Brian Boston

• PhD
• Assistant Professor at Auburn University

Oceanic plate seamounts are believed to play an important role in megathrust rupture at subduction zones, although consistent relationships between subducting seamounts and plate interface seismicity patterns are not found. While most studies focus on impacts linked to their topography, seamounts are also sites of heterogeneity in incoming plate se...

The origin of rupture segmentation along subduction zone megathrusts and linkages to the structural evolution of the subduction zone are poorly understood. Here, regional-scale seismic imaging of the Cascadia margin is used to characterize the megathrust spanning ~900 km from Vancouver Island to the California border, across the seismogenic zone to...

During 1975–1988, an academic research ship, R/V Robert D. Conrad, acquired more than 150,000‐line‐km of multichannel seismic reflection profile data from each of the world's main ocean basins and their margins. This extensive legacy seismic data set, which involved both single ship and two‐ship data acquisition, has been widely used by the marine...

We use heat flux measurements colocated with seismic reflection profiles over a buried basement high on the Juan de Fuca plate ∼25 km seaward of the deformation front offshore Oregon to test for the presence of hydrothermal circulation in the oceanic crust. We also revisit heat flux data crossing a buried basement high ∼25 km seaward of the deforma...

Geological processes at subduction zones and their associated geohazards (e.g., megathrust earthquakes, submarine landslides, tsunamis, and arc volcanism) are, to a large extent, controlled by the structure, physical properties and fluid content of the subducting plate, the accreted sediments, and the overriding plate. In these settings, modern sei...

The intraplate Hawaiian‐Emperor Seamount Chain has long been considered a hotspot track generated by the motion of the Pacific plate over a deep mantle plume, and an ideal feature therefore for studies of volcanic structure, magma supply, plume‐crust interaction, flexural loading, and upper mantle rheology. Despite their importance as a major compo...

For more than half a century, exploring a complete sequence of the oceanic crust from the seafloor through the Mohorovičić discontinuity (Moho) and into the uppermost mantle has been one of the most challenging missions of scientific ocean drilling. Such a scientific and technological achievement would provide humankind with profound insights into...

The Hawaiian‐Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean has provided fundamental insights into hotspot generated intraplate volcanism and the long‐term strength of oceanic lithosphere. However, only a few seismic experiments to determine crustal and upper mantle structure have been carried out on the Hawaiian Ridge, and no deep imaging has ever be...

The Costa Rican convergent margin has been considered a type erosive margin, with erosional models suggesting average losses up to −153 km³/km/m.y. However, three‐dimensional (3D) seismic reflection and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program data collected offshore the Osa Peninsula images accretionary structures and vertical motions that conflict with...

Earth's surface topography/bathymetry and gravity fields provide important constraints on crustal structure and the tectonic processes that act on it due, for example, to plate flexure and mantle convection. Such studies require, however, high accuracy measurements at a wide range of spatial scales. During the past few decades much progress has bee...

Impact melts are ubiquitous across the Moon, occurring in settings ranging from massive basin deposits to flows and ponds in and around small craters. Recent high spatial resolution imaging and spectroscopy datasets for the Moon have enhabled the identification and study of impact melt units at increasingly small spatial scales, including on the ce...

Continental rifting and breakup of eastern Gondwana during the Cretaceous separated northern Zealandia from eastern Australia, but the processes leading to this highly extended and largely submerged block of continental crust are unknown. We acquired and processed multichannel seismic reflection data across northern Zealandia and examine the strati...

During the Late Cretaceous, the fragmentation of eastern Gondwana led to the formation of the narrow eastern Australian margin and the wide Lord Howe Rise during the opening of the oceanic Tasman Basin. To provide crustal‐scale constraints on this margin, a 680‐km‐long, east‐west oriented refraction transect with 100 ocean bottom seismometers was a...

We present an activity focusing on an interactive sonar display for educational outreach promoting education of both marine geology and basic geophysical concepts. Students act as chief scientists for a scaled-down sonar research cruise by creating cruise tracklines, collecting data, and visualizing and interpreting the results. The exhibit uses co...

