Paper accepted on True Polar Wander and subduction history

Congratulations to Chris Calvelage, who led a paper on “Effects of subduction history on true polar wander driven by perturbations of Earth’s inertial moment from mantle convection” that was accepted in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Co-authors are Lorenzo Colli, Jonny Wu, Yi-An Lin, Yingcai Zheng, and Moloud Rahimzadeh Bajgiran. Open Access…Continue Reading Paper accepted on True Polar Wander and subduction history

Erika Pérez Roque receives scholarship for cassiterite ore geochemistry and data science research

Congratulations to undergraduate Erika Pérez Roque, who received a $3000 award from the George H. Davis Scholarship for summer research on cassiterite ore geochemistry and data science. Erika’s research is co-supervised by UA Faculty Marta Codeço and Jonny Wu….Continue Reading Erika Pérez Roque receives scholarship for cassiterite ore geochemistry and data science research

UA Geodaze 2025 presentations

The Geodaze student-run research symposium was held at University of Arizona on Mar 27-29, 2025. Our group members presented the following topics: Parker Comisac (MS Student): “Unfolding the Alaska-eastern Aleutians slab and its implications for Kula-Pacific plate tectonic reconstructions” Will McCraine (MS Student): “Discoveries from a geologic traverse across a metamorphic core complex along Tanque Verde…Continue Reading UA Geodaze 2025 presentations

Welcome to Dr.Ed Clennett

Welcome to Dr.Ed Clennett, who is conducting research on Pacific plate tectonics, critical minerals, and machine learning. Ed completed his PhD at UTexas Austin, USA, and worked on seismic tomography, geodynamics and plate kinematic modeling. Ed’s MS was completed at Oxford University, UK, where Ed developed a plate reconstruction of western North America and the…Continue Reading Welcome to Dr.Ed Clennett

Media coverage on ancient hotspot revealed under Great Lakes

Our new paper “Revealing the Cape Verde Hotspot Track Across the Great Lakes” is now published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The study was led by Aibing Li and Zhongmin Tao of University of Houston. Jonny Wu and Karen Fischer (Brown University) are co-authors. Links to some media coverage is below: LiveScience: “Scientists find…Continue Reading Media coverage on ancient hotspot revealed under Great Lakes

AGU2024 presentations at Washington DC

Our group has two presentations at AGU2024 (group members in bold): Rahimzadeh Bajgiran, M., Wu, J., Rezeau, H., Integrating Plate Tectonics and Machine Learning to Predict Undiscovered Porphyry Copper Deposits, AGU 2024, Washington DC, USA. Li, A., Tao, Z., Wu, J., Fischer, K., Revealing the Cape Verde Hotspot Track in North America from a High-Resolution Seismic Anisotropy Model, AGU…Continue Reading AGU2024 presentations at Washington DC

Moloud Rahimzadeh Bajgiran successfully defends PhD on machine learning and plate tectonics

Phd defence

Congratulations to Moloud on a successful PhD defence today! Moloud’s thesis is entitled “Machine learning and plate tectonic analysis for mantle heterogeneity, paleoclimate, and critical minerals”. Her committee is formed by Jonny Wu (Arizona), Susan Beck (Arizona), Patricia Persaud (Arizona), and Lorenzo Colli (Modelway). Moloud’s thesis chapters are listed below: Ch. 1 – Assessing large-scale…Continue Reading Moloud Rahimzadeh Bajgiran successfully defends PhD on machine learning and plate tectonics

New paper on subduction history and dynamic topography led by Chris Calvelage

dynamic topography figure

Congratulations to Chris Calvelage! Chris’ paper “Linking deep-time subduction history to modern day expressions of dynamic topography” was published in the journal “Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences” this week. Co-authors are Jonny Wu, Lorenzo Colli, Yi-An Lin, and Yingcai Zheng. The paper is open access and freely available here….Continue Reading New paper on subduction history and dynamic topography led by Chris Calvelage

Field trip to Catalina-Rincon metamorphic core complex

field trip photo

UA PhD candidate Jordan Wang and Prof. Paul Kapp led a great field trip to see the Catalina-Rincon metamorphic core complex near Tucson. Participants included our visitor Eric Schmidtke of Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada, Parker and Will from our group, and Paul Kapp’s regional tectonics class….Continue Reading Field trip to Catalina-Rincon metamorphic core complex