Phaedra Upton is the Geodynamics Team Leader at GNS Science. She was widely published on oblique collisional plate boundaries including the Southern Alps. More recently, tectonic geomorphology has become her main focus.
As a modeller, Phaedra tries to bring practical and sensible numerical modelling approaches to a wide range of Earth Science topics, from large scale processes in the deep crust through to surface processes of active erosion and sedimentation.
Hochstetter Lecture by Phaedra Upton
The Southern Alps of New Zealand – an integrated picture of an evolving plate boundary
Noon (12pm) 19th April, Univerisyt of Auckland, room 303-B07
The central South Island has long been a favorite site to study and model oblique continental collision, because the orogen is young, narrow, and a single structure, the Alpine Fault, takes up >70% of relative plate motion. The orogen is highly asymmetric and varies along strike as the nature of the two colliding plates change along the boundary. I will explore the 3D structure and kinematics of the orogen, and discuss how regional deep-seated tectonic processes of mountain building are geodynamically interconnected with climate, landscape, and near-surface geological processes that create local fluid flow, effective stress, and temperature anomalies.
How tectonic and surface processes interact shape the landscape
Noon (12pm) 20th April, University of Auckland, room 206-201
Additionally, a second lecture
7:30 pm 20th April, Epsom Community Centre
The landscape serves as a link between the solid Earth and the atmosphere. At many spatial and temporal scales, landscape morphology and topography provide a constraint on the tectonics of the Earth and processes active within it. To unravel these, we need to understand the complex relationships between surface processes, their drivers and the rocks upon which they act. I will explore recent developments in modelling tectonics and surface processes within a single deformational framework. I will focus on collisional settings such as New Zealand’s Southern Alps, SE Alaska and the Himalaya where rapid uplift combines with vigorous climate regimes to create dynamic landscapes
AUGA and RTEA movie night
Date: 24th March 2021
The Meg (some crazy scientists explore the Mariana Trench and find a Megalodon 
, running time 113 min)
Jurassic Park (or should I say Late Cretaceous Park 
, running time 127 min)
Jurassic World (newly created dinosaur Indominus Rex goes crazy 
, 124 min)