Dr. Elizabeth Schermer (Postdoc with Cathy)

Contact Information

Research Activities

My current research involves several projects in the San Juan Islands and the Cascades, including the Cretaceous and younger deformation in the San Juan islands, Eocene and younger deformation in the Cascades and Coast Ranges of BC, and San Juan islands, and mapping projects related to terrane accretion and magmatic arc deformation in the Cascades and Coast Range. These projects involve a mix of structural geology, metamorphic petrology, and geochronology. Projects for students in the Cascades typically involve field work in remote and rugged areas, while those in the San Juans and foothills do not require mountaineering experience.

I am also working in New Zealand to understand the active faulting in the forearc of the subduction zone of the North Island. I have begun studying the distribution, geometry, and kinematics of faulting in the forearc and combined that with paleoseismological work to understand the partitioning of seismic strain in the plate boundary zone.
I will be on sabbatical at the University of Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand for academic year 2005/2006.

Selected Publications with Cathy Busby

Busby, C. J., Schermer, E. R., and Mattinson, J. M., 2002. Extensional arc setting and ages of Middle Jurassic eolianites, Cowhole Mountains (Mojave Desert, CA), in Glazner, A. F., Walker, J.D., and Bartley, J.M., eds., Geologic Evolution of the Mojave Desert and Southwestern Basin and Range: Boulder, CO, GSA Memoir 195, p. 79-91. pdf text

Schermer, E. R., Busby, C. J., and Mattinson, J. M., 2002. Paleogeographic and tectonic implications of Jurassic sedimentary and volcanic sequences in the west-central Mojave Desert, in Glazner, A. F., Walker, J.D., and Bartley, J.M., eds., Geologic Evolution of the Mojave Desert and Southwestern Basin and Range: Boulder, CO, Geological Society of America Memoir 195, p. 93-115. pdf text