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Steve SmithMSci PhD (Durham)

Senior Lecturer

Office – 1n1
Email steven.smith@otago.ac.nz
ORCID orcid.org/0000-0002-6166-4949
Tel +64 3 479 7515

Steven A. F. Smith Google Scholar Profile

Surveying the Gole Larghe Fault Zone in the Upper Genova Valley, Adamello, Italian Alps, using a terrestrial laser scanner. 1. Surveying the Gole Larghe Fault Zone in the Upper Genova Valley, Adamello, Italian Alps, using a terrestrial laser scanner. Exposures of the Zuccale low-angle normal fault on the Island of Elba, Italy.2. Exposures of the Zuccale low-angle normal fault on the Island of Elba, Italy. Tilted (sub-vertical) sedimentary sequences exposed in the deserts of Azerbaijan. Heavy erosion has formed gullies creating v-shaped outcrop patterns.3. Tilted (sub-vertical) sedimentary sequences exposed in the deserts of Azerbaijan. Heavy erosion has formed gullies creating v-shaped outcrop patterns.

Teaching

Research Interests

My current research interests are focused on the structure and mechanical properties of fault and shear zones, as well as the evolution of fault rock microstructure during the seismic cycle. I use a combination of fieldwork, microstructural analysis and rock deformation experiments. An important part of my research involves comparing natural fault rocks with those produced in experiments to try and understand the most important deformation processes and the significance of fault rock fabrics.

Current research programs include:

  1. Fault rock evolution during the seismic cycle in carbonate rocks.
  2. The Moonlight Fault Zone, New Zealand: A Case Study of Normal Fault Reactivation
  3. The Livingstone Fault, New Zealand: An analogue for the slab-mantle interface.
  4. Structure and mechanics of serpentinite shear zones
  5. Development of novel microanalytical techniques to study fault rocks (e.g. transmission kikuchi diffraction to study nanogranular fault rocks; sub-micron Raman spectroscopy to study serpentinites).

More info about my research programmes can be found here:

Research Grants

2014, University of Otago Research Grant, “Grain-scale recrystallization records frictional heating during earthquakes”

2016, University of Otago Research Grant, “The habitat of great earthquakes: faulting and slip dynamics in serpentinite”

2018, University of Otago Research Grant, “A slippery slope: lubrication processes in giant landslides and rock avalanches”

2015–2018, Marsden fast-start grant, $300,000, “Slow Creep or Fast Rupture in Faults? Linking Nature and Experiment to Understand the Earthquake Source"

2019–2022, Marsden Grant, NZ$950,000, “Reacting to rupture: the role of chemical reactions in earthquake behaviour at plate boundaries”

Completed postgraduate students

PhD

Matthew Tarling (2018; PhD) - Faulting and Slip Dynamics in Ultramafic Rocks: the Livingstone Fault terrane boundary

Matteo Demurtas (2018, University of Padua, Italy; PhD) - Structure and deformation processes in carbonate-bearing normal fault zones

Jack Williams (2017; PhD) - Characterisation of fractures in fault damage zones

Marieke Rempe (2015 University of Padua, Italy; PhD) - Determination of physico-chemical processes in the earthquake cycle using an experimental and field approach

Michele Fondriest (University of Padua, Italy; PhD) - Structure and Mechanical Properties of Seismogenic Fault Zones in Carbonates

MSc

James Leaper (2021; MSc) - The Cascade Rock Avalanche: Structure and deformation in a catastrophic rock avalanche

Simon Holbek (2019; MSc) - Structural controls and geochemistry of hydrothermal fluid flow in an exhumed accretionary prism, Otago Schist, New Zealand

Kieran Crookbain (2016; MSc) - EBSD analysis of clast-cotex grains in carbonate earthquake slip zones

Madison Frank (2015; MSc) - Brittle faulting and fluid flow in basement rocks of coastal Otago (South Island, New Zealand)

Simon Alder (2015; MSc) - Structure and mechanics of high-angle reverse faults: the Moonlight Fault Zone

Jordan Crase (2015; MSc) - The Livingstone fault: a terrane boundary in ultramafic rocks

Hons and PGDipSci

Samantha Allan (2018; BSc(Hons)) - Serpentinite shear zones and metasomatism in the Dun Mountain ophiolite belt, Nelson

Michael Ofman (2018; BSc(Hons)) - The Glade-Darrans Fault Zone, Fiordland

Chris Tulley (2016; BSc(Hons)) - Deformation and chemical reaction in the Livingstone Fault terrane boundary

Simon Alder (2014; BSc Hons) - Structure and ancient seismicity in the Moonlight Fault Zone, Matukituki Valley, Wanaka

Tristan Menzies (2014; BSc Hons) - Structure, mineralization and fluid flow in the Moonlight Fault Zone, Fan Creek, Queenstown

James Griffiths (2014; BSc Hons) - Using earthquake-like laboratory experiments to reveal ancient seismicity in the rock record

Kieran Crookbain (2014; PgDipSci) - Microstructural evolution of calcite fault gouge in earthquake-like experiments

Publications

Holbek, S. C., Frank, M., Scott, J. M., Smith, S. A. F., le Roux, P. J., Waight, T. E., Van Hale, R., Reid, M. R., & Stirling, C. H. (2020). Structural controls on shallow cenozoic fluid flow in the Otago Schist, New Zealand. Geofluids, 2020, 9647197. doi: 10.1155/2020/9647197 Journal - Research Article

Demurtas, M., Smith, S. A. F., Prior, D. J., Spagnuolo, E., & Di Toro, G. (2019). Development of crystallographic preferred orientation during cataclasis in low-temperature carbonate fault gouge. Journal of Structural Geology, 126, 37-50. doi: 10.1016/j.jsg.2019.04.015 Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Smith, S. A. F., Tarling, M. S., le Roux, P. J., Harris, C., Hoffmann, J. E., … Tulley, C. J. (2019). Element and Sr–O isotope redistribution across a plate boundary-scale crustal serpentinite mélange shear zone, and implications for the slab-mantle interface. Earth & Planetary Science Letters, 522, 198-209. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2019.06.034 Journal - Research Other

Tarling, M. S., Smith, S. A. F., Scott, J. M., Rooney, J. S., Viti, C., & Gordon, K. C. (2019). The internal structure and composition of a plate-boundary-scale serpentinite shear zone: The Livingstone Fault, New Zealand. Solid Earth, 10(4), 1025-1047. doi: 10.5194/se-10-1025-2019 Journal - Research Article

Tarling, M. S., Smith, S. A. F., Viti, C., & Scott, J. M. (2018). Dynamic earthquake rupture preserved in a creeping serpentinite shear zone. Nature Communications, 9, 3552. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05965-0 Journal - Research Article

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