Rachel Lauer
Positions
Associate Professor
Faculty of Science, Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment
Contact information
Web presence
Phone number
Office: 403.220.7923
Location
Office: ES276
Background
Educational Background
Doctor of Philosophy Subduction Zone Hydrogeology, Pennsylvania State University, 2013
M.S. Environmental Engineering, Radford University, 2004
B.A. Psychology, Bryn Mawr College, 1997
Biography
Rachel Lauer, PhD, joined the Geoscience Department at the University of Calgary in 2015, after completing her PhD, in Geoscience at the Pennsylvania State University, and a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also holds an undergrad degree in Psychology from Bryn Mawr College and an M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering Geoscience from Radford University. In addition to her academic experience, Rachel has worked as a consultant in applied geophysics on both local and international projects.
Rachel’s research is focused on both terrestrial and submarine geohazards (e.g. earthquakes, landslides) – she firmly believes that geoscience has a significant role to play in understanding and helping to mitigate the risk these natural hazards pose to people. Specifically, she has focused on submarine hydrogeology, or the movement of fluids in the oceanic crust beneath the seafloor, and their role in large scale earthquakes, such as the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011. This work has afforded her the opportunity to do research where few have gone – to the seafloor in Alvin, a deep-water submersible, to a depth of 4500m. Working in such regions gives Rachel a unique insight into the processes that are at play beneath the oceans, as well as giving her a new appreciation for the interconnected nature of geoscience and biology in the ocean crust.
In addition to growing her research program, Rachel is a passionate teacher who is driven to ensure that our undergraduate and graduate students are ready to meet the global challenges that they will have to solve. This passion has seen Rachel involved in creating new courses, providing outside mentorship to students and working diligently as a member of the Geoscience curriculum committee to ensure that we the UofC provides students a future focused experience that will ensure they get jobs when they graduate, but also careers they can grow.
Rachel sees the university as an ecosystem and recognizes the importance of work across niches. To that end she views service as a core component of being a faculty member – it is a way to give back to the university community and ensure the ecosystem remains healthy, she has been fortunate to be on multiple committees at the department, Faculty and university levels.
Research
Areas of Research
Subduction Zone Hydrogeology
Numerical models of fluid flow provide the means to bridge the gap between geophysical observations (e.g. seismological, temperature, pressure data) and the fundamental processes that govern the production and movement of fluids within subduction zones. I develop numerical models constrained by laboratory measurements on recovered sediments, as well as field measurements from seafloor observatories that provide a continuous record of temperature and pressure throughout the seismic cycle.
Projects to date have focused on Costa Rica, with new projects focused on the Hikurangi margin, New Zealand, and the Japan trench, NE Japan.
3D models of hydrothermal circulation through a network of seamounts
We use the Los Alamos National Lab code FEHM to simulate hydrothermal flow in oceanic crust, focused on sites offshore Costa Rica and New Zealand. In Costa Rica, advective flux occurs through basement outcrops that penetrate regionally thick sediments, but rates and patterns of hydrothermal circulation in this area are poorly understood.The models of hydrothermal circulation provide useful constraints on hydraulic parameters (e.g. permeability of the oceanic crust) and flow rates required to match heat flow measurements in these areas. The calculated flow rates will be used to inform future studies of the microbiology of these systems.
Physical and hydraulic parameter evolution of subducted sediments
In subduction zones, high porosity sediments on the oceanic plate undergo rapid compaction and eventual lithification, but direct sampling of the continuum that connects these states is limited to end members of shallow drilling and exhumed subduction complexes. Understanding the evolution of sediment physical properties and hydraulic parameters during subduction is critical, given the control these parameters exert on drainage and fluid pressure distribution through commensurate changes in permeability. Uniaxial and triaxial (shown here) deformation experiments are used to quantify the evolution of physical and hydraulic properties.
Soap holes in Alberta: "quick" sediment hazard for livestock and machinery: cousin to mud volcanoes
Little is known about the "plumbing" of these structures, and whether their formation is associated with existing permeable pathways (ie. Faults, geologic contacts) that translate pressures to the surface. Similar structures in submarine and terrestrial environments (mud volcanoes) are generally associated with compressional regimes, where high fluid pressures mobilize a slurry of mud and associated methane to the ground surface. The soapholes identified in Alberta represent a likely analog for mud volcanoes, and an ideal opportunity to study their structure using electrical resistivity profiling over selected soapholes. A long term monitoring program is ongoing at two sites, and will continue at a new site instrumented last Fall.
