2020 Hochstetter Supporting Lecture - Phaedra Upton (Tauranga)

The central South Island has long been a favourite site to study and model oblique continental collision.

The orogen is highly asymmetric and varies along strike as the nature of the two colliding plates change along the boundary.

Phaedra will explore the 3D structure and kinematics of the orogen, and discuss how regional deep-seated tectonic processes of mountain building are geodynamically interconnected with climate, landscape, and near-surface geological processes that create local fluid flow, effective stress, and temperature anomalies.

About the speaker

Phaedra Upton is the Geodynamics Team Leader at GNS Science, where she has worked for the last 11 years. She has widely published on oblique collisional plate boundaries including the Southern Alps.  More recently, tectonic geomorphology has become her main focus. 

As a modeller, Phaedra tries to bring practical and sensible numerical modelling approaches to a wide range of Earth Science topics, from large scale processes in the deep crust through to surface processes of active erosion and sedimentation.  She is adept at using these models in collaboration with geologists from a range of subdisciplines to produce insights into the various processes and time scales involved.