You are welcome to join our upcoming AGU2025 presentations in New Orleans, LA! Weds 17 Dec: Testing for North America cratonic lithosphere removal by reconstructing Farallon subduction history from mantle slabs (invited), Jonny Wu and Will McCraine Thurs 18 Dec: TOMOPAC, a new class of circum-Pacific plate reconstructions for geodynamic and geologic studies, Jonny Wu,…Continue Reading Upcoming AGU2025 presentations
Jonny Wu was part of a group of UA Department of Geosciences faculty that visited the San Xavier mine in Sahuarita, AZ. Collaborative opportunities between geoscience and the UA School of Mining Engineering & Mineral Resources were discussed. The San Xavier Mine is a unique, university-run underground training laboratory. The mine offers hands-on education of…Continue Reading San Xavier Mine visit
Jonny Wu’s lecture on North American tomography was posted on Nick Zentner’s Geology Youtube channel. Nick is a gifted science communicator and regularly engages with over 100,000 subscribers. Jonny’s lecture entitled “North American Cordilleran plate tectonic history: tomography, geodynamic models, and mineral deposit implications” was originally recorded on October 7, 2024….Continue Reading Youtube lecture on North American tomography
An article in AGU EOS highlighted our recently published paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Our study entitled Analysis of Shear Wave Splitting Patterns in Alaska: Evidence for Strong Intra-Slab Anisotropy is led by Sharmila Appini and Yingcai Zheng of University of Houston. Co-authors are Jonny Wu (University of Arizona) and Walter Mooney (USGS)….Continue Reading Alaska earthquake research featured in AGU EOS
Congratulations to MS student Will McCraine, who was awarded a 2025 GSA Graduate Student Research Grant for $2000. Will’s research proposal is entitled “Resolving the timing of ductile deformation in the Catalina-Rincon Mountains”. The goal is to better constrain the timing of ductile deformation in the Catalina-Rincon Mountains near Tucson, Arizona. Will is establishing consistent…Continue Reading Will McCraine awarded GSA Student Grant for research on the Catalina-Rincon metamorphic core complex
Please join our upcoming short course and presentations at the GSA 2025 meeting in San Antonio! Plate Tectonics for Science and Teaching Using GPlates Paleo-GIS Software (Short course instructors: Jonny Wu and Edward Clennett) Wu, J., Wakabayashi, J., Wang, J., Clennett, E., Re-evaluating plate tectonic reconstructions of the Franciscan complex, USA, and along-strike regions using ocean…Continue Reading Upcoming presentations at GSA2025
Congratulations to MS student Parker Comisac, who received an Honorable Mention award for his poster presented at the Houston Geological Society Student Expo on Sept 15-16. Parker’s poster was entitled “Unfolding the Alaska-Aleutians slab and its implications for Kula-Pacific plate tectonic reconstructions and regional geology”. Co-authors are Jonny Wu and Jeffrey Benowitz. …Continue Reading Poster award for Parker Comisac at HGS Student Expo
Congratulations to Kaitlin Thomas for a successful defense on their MS thesis entitled “3D Analysis of the Indo-Australian Slab Subducting Beneath Sumatra”. Kaitlin’s MS advisor is Dr. Alex Robinson of the University of Houston, USA. Kaitlin was formerly advised by Jonny Wu, who now serves on the thesis committee….Continue Reading Kaitlin Thomas defends MS on 3D Analysis of the Indo-Australian Slab Subducting Beneath Sumatra
Parker Comisac and Will McCraine added to their geological fieldwork experience over Summer 2025. Parker was on the instructional team for the University of Arizona Summer Field School led by Prof. Peter DeCelles and Prof. Barbara Carrapa. The class traveled to the Grand Canyon, Colorado Plateau, the Laramide foreland province, west Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and…Continue Reading Parker and Will conduct summer fieldwork
Jonny Wu and Ed Clennett will be offering a short course “Plate Tectonics for Science and Teaching using GPlates Paleo-GIS Software” at the GSA2025 Connects meeting in San Antonio, Texas. This course will go over how to visualize and analyze Earth’s plate tectonic history using the free GPlates software. We will work through several exercises…Continue Reading GPlates Plate Tectonics short course offered at GSA2025 San Antonio