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| GLGY 509.2 | Independent Study (Research in GLGY II) | Fall |
| GLGY 297.1 | Topics in Geology (Science of Climate Change) | Winter |
| GOPH 457 | Physical Properties of Minerals, Soils and Rock | Winter |
Awards
- Faculty of Science Team Teaching Award for GLGY 202 (w/Dr. Quinney), University of Calgary. 2021
In the News
- Aftershock: Scientists drill deep beneath Pacific to study past quakes. CBC News. (2017)
- The quest to put carbon to rest at sea. Axios-Science. (2021)
More Information
Publications
- Lauer, R.M., Saffer, D.M., and Kitajima, H., 2019, Permeability and consolidation behavior of sediments subducting at the Japan Trench: Implications for physical properties in the high slip region of the 2011 Tohuko-Oki earthquake, in prep.
- Cahill, A., Beckie, R., Ladd, B., Sandl, E., Goetz, M., Chao, J., Soares, J., Manning, C., Chopra, C., Finke, N., Hawthorne, I., Black, A., Mayer, U., Crowe, S., Cary, T., Lauer, R., Mayer, B., Allen, A., Kirste,D., and L. Welch, 2019, Advancing knowledge of gas migration and fugitive gas from energy wells in NE British Columbia, Canada, Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, 9:2, 134-151.
- Lauer, R.M., Fisher, A.T., and Winslow, D., 2018, Three-dimensional models of hydrothermal circulation through a seamount network on fast-spreading crust, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 501, 138-151.
- Antriasian, A., Harris, R.N., Tréhu, A.M., Henrys, S.A., Phrampus, B.J., Lauer, R.M., Gorman, A.R., Pecher, I.A., and Barker, D., 2018, Thermal Regime of the Northern Hikurangi Margin, Geophysical Journal International, 216 (2), 1177-1190.
- Lauer, R.M., Saffer, D.M., and Harris, R., 2017, Links between clay dehydration and earthquakes along the Costa Rican subduction margin, Geophysical Research Letters, 44 (15), 7725-7732.
- Harris, R., Wallace, L., Webb, S., Ito, Y., Mochizuki , K., Ichihara , H., Henry, S., Tréhu, A., Schwartz, S., Sheehan, A., Lauer, R., Saffer, D., 2016. Recent Offshore Investigations Study Shallow Slow Slip at the Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand. Eos, Vol. 97, 2016 March, https://eos.org/
- Lauer, R.M., and Saffer, D.M., 2015, The impact of splay faults on fluid flow, solute transport and pore pressure distribution in subduction zones: A case study offshore the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 16(4): 1089-1104.
- Valdez, R.D., Lauer, R.M., Ikari, M., Kitajima, H., Saffer, D.M., 2015, Data report: Permeability and Porosity of sediments from the frontal prism in the Japan Trench, IODP Site C0019. In Chester, F.M., Mori, J., Eguchi, N., Toczko, S., and the Expedition 343/343T Scientists, Proc. IODP, 343/343T: Tokyo (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International, Inc.) doi:10.2204/iodp.proc.343343T.201.2014
- Lauer, R.M., and Saffer, D.M., 2012, Fluid Budgets of Subduction Zone Forearcs: The Contribution of Splay Faults, Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 39., doi:10.1029/2012GL052182.
- Kopf A, Saffer DM, Davis E, Hammerschmidt S, Labonte A, Meldrum R, Heesemann M, Toczko S, Lauer, R., Heeseman, M., Macdonald, R., Kido, Wheat G, Jannasch H, Araki E, Kitada K, Kimura T, Edwards K, Orcutt B., 2011, The SmartPlug and GeniusPlug: Simple retrievable observatory systems for NanTroSEIZE borehole monitoring. In Kopf, A., Araki, E., Toczko, S., & the Expedition 332 Scientists. Proc. IODP. Vol 332: Tokyo (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International, Inc.). doi: 10.2204/iodp.proc.332.105.2011.
- Anderson, W.P. Jr, Lauer, R.M., 2008, The role of overwash in the evolution of mixing zone morphology within barrier islands, Hydrogeology Journal, 16:1483-1495, doi:10.1007/s10040-008-0340-z.
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