Meet the Expert, Geology: Dr. Matt Herman VIRTUAL EVENT

MARCH 16, 2023

5:30P - 6:30P

Building a Plate Boundary: How Was the San Andreas Born?

Geological processes take a long time (at least as far as humans are concerned). So it is hard to imagine that things on Earth were not always like they look today. But believe it or not, the iconic San Andreas plate boundary was not always here. In this talk, we will investigate how we know the San Andreas plate boundary is actually young (geologically speaking), the process by which a plate boundary is born and matures, and what this all means for people in California. At the end, we will discuss some of the cutting-edge research my colleagues and I are doing into how the San Andreas continues to grow to this very day!

Dr. Herman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at CSUB and he studies quantitative plate tectonics (the fancy term for it is “lithospheric geodynamics"). Dr. Herman focuses on the processes that cause earthquakes. He earned his B.A. in Geology and Physics from Amherst College in Massachusetts, then went to Penn State for his Master’s and Ph.D. After his Ph.D., he traveled to the Netherlands to do research as a postdoctoral scholar at Utrecht University before coming to CSUB in 2020. His research has taken him all over the world, but he is especially excited to be living in California where so much interesting plate tectonics is happening.

Only one reservation needed per group