uOttawa Geophysics

Our group’s research addresses fundamental questions concerning the evolution and dynamics of the solid Earth as revealed by geophysical data. The objective of our research program is to constrain the role of geological structure on the dynamics of active ocean-continent tectonic systems. For example, a lot of our active projects involve characterizing convergent and transform ocean-continent plate boundaries and elucidating the growth and fate of large cordilleras. Our work is informed by robust statistical analysis and modelling of seismic and geophysical data collected from a number of sources. Our tools of predilection include the processing of large quantities of broadband seismic data obtained from public archives. We develop and make publicly available a lot of our numerical tools - check out the Software page. We also install our own seismic monitoring stations - check out the Field page.

News

2 Graduate Positions in Subduction Zone Seismology

The Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa invites applications to fill two fully funded graduate …

Earthquakes and Locking inVEstigation of Subduction - ELVES

Next week our team of PIs, techs and students is heading to Wellington, New Zealand, to board the RV Tangaroa and deploy a fleet of 20 …

Congratulations!

Many congratulations are in order for current and former members of the UOgeophysics group: Morgan McLellan successfully defended her …

2 Graduate Positions in Marine Seismology

The Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa invites applications to fill two fully funded graduate …

Meet the Team

Faculty

Avatar

Pascal Audet

Professor of Geophysics & University Research Chair

Grad Students

Avatar

Quan Zhang

PhD Candidate

Avatar

Erica Pietroniro

MSc Student

Alumni

Avatar

Dr. Hao Mai

Data Scientist

Avatar

Dr. Andrew Schaeffer

Research Scientist

Avatar

Dr. Jeremy Gosselin

NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow

Avatar

Dr. Stephen G. Mosher

Geophysical Analyst

Avatar

Dr. Zhezhe Lu

Postodoctoral Researcher

Avatar

Dr. Élyse Gaudreau

Postdoctoral Fellow

Avatar

Dr. Shutian Ma

Research Seismologist

Avatar

Dr. Philippe Dales

Applied Seismology Consultant

Avatar

Dr. Alizia Tarayoun

Research engineer

Avatar

Andrew Reynen

Data Scientist

Avatar

Elise Cossette

Rédactrice

Avatar

Dr. Pasan Herath

Lead Earthquake Analyst

Research

*

Canadian Cordillera

The Canadian Cordillera is a large, elevated and deformed landmass in western Canada created and shaped by the forces of plate tectonics. Our group uses seismic data to produce images of its deep internal structure that give insight into its past and current tectonic activity.

Data Science

Seismology and geophysics are data-rich fields with fully open data sets. Our group develops methods rooted in signal processing and statistical learning to extract insightful information on geophysical processes and Earth structure from large data sets.

Elastic thickness

The elastic thickness of the lithosphere is a measure of the stiffness of tectonic plates, and can be used to investigate its thermal and rheological structure. Our group develops wavelet analysis techniques to estimate its distribution on Earth and terrestrial planets

Ocean-bottom seismology

Most tectonic plate boundaries are located offshore, away from land-based seismic investigation. Our group works toward increasing marine seismic coverage using ocean-bottom seismic (OBS) stations to study plate tectonics in the oceans using OBS data.

Subduction zones

The rubbing of tectonic plates at subduction zones produces the largest and most lethal earthquakes. Our group studies the geological environment where these earthquakes occur using seismic imaging methods.

Software

We believe in open science and open-source software. These are some of the computer programs that we developed. Please feel free to fork the repositories on GitHub, improve the codes, and send your feedback!

*

Customizing Deep-Learning Seismic Phase Pickers

Tools for OBS stations

Seismic Station Orientation

Lithosphere Magnetic Thickness

Lithosphere Elastic Thickness

Teleseismic body-wave modeling

Fast AI Seismic Annotation Tool

Teleseismic Receiver Functions

Teleseismic Shear-Wave Splitting

Station Database Tools

Teleseismic body-wave modeling