GD
Geodynamics

edited by Menno Fraters

Menno is a postdoctoral fellow at UC Davis in the USA. He investigates the interplay between the crust and the mantle through numerical modelling, with a focus on the study of subduction zones. Menno is part of the GD blog team as an editor.

Investigating earthquake activity of the 2018 Kīlauea Volcano eruption

and March 16, 2022
Photograph of Kīlauea’s summit, Halema’uma’u Crater, partway through the 2018 eruption. The seismic events at the summit and associated eruptive activity greatly changed the structure of the summit and surrounding region. Photograph by Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on June 12, 2018 (https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/k-lauea-volcano-halema-uma-u-crater-0).
Photograph of Kīlauea’s summit, Halema’uma’u Crater, partway through the 2018 eruption. The seismic events at the summit and associated eruptive activity greatly changed the structure of the summit and surrounding region. Photograph by Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on June 12, 2018 (https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/k-lauea-volcano-halema-uma-u-crater-0).

Both earthquakes and research project directions can be hard to predict. This week Becky Fildes, a graduate student at UC Davis, takes us on a journey of how she came to study earthquake behavior in Hawaii during an active volcanic eruption and how our understanding of caldera collapses can be further improved. In my first year of graduate school in 2017, I had started studying earthquake statisti ...[Read More]

Magma-Assisted Flexure in Hawaiian Lithosphere?

and November 17, 2021
Magma-Assisted Flexure in Hawaiian Lithosphere?

This week Daniel Douglas, who is now a PhD student at New Mexico Tech, discusses his master thesis research while at the university of Hawaii. He investigated the role of magma in the flexure of the Hawaiian lithosphere. When a topographic load is applied to the lithosphere, the lithosphere accommodates the load by flexing. The observed flexure can be measured through seismic methods, gravity anom ...[Read More]

Thermodynamics and Geodynamics: The perfect couple? Part II

and October 13, 2021
till heat death do us part?
till heat death do us part?

In January of this year, Bob Myhill wrote about the coupling of geodynamics and thermodynamics, and why this coupling is so valuable. This blog post, Juliane Dannberg follows up on this topic, looking at it from the geodynamics perspective. In other words, discussing the question: Where does it make a difference in geodynamic models if we include realistic thermodynamic models or not? In geodynami ...[Read More]

Earthquakes within the plates

and June 23, 2021
Earthquakes within the plates
Distribution of earthquakes (circles) having magnitudes greater than 2.5 and that occurred between 18th May to 18th June, 2021 along with tectonic plate boundaries (red). The size of the circles correspond to the earthquake magnitude. Data from the USGS earthquake catalog at https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/.

As fascinating as the plate tectonics and its accompanying dynamics are, continental interiors are no quiescent zones. The tectonics within these interiors are apparent in the occurrence of numerous intraplate earthquakes, and this week, EGU blog editor Arushi Saxena briefly discusses them and their mechanisms. Earthquakes are a fairly common occurrence here on Earth’s crust. Although most are ess ...[Read More]