Methane hydrate concentrated zones (MHCZs) have become targets for energy exploration along continental margins worldwide. In 2013, exploratory drilling in the eastern Nankai Trough at Daini Atsumi Knoll confirmed that MHCZs tens of meters thick occur directly above bottom simulating reflections imaged in seismic data. This study uses 3-dimensional...

Subduction erosion is a commonly invoked model that is used to explain the tectonic subsidence of the Japan Trench forearc slope, although other models have explained the morphology and history of the margin. New multichannel seismic reflection and bathymetric data collected after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake provide the opportunity to investigate th...

Accretionary prisms commonly grow seaward, with the strata of the inner prism consisting of older, previously accreted outer prism rocks overlain by thick forearc basin strata. We focus on the Nankai Trough inner accretionary prism using three-dimensional (3D) seismic data and logging data from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). We updat...

New surveys help untangle the complex geologic history of the Hawaiian Archipelago and provide hints about where to seek marine life.

The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) is a 362,073 km2 conservation area encompassing islands and seamounts with prodigious diversity of size and morphologies formed by Hawaiian hotspot volcanism 7-31 Myr ago. During the winter and spring of 2014, we collaborated with the Schmidt Ocean Institute to conduct a detailed bathymetric map...

In October 2013, graduate student members of the University of Hawaii Geophysical Society designed a small-scale model research vessel (R/V) that uses sonar to create 3D maps of a model seafloor in real-time. This pilot project was presented to the public at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology’s (SOEST) Biennial Open House weekend....

From March to June 2014, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, along with National Marine Sanctuaries and the National Science Foundation, supported 72 days of mapping surveys on two cruises using R/V Falkor in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) located within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). PMNM is one of the largest marine pro...

University of Hawaii Geophysical Society (UHGS), an Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Student Chapter, was seeking to further motivate students to pursue the geosciences by demonstrating a miniature, real-time sonar-mapping cruise. UHGS designed a physical model that actively demonstrates how scientists employ geophysical methods to map th...

Multichannel seismic reflection lines image the subducting Pacific Plate to approximately 75 km seaward of the Japan Trench and document the incoming plate sediment, faults, and deformation front near the 2011 Tohoku earthquake epicenter. Sediment thickness of the incoming plate varies from <50 to >600 m with evidence of slumping near normal faults...

[1] Analyses of normal faults in the Kumano forearc basin of the Nankai Trough reveal multiple normal fault populations in a region generally thought to be under compression. Most faults have offsets of less than 20 m and dips of 60–70° and show no growth structures, indicating that the faults were active for short periods of time. The oldest gener...

Geophysical analysis of the great 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake revealed co-seismic rupture to the trench with a combination of uplift and landslides contributing to tsunamigensis. After ̃150 seconds of rupture along the main decollement, normal faulting focal mechanisms started to dominate, especially along the outer rise. These bending-related no...

Offshore southwest Japan, a 3D seismic survey covering the Nankai Trough accretionary prism through the Kumano forearc basin reveals a large buried anticline located ~25 km NW of the outer ridge. This feature dominates the local geology and contains deformational patterns similar to the modern imbricate thrust zone, seaward of the forearc basin. We...

Sedimentary deposits in the forearc of the Nankai accretionary prism off Kii Peninsula, Japan, record complex interactions between sedimentation and deformation processes. 3D seismic data image more than 2 km of sediment in the Kumano forearc basin deposited on top of the accretionary prism. The seismic and core data show that the unconformity betw...

The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake is one of the largest earthquakes ever observed and generated devastating Tsunamis. Seismological analysis revealed that the large slip occurred beneath the lower trench slope area, close to the Japan trench axis, (e.g. Ide et al. 2011), which seems to be related with the Tsunami generation. We co...

The Kumano forearc basin of the Nankai Trough accretionary prism contains more than 2.5 km of upper Miocene and younger strata. The basin fill has been tilted landward by uplift along the seaward edge of the basin. The section is cut by more than one generation of normal faults. The faults generally have offsets of less than 20m, dips of 60-70° and...

The sedimentary section of the Kumano forearc basin(Nankai Trough accretionary prism)is cut by multiple normal fault populations; all faults have offsets < 20m and dip ~60-70° (see Moore et al. abstract, this session). Mapping of horizons within the Kumano 3D seismic data set shows the detailed distribution and orientation of these faults. 3D inter...