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Stories and Insights from 2024 Cascadia Field Trip Participants

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SZNet 2024 Cascadia Field Trip

An interdisciplinary and international field trip opportunity

 

July 21-30, 2024 | Ashland, Oregon, USA 

Application Closed

OBJECTIVES

The SZNet Field Trip aims to foster collaboration among scientists of different nationalities and career stages and offer an opportunity for team-based field data collection. Participants will learn about the geology of the southern Cascadia subduction zone through data collection in an array of field locations and learn how to think about data across scales and methods.

Description

DATES: July 21-30 2024

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WHAT: A 9-day interdisciplinary international field trip and data collection opportunity in the southern Cascadia arc and forearc near Ashland Oregon, USA. 

 

FUNDING: Participant support for travel, food, lodging and field supplies is available through SZNet which is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation AccelNet program under award 2301732.

 

THEME: Linking field geological relationships, petrologic, structural, geochemical, petrophysical properties, and geophysical properties in the volcanic arc and forearc. 

 

GOALS: Learn about the geology of the southern Cascadia subduction zone through data collection in an exhumed pluton and field trips to Crater Lake National Park, an accreted oceanic plateau, and a paleo subduction fault interface; Collect interdisciplinary field data as a team; Learn how to think about data across scales and methods; Evaluate effective methods for team-based field data collection.  

 

DATA COLLECTION: Participants will undertake interdisciplinary team-based data collection activities involving geologic mapping, petrologic sample collection, geochemical analyses, and a nodal geophysical deployment in a Jurassic pluton near Ashland, Oregon. Outcomes of field data collection will be assembled into an AGU abstract, and participants are encouraged to use data and samples for their own post-field research. 

 

WHO SHOULD APPLY: Open to both US and non-US scientists at any career stage interested in cross-disciplinary approaches to researching subduction systems. Those with experience or interest in petrology, structural geology, geochemistry, geophysics, deformation experiments, and modeling are encouraged to apply. 


APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS: Applications are now closed and participants will be notified in April. Applications will be reviewed based on the following rubric

Scientific Background

The July 2024 SZNet trip will take place in the south/central Cascadia subduction zone and include:

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a) Field trips from the volcanic arc at Crater Lake National Park to the accreted oceanic complex of the Siletzia terrane

b) Geologic and geophysical data collection in the Ashland Pluton, an exhumed Jurassic pluton located in the eastern portion of the Klamath Mountains

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Field trips will provide participants with an introduction to the geology and volcanology of the central/southern Cascadia subduction zone, and regional context for their data collection activities. Data collection activities will focus on testing common assumptions about variability in pluton composition and relationships to seismic velocity models, at the Ashland pluton. Data and outcomes from the trip will be synthesized into an abstract for presentation in the Fall 2024 American Geophysical Union meeting. Participants are encouraged to use samples and data collected on this trip in complementary research projects.

Schedule

Please see below a tentative schedule for all field trip activities. Please note that this schedule is not final and is subject to change.
 

July 21: Fly in to Medford, OR,  check into provided housing.

July 22: Group Onboarding, Field Safety, and Teamwork training.

July 23: Field trip to Crater Lake.

July 24: Field trip to Roseburg Siletzia basalts and fault contacts.

July 25: Introduction to pluton data collection project and initial site visit.

July 26: Pluton data collection.

July 27: Pluton data collection.

July 28: Data analysis and synthesis, develop research plans, log iSamples, draft AGU abstract(s). 

July 29: Data analysis and synthesis, develop research plans, log iSamples draft AGU abstract(s). 

July 30: check out of housing, fly out of Medford, OR.

Participants

Participants are listed in alphabetical order

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Shubham Agrawal is postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Carolina. He completed his PhD in geophysics at the Australian National University, where he used observational (seismology) tools to image subsurface structures. He's broadly interested in understanding the processes that shape the Earth through the lens of seismic waves. In his spare time, he enjoys being outdoors - running, hiking, or climbing.

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Marge Belcasto is a senior undergraduate at Portland State University, and her thesis has been focused on refining the recurrence interval of large magnitude earthquakes in Netarts Bay Oregon which is situated on the Cascadia Subduction Zone. This project has been using dendrochronology with a ghost forest slab in order to constrain the 5th earthquake back in time. She is looking into graduate school with a focus on structure, coastal stratigraphy, and tsunamis.

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Catalina Castro Ibáñez has a bachelor's degree in Geophysics from the University of Concepción, Chile, and is in the last year of her career to obtain her professional degree. Additionally, she is in the first year of her master's in geophysics at the same university. Her research interests are mainly in geophysical methods and seismology in the study of subduction zones, as well as prospecting methods, seismic hazards, and risk analysis.

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Alfredo Esquivel is a geologist and received his PhD from the Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile. He is currently a Postdoc researcher at the Millennium Institute on Volcanic Risk Research - Ckelar Volcanoes.

