Geofluids and Geohazards

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The proposed research program will provide the foundation for a new interdisciplinary research group in “Geofluids” at the University of Calgary, which will initially focus on quantifying the role of fluids and fluid pressures in subduction zone seismicity, and submarine landslides, using crustal scale models of fluid flow. Elevated fluid pressures have been invoked as a mechanism in both of these hazards: by mechanically weakening slope sediments, and “preconditioning” them to fail in an earthquake, and by reducing the effective stress and frictional properties of the plate boundary fault in subduction zones. The model development and parameterization will form the basis for HQP projects, with M.Sc. students primarily focused on constraining model parameters through analysis of geophysical data (i.e. heat flow and seismic reflection data), and laboratory deformation experiments on cores recovered through ocean drilling (i.e. porosity and permeability). Ph.D. students will take responsibility for synthesizing these datasets into the fluid flow model, and conducting the simulations used to predict the pressure distribution in each study area. The first projects in the research program will concentrate on regions that are the focus of existing collaborations: the Hikurangi subduction zone, New Zealand, and the Santa Barbara Basin, California. ***Both shallow earthquakes and submarine landslides have the potential to generate tsunamis, which highlights the need to understand these systems as a first step toward assessing potential hazards, particularly in highly populated coastal areas. The work proposed here will fundamentally advance the study of both these hazards by bridging the gap between the geophysical observations linked to fluid pressures (e.g. seismological, geodetic, temperature, pressure data) and the fundamental processes that govern the production and movement of submarine fluids in coastal, hazard prone regions. The long-term results of this program will be a robust workflow that can be applied to a broad range of marine and terrestrial projects that require a broad interdisciplinary approach, including induced seismicity and terrestrial landslides, which have also invoked fluid pressures as a primary causative mechanism. The model results for the study in Southern California will inform future studies aimed at investigating the potential of tsunamogenic landslides in other basins, with a focus on Canada's seismically active West Coast.