Professor Emeritus Richard H Sibson

Current research

1. Structural analysis of the 2010-2012 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence.
2. Seismotectonics of active compressional inversion in NE Honshu and the physical conditions of seismogenesis along subduction megathrusts.
3. Working with researchers from DPRI in the University of Kyoto and Tohoku University (Sendai) establishing a 50 instrument seismic array in the northern South Island to investigate conditions of seismogenesis in the Buller region of active compressional inversion. A particular focus of this research is establishing the extent to which earthquake rupturing occurs in fluid-overpressured crust
4. Convenor (with D. Healy, Z. Shipton, and R. Butler) of 'Stress Controls on Faulting, Fracturing and Igneous Intrusion in the Crust' – a meeting commemorating the contributions of Ernest Masson Anderson - held at the University of Glasgow, September 6-8, 2010, now published as 'Faulting, Fracturing, and Igneous Intrusion in the Earth's Crust' (2012), Geol. Soc. Lond Spec. Publ. 367.
5. Investigations into the role of overpressured fluids in earthquake source processes.
6. Role of earthquake rupture processes in development of fault-hosted mineralization.

Selected awards and accolades

• 1993 – Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand
• 2003 – Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
• 2010 - Awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society
• 2010 – Elected Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG)
• 2015 - Appointed 2015 Umbgrove Lecturer in Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands
• 2019 – Awarded the R.A.F. Penrose Gold Medal for 2020 from the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) in Whistler, Canada

