In-Person Meeting

2026 SZ4D Science Community Meeting

April 20-22, 2026

preceded by an Early Career Symposium

Marriott Long Beach Downtown, Long Beach, California

Application deadline: January 12, 2026

Objectives

A 3-day meeting to connect disciplines and facilitate collaborations across the geohazards community to advance subduction zone science

Join us for a 3-day, in-person meeting designed to innovate, break down disciplinary silos, and foster collaborative connections across the community studying geohazards that converge at subduction zones. A primary goal of this event is to catalyze new collaborations and stimulate proposal development aligned with the SZ4D implementation plan.

This event emphasizes crossing traditional boundaries in magmatism, tectonism, and landscape research to build a multihazard understanding. Come prepared to share ideas, form new collaborations within and outside your discipline, and actively participate in shaping the future of interdisciplinary geoscience.

The meeting will focus on subduction zone geohazards, emphasizing interactions between earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, catastrophic mass flow, and tsunamis. The multihazard science will be supported by:

Active Participation | Come ready to engage, collaborate, and connect.
Pre-workshop Networking & Preparation Opportunities | Make new contacts via science matchmaking, share your research story, and submit extended abstracts prior to the meeting.
Interdisciplinary Proposal Brainstorming | Participate in breakout groups to discuss ideas, develop new projects, and build cross-cutting collaborative networks.

Key Information

Open to all career stages and international participants
No registration cost, ice breaker, lunches, and coffee breaks are included
Travel grants available via the application form
In-person only - keynotes and select materials will be recorded and shared on the SZ4D YouTube channel
Participants traveling from outside the United States: Please note current U.S. visa processing timelines and plan accordingly.

Event Details

The meeting will take place at the Marriott Downtown Hotel in Long Beach, California, April 20-22, 2026, and will accommodate 150 participants. An Early-Career Researcher event will take place immediately preceding the meeting, on April 19. An optional two-day field trip to explore the geology of Catalina Island is scheduled for Wednesday, April 22, through Friday, April 24, after the conclusion of the meeting. Space is limited, and participation may be determined through a lottery selection process. Participants will be responsible for covering their field trip expenses. You may indicate your interest in joining the field trip through the application form.

Evaluation

This SZ4D meeting is designed to be interactive and innovative, with participation limited to 150 attendees. Because interest is expected to be high, an evaluation committee will review each application individually using a pre-established rubric to ensure balanced representation across scientific interests (landscapes/seascapes, magmatic drivers, or faulting/earthquakes), as well as geographic representation, and career stage.

Successful applicants will be notified in February.

Stay Tuned

Don't miss an update - subscribe to the SZ4D listserv to receive the latest news.

Subscribe now

Organizers

Sean Gallen (Colorado State University) - Program Co-Chair

Jeffrey Johnson (Boise State University) - Program Co-Chair

Hiroko Kitajima (Texas A&M University) - Program Co-Chair

Behrooz Ferdowsi (University of Houston)

Anaïs Férot (UC Santa Cruz)

Kristin Morell (UC Santa Barbara)

Madison Myers (Montana State University)

Demian Saffer (UTIG)

ECR Organizers:

Behrooz Ferdowsi (University of Houston)

Jeff Beeson (Oregon State University)

Field Trip Organizers:

Cailey Condit (University of Washington)

Peter Lindquist (University of Washington)

Agenda

Draft agenda - last update November 12, 2026. More details will be available soon.

DAY 0 - SUNDAY APRIL 19, 2026

check-in, poster set-up, and Early Career Symposium

8-5PM | Check-in Desk (Farrell & Promenade Rooms)

12-5PM | Early-Career Researcher Symposium (Bixby Room)

12PM | Networking lunch & welcome coffee

1PM | Welcome and introduction (Jeff Beeson, Behrooz Ferdowsi)

1-3PM | TBD

3-3:30PM | Coffee Break

3:30-5:30PM | TBD

5:30PM | Meeting adjourned

6-9PM | Icebreaker (Promenade Room)

6-9PM | Icebreaker (Poster Hall Pike Room & Promenade, First Floor)

1-9PM | Poster set-up (Poster Hall Pike Room, First Floor)

DAY 1 - MONDAY APRIL 20, 2026

Check-in, plenary meeting, poster session, breakouts, networking

8:00-8:30AM | Welcome remarks and introduction of the meeting goals

8:30-10AM | DAY 1 Session 1 - Vision Talks

Keynote Speaker 1 + Q&As
Keynote Speaker 2 + Q&As

10-10:30AM | Coffee Break

10:30-11AM | DAY 1 Session 2 - Lightning Talks

2min/2slides short presentations advertising posters
2min/2slides pitches for cross-cutting themes/ideas

