About

I am a geologist who studies the evolution of the Earth’s surface through a lens of tectonics and geomorphology.

I view the motion of tectonic plates as a series of incremental movements during large earthquakes along faults; building mountains, opening basins, and moving continents one rupture at a time through the millenia. These basins and mountains provide the diversity of environments that we live in. I study tectonics during the Quaternary, as much of the evidence of the interaction between tectonic and climatic processes from this period remains readily observable on the landscape. I’m interested in questions about when, where, and how big earthquakes have been in the past.

My research combines satellite and aerial remote sensing, structural geology, paleoseismology, geomorphology, geochronology, and geophysics to study active tectonics and earthquake processes. My current work is focused in the Western US, particularly the Walker Lane, and Central Asia, including the Tien Shan and the Caspian basin.

I’m currently a postdoctoral research fellow working with the University of Oxford Earthquakes and Active Tectonics group. I earned my PhD at the Center for Neotectonic Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. I did my undergraduate studies at Humboldt State University in far Northern California, and grew up in Santa Cruz, California.

In my spare time I like to take on impossibly-ambitious design projects: like turning a retired army truck into a fire-breathing whale, or fabricating a mobile field office. I’m also fond of long road trips, more recently by motorbike.

Google Scholar: Ian Pierce

Twitter: @neotectonic