Recent publications

• Sibson, R.H. 2007: An episode of fault-valve behaviour during compressional inversion? – the 2004 MJ6.8 Mid-Niigata Prefecture, Japan, earthquake sequence. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 257, 188-199.
• Ghisetti, F., Gorman, A. & Sibson, R.H. 2007: Surface break-through of a basement fault by repeated seismic slip episodes: the Ostler Fault, South Island, New Zealand. Tectonics, doi:10.1029/2007TC002146.
• Sibson, R.H. 2008: Geoviolence - Earthquakes as Drivers of Geological Processes, in A Continent on the Move: New Zealand Geoscience into the 21st Century, Graham, I. (ed.), GSNZ Misc. Publ. 24, 377pp.
• Sibson, R.H. 2009: Rupturing in overpressured crust during compressional inversion: the case from NE Honshu, Japan. Tectonophysics 473, 404-416.
• Sibson, R.H. 2009: Rupturing in the overpressured crust of NE Honshu – Mesozonal mineralization in the making. 10th Biennial Meeting of SGA (Townsville, Australia), August 16-20, 2009.
• Barker, S.L.L., Sibson, R.H., Palin, J.M., Fitzgerald, J.D., Reddy, S., Warr, L.N., and van der Pluijm, B.A. 2010: Cretaceous age, composition, and microstructure of pseudotachylyte in the Otago Schist, New Zealand. N.Z. J. Geol. Geophys., 53, 15-29.
• Fagereng, A, Remitti, F., and Sibson, R.H. 2010: Shear veins observed within anisotropic fabric at high angles to the maximum compressive stress. Nature Geoscience 3, 482-485.
• Fagereng, A. and Sibson, R.H. 2010: Mélange rheology and seismic style. Geology 38, 751-754.
• Sibson, R.H. 2011. Megathrusts, megavalving, and mineralization: Perturbation of hydrothermal and magmatic flow systems by subduction thrust rupturing. Proceedings 8th International Mining Geology Conference, Queenstown NZ, August 22-24, 2011.
• Sibson, R.H., Ghisetti, F.C., and Ristau, J. 2011. Stress control of an evolving strike-slip fault system during the 2010-2011 Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquake sequence. Seismological Research Letters 82, 824-832
• Fagereng, A, Remitti, F., and Sibson, R.H. 2011: Incrementally developed slickenfibers – geological record of repeating low stress-drop seismic events. Tectonophysics 510, 381-386.
• Sibson, R.H. 2011: The scope of earthquake geology. In Geology of the Earthquake Source: A Volume in Honour of Rick Sibson, ed. A. Fagereng, V. Toy, and J. Rowland, Geological Society of London Special Publication 359, 319-331.
• Sibson, R.H. 2012: Reverse fault rupturing: competition between 'Andersonian' and 'Non-Andersonian' orientations. In: Faulting, Fracturing and Igneous Intrusion in the Earth's Crust, ed. D. Healy, R.W.H. Butler, Z.K. Shipton, and R.H. Sibson, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 367, 39-50.
• Sibson, R.H., Ghisetti, F.C., and Crookbain, R.A. 2012: 'Andersonian' wrench faulting in a regional stress field during the 2010-2011 Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquake sequence. In: Faulting, Fracturing and Igneous Intrusion in the Earth's Crust, ed. D. Healy, R.W.H. Butler, Z.K. Shipton, and R.H. Sibson, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 367, 7-18.
• Healy, D., Sibson, R.H., Shipton, Z.K., and Butler, R.W.H. 2012: Stress, faulting, fracturing, and seismicity: the legacy of Ernest Masson Anderson. In: Faulting, Fracturing and Igneous Intrusion in the Earth's Crust, ed. D. Healy, R.W.H. Butler, Z.K. Shipton, and R.H. Sibson, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 367, 1-6.
• Sibson, R.H. 2013: Stress switching in subduction fore-arcs: Implications for overpressure containment and strength cycling on megathrusts. Tectonophysics – under review.
• Ghisetti, F.C., Barnes, P.M. and Sibson, R.H. 2014: Deformation of the top basement unconformity west of the Alpine Fault, (South Island, New Zealand): seismotectonic implications. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 57, 271-294.
• Sibson, R.H. 2014: Earthquake rupturing in fluid-overpressured crust: how common? Pure & Applied Geophysics 171, 2867-2885.
• Ghisetti, F.C., Sibson, R.H. and Hamling, I. 2016: Deformed Neogene basins, active faulting and topography in Westland: Distributed crustal mobility west of the Alpine Fault transpressive plate boundary (South Island, New Zealand). Tectonophysics 693, 340-362.
• Mitchell, T.M., Toy, V., Di Toro, G., Renner, J. and Sibson, R. 2017: Fault welding by pseudotachylyte formation. Geology 44, 1059-1062.
• Sibson, R.H. 2017. The edge of failure – critical stress-overpressure states in different tectonic regimes. In: Geomechanics and Geology, ed. J.P. Turner, D. Healy, R.R Hillis, M.J. Welch, Geological Society London Special Publication 458.
  https://doi.org/10.1144/SP458.5
• Sibson, R.H. 2017. Tensile overpressure compartments on low-angle thrust faults: Earth, Planets and Space 69:113, 1-15. doi 10.1186/s40623-017-0699-y.
• Iio, Y., Sibson, R.H., Takeshita, T., Sagiya, T., Shibazaki, B., and Nakajima, T.J. 2018. Crustal dynamics: unified understanding of geodynamic processes at different time and length scales: Earth, Planets and Space 70, 97 DOI 10.1186/s40623-018-0869-6.
• Sibson, R.H. and Ghisetti, F. C. 2018. Review: Factors affecting the assessment of earthquake hazard from compressional inversion structures. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 108, 1819-1836.
• Ghisetti, F.C., Johnston, M.R., Wopereis, P. & Sibson, R.H. 2018: Structural and morpho-tectonic evidence of Quaternary faulting within the Moutere Depression, South Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal Geology Geophysics.
  https://doi.org/10.1080/00288306.2018.1502673
• Sibson, R.H. 2019: Arterial faults and their role in mineralizing systems. Geoscience Frontiers 10, 2093-2100.
• Okada, T., Iio, Y., Matsumoto, S., Bannister, S., Ohmi, S., Horiuchi, S., Sato, T., Miura, T., Pettinga, J., Ghisetti, F., and Sibson, R.H. 2019. Comparative tomography of reverse-slip and strike-slip seismotectonic provinces in the northern South Island, New Zealand. Tectonophysics 765, 172-186.
• Sibson, R.H. 2020: Dual-driven fault failure in the lower seismogenic zone. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America – in press.

Visit the Department of Geology publications page