Staff profiles
Nicola LitchfieldEarthquake Geologist/Tectonic Geomorphologist
Biography
Nicola is a Principal Scientist in the Paleoseismology Team, based at Avalon, Lower Hutt. She studies past earthquakes and their impacts on the landscape, which in turn informs seismic hazard and risk. Research interests include understanding the formation of marine terraces and their use to record earthquakes along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, understanding the interactions between upper plate faults and the Hikurangi subduction interface, and kinematics and behaviour of active faults in a variety of geological settings. Nicola is the science leader of the It’s Our Fault programme and is a key member of the NZ Community Fault Model and NZ National Seismic Hazard Model projects.
Qualifications
- PhD, geology
- BSc, geology
- MSc, geology
Areas of expertise
- Geophysics: Seismic hazard models
- Geology: Paleoseismology
- Geology: GIS mapping
- Geology: tectonic geomorphology
- Geology: Earthquake Geology
- Geomorphology: Fluvial terrace mapping
- Geomorphology: marine terrace analysis
Major Publications
See all publications
- The New Zealand Paleoseismic Site Database, Version 1.0, Seismological Research Letters 95(1): p. 64-77. DOI: 10.1785/0220230150. p. 64-77
- New Zealand Active Faults Database : the high-resolution dataset v2.0, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics : DOI: 10.1080/00288306.2024.2427396.
- Holocene marine terraces as recorders of earthquake uplift : insights from a rocky coast in southern Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 48(2): p. 452-474. DOI: 10.1002/esp.5496. p. 452-474
- New Zealand Community Fault Model version 1.0 DOI: 10.21420/GA7S-BS61. Lower Hutt, N.Z.: GNS Science. GNS Science report 2021/57 97 p.
- New Zealand Paleoseismic Site Database : design and overview of version 1.0 DOI: 10.21420/VTPT-KB52. Lower Hutt, NZ: GNS Science. GNS Science report 2021/52 27 p.
- It's Our Fault Hikurangi Subduction Zone hazard : south Palliser Bay Holocene marine terraces DOI: 10.21420/8VDN-AE32. Lower Hutt, N.Z.: GNS Science. GNS Science report 2021/28 47 p.
- Marine terraces reveal complex near-shore upper-plate faulting in the northern Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 110(2): p. 825-849. DOI: 10.1785/0120190208. p. 825-849
- Geological evidence for past large earthquakes and tsunamis along the Hikurangi subduction margin, New Zealand, Marine Geology 412: p. 139-172. DOI: 10.1016/j.margeo.2019.03.004. p. 139-172
- Surface rupture of multiple crustal faults in the 2016 MW 7.8 Kaikoura, New Zealand, earthquake, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 108(3B): p. 1496-1520. DOI: 10.1785/0120170300. p. 1496-1520
- A model of active faulting in New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 57(1): p. 32-56. DOI: 10.1080/00288306.2013.854256. p. 32-56
- National seismic hazard model for New Zealand : 2010 update, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 102(4): p. 1514-1542. DOI: 10.1785/0120110170. p. 1514-1542
- Surface rupture during the 2010 Mw 7.1 Darfield (Canterbury) earthquake : implications for fault rupture dynamics and seismic-hazard analysis, Geology 40(1): p. 55-58. DOI: 10.1130/G32528.1. p. 55-58
- Relations between postglacial fluvial incision rates and uplift rates in the North Island, New Zealand, Journal of Geophysical Research. Earth Surface 111(2): F02007. DOI: 10.1029/2005JF000374. F02007
- Correlation of fluvial terraces within the Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand : implications for climate and baselevel controls, Geomorphology 68(3/4): p. 291-313. Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences contribution 3365 p. 291-313
- Recognition of active reverse faults and folds in North Canterbury, New Zealand, using structural mapping and geomorphic analysis, New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 46(4): p. 563-579. DOI: 10.1080/00288306.2003.9515030. Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences contribution 2864 p. 563-579