11-12PM | DAY 1 Session 3 - Breakout Session

Bridging disciplines and breaking down silos
- Volcano-Landscape
- Earthquake-Landscape
- Earthquake-Volcano

12:30-2PM | Lunch on site (Promenade)

2-3:30PM | DAY 1 Session 3 - Poster session (Poster Hall Pike Room, First Floor)

General poster session

3:30-4PM | Coffee Break

4-5PM | DAY 1 Session 4 - Plenary session

Recap Breakout session
Presentation Day 2 goals

5PM | Meeting adjourned for the day

Poster Session & cash bar / Evening activities / Dinner on your own

DAY 2 - TUESDAY APRIL 21, 2026

plenary meeting, poster session, breakouts, networking

8:00-8:10AM | Welcome Day 2

8:10-10:10AM | DAY 2 Session 1 - Thematic Plenary Talks

Focusing on integration (e.g., cascading and interacting hazards, fluids across scales, landscape-solid earth interactions)

Keynote Speaker 1 + Q&As
Keynote Speaker 2 + Q&As

10:10-10:40AM | Coffee Break

10:40-12:30PM | DAY 2 Session 2 - Working & Planning Group Discussions

Focusing on datasets, collaborative experiments, cross-cutting science ideas. Pitch and refine ideas centered on cross-cutting themes

12:30-2PM | Lunch on site (Promenade)

2-3:30PM | DAY 2 Session 3 - Poster session (Poster Hall Pike Room, First Floor)

ECR^2 interactions poster session (Early Career & Established Career Researchers)

3:30-4PM | Coffee Break

4-5PM | DAY 2 Session 4 - Breakout session

Deeper dive discussions – smaller groups based on geographic themes, technical methods, specific hazards or hazard interactions

5PM | Meeting adjourned for the day

Participants pick up their posters at the end of Day 2

Poster Session & cash bar / Evening activities / Dinner on your own

Optional lightning talks aimed at pitching Rallying points for white papers/proposals/experiments

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY APRIL 22, 2026

Plenary meeting, final remarks

Hotel check out

8:00-8:10AM | Welcome Day 3

8:10-9:10AM | DAY 3 Session 1 - Recap Breakout discussions Day 2

9:10-10:30AM | DAY 3 Session 2 - Breakout Day 3

Breakouts focused on further refining ideas or developing new ones. Encourage identifying teams, leads, timelines, and next steps

10:30-11AM | Coffee Break

11-12:30PM | Report back Breakout & Final Remarks

Identify overlap, potential missed connections, and obtain feedback.
Identify 3 to 5 questions or grand challenges for proposal tracks.
Discussion on what is needed to facilitate a collective vision.
Outline follow-up mechanisms to keep things going (e.g. white papers, working groups, shared drive for writing/data sharing)

12:30PM | Meeting adjourned

Rideshare buddy
Field trip participants meet-up

DAY 3-5 - WED APRIL 22 THROUGH FRI APRIL 24 | FIELD TRIP TO CATALINA ISLAND

Snapshots of the subduction environment at 30-50 km depth

Field Trip Leaders: Peter Lindquist (University of Washington) & Cailey Condit (University of Washington)

StraboSpot Instructor: Claire Martin (StraboSpot)

Lodging, meals and transportation to and from the hotel all included

Registration fee: $490 per person

Lodging at the USC Wrigley Marine Science Center

We received over 100 expressions of interest for 32 available spots. Participants will be selected by lottery, with remaining registrants placed on a waitlist.

The Catalina Schist on Pimu’nga (Santa Catalina Island) consists of rocks derived from subduction settings from the mantle wedge to the paleomegathrust plate interface to subducted oceanic crust and metasedimentary sequences. The field trip will consist of 4-5 primary stops that will survey a range of easily accessible subduction-related rocks. These rocks record subduction processes at different temperatures and depths ranging from near the subarc to the base of the seismogenic zone during the construction of the Catalina Schist in a progressively-cooling Cretaceous subduction zone. We will explore exposures of subduction interface mélange rock recording mechanical and chemical hybridization of subducted rocks and mantle wedge serpentinites, as well as outcrops of metasedimentary and metabasaltic rocks representing underplated slices of subducted oceanic crust.

The Catalina Schist is a classic exposure of subduction-related rocks that has expanded our understanding of complex chemical processes in the fluid-rich subduction forearc environment, and highlights the interrelations and feedbacks between chemical and mechanical processes in subduction zones that directly influence slip behaviors and seismic hazards. The field trip will also demonstrate the usage of tools from the StraboSpot ecosystem, and highlight the ways StraboSpot, in partnership with SZ4D in the GeoArray initiative, contributes to collaborative field-based science. We will navigate the island in vans and access outcrops on foot, usually within ~100 m of the road, with one stop involving a 2.5 mile round-trip hike on flat ground.