Elizabeth Schermer

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.

Gillaspy, J.; Schermer, E. R. 2004: Kinematics and P-T conditions of brittle deformation in an ancient accretionary prism setting: San Juan Islands, NW Washington. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs.

Schermer, E. R.; Van Dissen, R.; Berryman, K. R.; Kelsey, H. M.; Cashman, S. M. 2004: Active Faults, Paleoseismology and Historical Fault Rupture in the northern Wairarapa, North Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 47: 101-122.

Lamb, R.; Schermer, E. R. 2003: Metamorphism and deformation in the eastern San Juan Islands. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 35: 114.

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.

Busby, C. J., Schermer, E. R., and Mattinson, J. M., 2002. Extensional arc setting and ages of Middle Jurassic eolianites, Cowhole Mountains (Mojave Desert, California), 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. 79-91.

Allen, M. E., and Schermer, E. R., 2002, Tectonic significance of the Magic Mountain Gneiss, North Cascades, Washington: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 34, no. 5, p. A28.

Crider, J. G., Schermer, E. R., and Haugerud, R. A., 2001, Liquifaction of the Issaquah Creek delta during the Nisqually earthquake: Seismological Research Letters, v. 72, p. 394.

Schermer, E. R., Stephens, K. A., and Walker, J. D., 2001, Paleogeographic and tectonic implications of the geology of the Tiefort Mountains, northern Mojave Desert, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 113, p. 920–938.

Cembrano, J., Schermer, E. , Lavenu, A., Sanhueza. A., Contrasting nature of deformation along an intra-arc shear zone, the Liquiñe—Ofqui fault zone, southern Chilean Andes, Tectonophysics (319)2 (2000) pp. 129-149.

Schermer, E.R., Van Dissen, R., and Berryman, K.R., 1998, In Search of the Source of the 1934 Pahiatua Earthquake. New Zealand Earthquake Commission Report 97/320, 49 pp.

Schermer, E. R., Van Dissen, R., and Berryman, K. R., 1998, Active Tectonics and Paleoseismology of the Southern Hikurangi Forearc, New Zealand: EOS (American Geophysical Union Transactions), v. 79, p. F221.

Schermer, E.R., Luyendyk, B.P., Cisowski, S., 1996, Late Cenozoic structure and tectonics of the northern Mojave Desert: Tectonics, p. 905-932.

Schermer. E.R., and Busby, C.J., 1994, Jurassic magmatism in the central Mojave Desert: Implications for preservation of continental arc volcanic sequences: Geological Society of American Bulletin, v. 106, p. 767-790.

Beck, M.E., and Schermer, E.R., 1994, Aegean paleomagnetic inclination anomalies. Is there a tectonic explanation? Tectonophysics, v. 231, p. 281-292.

Yount, J., Schermer, E.R., Miller, D.M., Felger, T., Stephens, K, 1994, Preliminary geologic map of the Fort Irwin Basin: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 94-173, 25pp.

Schermer, E.R., 1993, Mesozoic structural evolution of the west-central Mojave Desert in G. Dunne and K.A. MacDougall, eds., Mesozoic Paleogeography of the Western United States, 2: SEPM Paleogeography Symposium p. 307-322.

Schermer, E.R., 1993, Geometry and kinematics of continental basement deformation during the Alpine orogeny, Mt. Olympos region, Greece: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 15, p. 571-592.

Schermer, E.R., 1990, Mechanisms of blueschist creation and preservation in an A-type subduction zone, Mt. Olympos region, Greece: Geology, v. 18, p. 1130-1133.

Schermer, E.R., Lux, D.R., and Burchfiel, B.C., 1990, Temperature-time history of subducted continental crust, Mt Olympos region, Greece: Tectonics, v. 9, p. 1165-1196.

Bartley, J.M., Glazner, A.F. and Schermer, E.R., 1990, North-south Contraction of the Mojave Block and Strike-Slip Tectonics in Southern California: Science, v. 248, p. 1198-1401.