His research has focused on actively collaborating with the highland communities of northern Chile where he has studied volcanic hazards and risks with an emphasis on the use of numerical models. He has received scholarships for internships, workshops, and postgraduate courses in Italy, France, Spain, United States and Mexico. He had an international internship in Florence, Italy, at the Università degli Studi di Firenze, from February to June 2020 and has had constant participation in recognized international conferences such as Cities on Volcanoes.

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Cameron Essex is a second-year master’s student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the department of geosciences. Their research interests are in the area of overlap between geochemistry, volcanic process, petrology, and climate change. The aim of their master’s research is to provide paleoenvironmental constraints on the Pleistocene ice sheet in northeast Iceland using glacio-volcanic deposits such as volcanic glass. In their spare time, Cameron enjoys cooking and baking, dancing, running through the wilderness, and a social night out. 

Lalo Guerrero is a Geology Hazard Specialist at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI). He specializes in earthquake geology and earthquake hazard-related work within the state of Oregon. His areas of expertise and experience encompasses tectonic geomorphology, Quaternary stratigraphy, geoscience education, and structural geology. Lalo obtained his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 2016 and taught at Portland Community College for 5 years before transitioning to his current position. He was born in Ciudad de Mexico and grew up in a bilingual and binational household, spending his youth between Central Mexico and Northern California. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon, with his spouse, two children, and two dogs. Beyond geology, he shares a passion for cycling, appreciates listening to music, and is learning how to do watercolor journaling.

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Hiroko Kitajima is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geology & Geophysics of Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on mechanics of earthquakes and faulting with a specialization in experimental rock and soil mechanics. She has participated in five International Ocean Discovery Program expeditions at subduction zones. 

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Kelly Lascano is from Ecuador and currently finishing up her geology degree at the Central University of Ecuador. She loves getting involved in research projects, especially those with field trips organized by her university. She is an athlete, enjoys diving into all kinds of literature, and absolutely loves outdoor activities

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Chloe Marks is a first year PhD student at the University of Michigan. Her general interests include structural geology, tectonics, and thermochronology, specifically applied to orogenic systems undergoing a transition from subduction to continental collision. When she am not looking at rocks for work, she is usually climbing them!

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Diana Mindaleva is an assistant professor at Tohoku University, Japan. Her research focuses on Fluid-Rock Interaction processes related to earthquake generation. She specializes in reconstructing fluid and rock properties changes over short timescales using metamorphic petrology and thermodynamic modeling.

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Jiale Mou is a second-year PhD student in the Department of  Earth and Planetary Science at Rice University. Her research focuses on geochemistry and petrology, where she utilizes analytical tools and numerical modeling to investigate the formation and evolution of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle. Currently, she is working on mantle melting processes and the evolution of volatiles in the subduction zone. Outside of her academic pursuits, she is passionate about outdoor activities, particularly hiking and playing soccer.

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Ekaterina Rojas Kolomiets is a Geology PhD candidate at the University of South Carolina. For her current work, she uses the Mo isotopes of subduction inputs and outputs to trace the magmatic sources from the Aleutian and Costa Rican arcs, and as a novel proxy to explore the subduction processes generating juvenile continental crust. Her research interests are (1) the processes and sources contributing to the composition of arc magmas, (2) the formation and evolution of the continental crust and - as a geoscientist concerned about the ongoing climate crisis - (3) CO2 sequestration in basaltic rocks and overall climate change resilience and mitigation. 

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Arnab Roy will be working as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Earth and Spatial Sciences, University of Idaho. He obtained his Ph.D. in science from the Department of Geological Sciences at Jadavpur University, India. His research primarily focuses on geodynamics, where he has developed a strong expertise in creating intricate mathematical and computational models. These models are essential tools that help unravel the enigmatic evolution of both the Earth's interior and its dynamic surface processes over geological time. His primary research delves into the formation of deep-earth mantle plumes, the complex dynamics of terrestrial subduction processes, and the mechanics of strain localization and its relationship with plate tectonics and field structures. Beyond his academic pursuits, he enjoys painting and passionately support Arsenal Football Club, cheering for the Gunners with unwavering enthusiasm.

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Mariah Tilman is a Geology and General Science instructor at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon, US. Mariah has a MS from the University of Alaska Fairbanks where she did experimental petrology and physical volcanology and worked on the 2006 Mount Augustine Eruption. This is Mariah’s first term teaching full time at PCC, she has been teaching Geology of the Pacific Northwest for about 10 years now and is very excited to learn more about the Cascadia and this collaborative effort to understand subduction hazards. 

Organizing Committee

Organizing members are listed in reverse alphabetical order

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Christine Regalla - Northern Arizona University

Madison Myers - Montana State University

Samuel Nyarko - Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis 

Cal Barnes - Texas Tech University

Geoff Abers - Cornell University

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