Events

UTIG Fall Seminar Series 2026: Michaela King

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

BEG Seminar presented by Chas Bolton, Research Assistant Professor, UTIG.

Topic: The role of aseismic creep, elastic-stress transfer, and pore-pressure diffusion on injection-induced earthquakes: Insights from meter-scale experiments and numerical models

Pore-pressure diffusion and the effective stress principle are routinely used to explain induced seismicity. However, as induced seismicity has become more widespread over the past 10+ years it has become apparent that additional mechanisms are needed to explain the richness in fault behavior associated with subsurface fluid injection. Here, I will present results from meter-scale laboratory experiments and numerical modeling that provide new insights into the physics of injection induced earthquakes. The laboratory fault is heavily instrumented with arrays of strain gauges, slip sensors, and pore-pressure transducers that permit spatiotemporal measurements of fault slip, shear stress, and pore-pressure. Frictional instabilities are induced by injecting fluid at constant rate of 5 ml/min into a fault zone that is pre-stressed to ~ 96% of its failure strength. We observe a spectrum of slip modes, including aseismic creep, slow-confined ruptures, and fast-fault spanning instabilities. With progressive fluid injection, instabilities evolve from fast-fault spanning (peak slip rates ~ 20 mm/s) to slow stick-slip (peak slip rates < 0.005 mm/s). Fluid-induced instabilities are preceded by accelerating aseismic creep that is modulated by both fluid pressurization and elastic stress transfer generated by aseismic creep. Fast-fault spanning ruptures occur when the critical nucleation length scale, h^*, propagates beyond the pressurized region and into frictionally unstable regions of the fault (i.e., where w/h* < 1). In contrast, slow slip instabilities occur at the end of the experiment when the pore-pressure front as propagated across the fault and increased h^* such that w/h* ~ 1.  In contrast to some theoretical arguments, laboratory ruptures often propagate well-beyond the leading edge of the pore-pressure front.  Together our work shows that that fluid-induced fault slip is driven by a combination of fluid-induced aseismic creep and elastic stress transmission, and could help explain long distance triggering that is common in many areas that host induced seismicity.

Join in person in BEG VR Room or on Zoom.

DeFord Lecture | Wenlu Zhu

Reaction-Assisted Hierarchical Fracturing During Serpentinization and Carbonation by Wenlu Zhu, professor in the Department of Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at the University of Maryland

UTIG Fall Seminar Series 2026: Team TERMINUS

More details about this talk will be available soon.

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

BEG Seminar presented by Alex Bump, Research Professor, BEG. In person and virtual.

Topic: The Taming of the Fault: Faults, seals and fluid flow on the Gulf Coast.

Faults are widely regarded as potentially important controls on subsurface fluid flow. In petroleum exploration, faults are known to trap large hydrocarbon accumulations and are widely thought to create important migration paths across stratigraphy. In subsurface injection, including saltwater disposal (SWD) and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), faults are regarded as potential containment risks that are difficult to conclusively mitigate. Considerable work has been done to develop prediction algorithms, but it has focused almost exclusively on faults in well-cemented brittle rocks where open fractures and subsequent cement can greatly enhance or retard fluid flow, respectively. These models are widely applied, even in places like the Gulf Coast, where young sediments are often poorly cemented and unlikely to fracture at all, much less maintain open fractures. The purpose of this talk is to investigate the long-term retention capacity of faults and top seals on the Gulf Coast, using data from hundreds of historic petroleum accumulations.

Join Zoom Meeting:  https://utexas.zoom.us/j/93201377630?pwd=KzF3TW53SFYzSUg4SUZVNGtxd3JvZz09

Meeting ID: 932 0137 7630
Passcode: 013011
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DeFord Lecture | Ching-Yao Lai

Changing Ice in a Warming Climate: A Data-Driven Approach by Ching-Yao Lai, assistant professor at the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University

AI and Your Best Self

Artificial intelligence is breaking free of chatbots and computer screens and moving into the physical world around us. Next-generation AI systems are learning to see, understand, and act in the world the way a person would. In this Hot Science – Cool Talks, pioneer Dr. Kristen Grauman will explore how these systems will one day coach you through a new skill, guide you through an unfamiliar place, or help with everyday tasks by watching and offering real-time feedback, making personalized learning more accessible. Join us for a look at a future where AI is a part of your environment, helping everyone learn, discover, and navigate the world more easily.

UTIG Fall Seminar Series 2026: Denis Felikson

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

BEG Seminar presented by Ruthie Halberstadt, Assistant Profession, EPS, in person or via Zoom.

Topic: Antartica in a warming world: Lessons from the past to inform the future

The future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is deeply uncertain because modern and projected CO₂ concentrations are unprecedented during human existence. We therefore turn to geologic records, which provide a crucial glimpse of ice-sheet dynamics under fundamentally different climate states. I integrate marine and terrestrial datasets with numerical ice-sheet models to reconstruct how Antarctica behaved during past warm periods — including the Pliocene, when temperatures and CO₂ levels were similar to those expected in the coming centuries, and the last deglaciation, when the ice sheet retreated rapidly as the planet warmed. By systematically comparing model simulations with geological evidence, I aim to reconstruct past ice-sheet behavior in order to ultimately reduce uncertainty in projections of future sea level rise.

Join Zoom Meeting:  https://utexas.zoom.us/j/93201377630?pwd=KzF3TW53SFYzSUg4SUZVNGtxd3JvZz09

Meeting ID: 932 0137 7630
Passcode: 013011

DeFord Lecture | Naoki Sakai

How Landslides Grow into Disasters on a Changing Earth by Naoki Sakai, principal chief researcher, Storm, flood and landslide research division, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience

UTIG Fall Seminar Series 2026: Zach Sickmann

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

BEG Seminar presented by Ashley Matheny PhD, Associate Professor Dept of Earth and Planetary Sciences, JSG, in person or via Zoom.

Topic: Detangling the influences of combined stressors reveals insights into plant function across ecosystems.

Forests recycle roughly ~62,000 km³ of water to the atmosphere annually. The transport of water from the subsurface to roots, stems, and leaves out through stomata, and into the atmosphere links the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum while coupling Earth’s water and carbon cycles. This biological process is regulated dynamically and often varies substantially between species in the same ecosystem in response to multiple and often combined internal and external stressors. We will analyze vignettes from two distinct ecosystems and their responses to different sets of combined stressors to gain new insight into plant function. First, we will visit mangrove ecosystems exposed to both atmospheric dryness and salinity extremes to explore how water transport regulation strategies shift from leaves to roots to maximize productivity while maintaining hydraulic function. Then we will visit semi-arid woody savanna to detangle to combined influence of soil water limitation and atmospheric aridity on wood-water storage in drought tolerant trees. Understanding the storage and transport of water through soil, woody biomass, and leaves in this and many other ecosystems is critical for predicting forest resilience, carbon sequestration, and wildfire susceptibility. Finally, we will assess the implications of both studies for the ways we simulate the dynamic regulation of water acquisition, storage, and use by trees and how these findings can directly improve predictions of forest water, carbon, and energy cycles from coastlines to the continental interior.

Join Zoom Meeting:  https://utexas.zoom.us/j/93201377630?pwd=KzF3TW53SFYzSUg4SUZVNGtxd3JvZz09

Meeting ID: 932 0137 7630
Passcode: 013011

DeFord Lecture | Marc Hirschman

UTIG Fall Seminar Series 2026: Ryan Venturelli

More details about this talk will be available soon.

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

BEG Seminar Series presented by Mark Kittredge, OXY/SPWLA.

Topic: TBD