorded. Many of the world’s population centers are also located along these boundaries. My past research focused on the development of these boundaries through regional and detailed studies of rock units exposed at the earth’s surface, resulting in field programs in the Arctic, Alaska, Japan and Taiwan. Although the rocks exposed in these areas are no longer producing earthquakes or involved in volcanic activity, documenting their progressive development provides an understanding of the geometry and kinematic history necessary for synthetic models of these dynamic systems. More recently, I have leveraged the experiences gained through the field-based geologic programs to better understand active convergent plate boundaries and I plan to continue this direction of research in the next few years. This new direction of work has taken two approaches: 1) field-based studies of active plate boundaries and structures exposed on land and 2) sea-going expeditions as part of the Integrated Ocean Discovery Program, IODP (formally the International Ocean Drilling Program). The on land research takes advantage of years of experience in working in Taiwan where both active and inactive structures are exposed and where we have recently discovered two active structures and an anomalous zone of low topographic slope at high elevations. One of the recently discovered structures - a thrust fault on the west side of the range - dips east beneath the range, carries metamorphosed rocks in it’s hanging wall and seems to result in the growth of the mountain belt. The second structure - a normal fault on the east side of the range - also dips east and carries metamorphosed rocks in its hanging wall. Kinematic data (field and seismological) show, however, that the fault results in the denudation rather than uplift of the mountain belt. Part of the zone of anomalous topography lies straddled along the mountain crest between these two active fault systems. Although this unusual topography was recognized by a few geomorphologists in Taiwan, only recently has it been appreciated as a significant marker in understanding the uplift and growth of the mountain belt. The origin of the anomalous topography and its tectonic significance are the subject of my current NSF grant, which is a collaboration with Dr. Will Ouimet, UConn Geography and Geosciences and Dr. Jon Lewis, Indiana University in Pennsylvania. To date, we have completed three field seasons that focused on the anomalous topography and two seasons with a focus on various active structures that appear to accommodate uplift (see above). A suite of samples are also in various stages of being dated using different technologies (e.g., fission track, (U-Th)/He, 10Be) that we anticipate will allow us to constrain rates of uplift and erosion. Understanding the geometries and kinematics of the two recently discovered active faults, how they are accommodated at depth and along strike, and how they are related, or not related, to the zone of anomalous topography will be the subject of my future research. The sea-going expeditions have targeted the active subduction boundary along southwest Japan were three great earthquakes and tsunami have occurred in the last century. With one of the best documented histories of relatively large earthquakes, southwest Japan provides a unique opportunity to drill and sample an active earthquake zone. Previous expeditions successfully sampled the frontal, relatively shallow and aseismic part of the subduction zone. Future expeditions will target the deeper reaches of the subduction zone where pre-earthquake elastic strains may be accumulating. These deeper drilling expeditions, however, require pushing the limit of both commercial (e.g., the oil and gas industry) and academic technologies for drilling in the deep oceans. Our expectation is that we will drill through and sample the seismogenic zone in about 3 to 5 years. The overall theme of these research programs is to understand how stress and strain are partitioned across and along active orogenic systems, and how this partitioning results in uplift and denudation of the orogen.

In all of my teaching I bring what I think is a good combination of enthusiasm, some humor, and a broad understanding of geosciences and society. I strive to include topics of current interest or research as well as practical examples to capture student’s interests and link issues and problems to fundamental scientific principles. Fortunately, my performance has been uniformly high and I feel that I have successfully broadened the general understanding and appreciation of Earth sciences and science in general, and, in some cases I think I’ve provided life-changing opportunities for a number of students. Although I’ve enjoyed teaching a variety of courses since coming to UConn, the greatest joys and rewards have come from two courses that I specifically designed to maximize student engagement. Both courses, one of which is lecture-based and the other is field-based, provide insights to my teaching approach and philosophy. The lecture-based course, Global Change and Natural Disasters, is a large lecture hall, introductory-level course that includes exciting and captivating topics like volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and earthquakes where it is easy to link geoscience and society. However, the course also includes computer-based modules on hazard assessment and analysis that require students understand critical topics in greater depth and use their knowledge to solve environmental problems. The second course, Geosciences and Geohazards in Taiwan, is an upper level course that is entirely field based. Students spend 2-3 weeks, 8-10 hours a day collecting data, making observations and synthesizing their results while literally “in the field” in Taiwan, one of the most environmentally and tectonically active areas on Earth. The field-based course in Taiwan is designed to: 1) increase the student’s self-confidence by applying what they’ve learned in the class to real geologic problems; 2) give the students a finer appreciation of the scale of earth and environmental processes because they will be looking at outcrops and hand samples in the context of global processes and 3) encourage the students to integrate knowledge across disciplines as many earth and environmental sciences problems are complex, involving multiple processes that cross disciplines. Students will also learn these fundamental skills in the geosciences in a Taiwanese context with Taiwanese students, and therefore gain culturally and geologically specific knowledge and intercultural experience, providing a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience. Geology, Natural Hazards Tectonics and Active Tectonics Global Change Field Geology