Elliott Best Paper Award
This award is presented each year by the Canadian Tectonics Group division to an exceptional publication in the fields of tectonics and/or structural geology by a researcher at a Canadian institution (lead author) or investigating a Canadian field area.
The 2022 Elliott Prize has been awarded to Jeremy Rimando (McMasterU, UoT and GSC) and his coauthors Lindsay M. Schoenbohm, Gustavo Ortiz, Patricia Alvarado, Agostina Venerdini, Lewis A. Owen, Erin G. Seagren, Paula Marques Figueiredo, Sarah J. Hammer for their paper: “Late Quaternary Intraplate Deformation Defined by the Las Chacras Fault Zone, West Central Argentina”, published in Tectonics.
Short list committee citation: The Rimando et al. paper presents a robust integration of structure, GPS data and dating techniques across the width of the flat slab segment of the subducting Nazca plate from the western Precordillera to the eastern Sierra Pampeanas in West-Central Argentina. Geomorphically-derived shortening rates show an interesting relationship with the flat and steeply dipping segments of the downgoing slab; lower shortening rates were determined where the flat segment changed to a more steeply dipping slab beneath the Las Chacras Fault, whereas uplift rates remain similar, likely due to the steeper dips of the faults east of the flat slab segment. An additional conclusion with important societal relevance for this part of Argentina, lies in calculating the risk and magnitude of earthquakes that may be generated due to movements accommodated by the Las Chacras Fault. Using the relationships between earthquake magnitude , fault slip rate and fault length scaling, the authors indicate the potential to generate relatively high magnitude earthquakes (M: 6.5-7.1).
2022 Honourable mentions:
Phillips and Ji for their paper "Constraining the ductile deformation mechanisms of garnet across pressure-temperature space" published in Journal of Structural Geology.
Godet, Guilmette, Labrousse, Smit, Cutts, Davis and Vanier for their paper "Lu–Hf garnet dating and the timing of collisions: Palaeoproterozoic accretionary tectonics revealed in the Southeastern Churchill Province, Trans-Hudson Orogen, Canada" published in Journal of Metamorphic Geology.
Past recipients:
2021: Mike Duvall (UAlberta) and his coauthors John Waldron (UAlberta), Laurent Godin (Queen’s U) and Yani Najman (Lancaster U) for their paper: “Active strike-slip faults and an outer frontal thrust in the Himalayan foreland basin”, Published in PNAS, 117(30)17615-17621 (2020).
2020: Pascal Audet (U Ottawa), Claire A. Currie (U Alberta), Andrew J. Shaeffer (U Ottawa, now at GSC Pacific) and Alexander M. Hill (U Ottawa) for their paper “Seismic evidence for lithospheric thinning and heat in the northern Canadian Cordillera”. Published in Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (8) 4249-4257 (2019).
2019: Renaud Soucy La Roche of the Geological Survey of Canada, along with coauthors Laurent Godin (Queen's U), John Cottle (U California, Santa Barbara) and Dawn Kellett (Geological Survey of Canada) for their paper “Preservation of the Early Evolution of the Himalayan Middle Crust in Foreland Klippen: Insights from the Karnali Klippe, West Nepal”. Published in Tectonics, 37, 1161-1193 (2018).
2018: Jordan McDivitt of Laurentian University, with coauthors Bruno Lafrance, Daniel Kontak and Lise Robichaud for their paper “The Structural Evolution of the Missanabie-Renabie Gold District: Pre-orogenic Veins in an Orogenic Gold Setting and Their Influence on the Formation of Hybrid Deposits, published in Economic Geology, 112, 1959-1975 (2017).
2017: Mirko van der Baan of University of Alberta, along with coauthors David W. Eaton and Giona Preisig for their paper “Stick-split mechanism for anthropogenic fluid-induced tensile rock failure”, published in Geology, 44, 503-506 (2016).
2016 : Mark Higgins of McGill University for his paper entitled “New kinematic and geochronologic evidence for the Quaternary evolution of the Central Anatolian fault zone (CAFZ).” Co-authors include Lindsay M. Schoenbohm, Gilles Brocard, Nuretdin Kaymakci, John C. Gosse, and Michael A. Cosca, published in Tectonics, 34(10), 2118–2141 (2015).
2015: John Waldron, David Schofield, Brendan Murphy, & Chris Thomas, for the paper: “How was the Iapetus Ocean infected with subduction?” published in Geology, volume 42(12), 1095-1098 (2014).
2014: Reid Staples, Dan Gibson, Rob Berman, Jim Ryan & Maurice Colpron, for the paper: "A window into the Early to mid-Cretaceous infrastructure of the Yukon-Tanana terrane recorded in multi-stage garnet of west-central Yukon, Canada" which appeared in Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 31(7), 729-753,
2013: Dr. Toby Rivers of Memorial University of Newfoundland, for the paper published in 2012: “Upper-crustal orogenic lid and mid-crustal core complexes: signature of a collapsed orogenic plateau in the hinterland of the Grenville Province” which appeared in Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 49, 1-42.
2012: Elena Konstantinovskaya and Jacques Malavieille for the paper: "Thrust wedges with décollement levels and syntectonic erosion: A view from analog models". Tectonophysics 502 (2011) 336–350.
2011: Kyle P. Larson, William J. Davis and Don W. Davis of University of Saskatchewan; and Laurent Godin of Queen’s University, for the paper: “Out-of-sequence deformation and expansion of the Himalayan orogenic wedge: insight from the Changgo culmination, south central Tibet”, published in Tectonics (2010) doi:10.1029/2008TC002393.
2008: Elena A. Konstantinovskaya, Lyal B. Harris, Jimmy Poulin, Gennady M. Ivanov, "Transfer zones and fault reactivation in inverted rift basins; insights from physical modelling Tectonophysics", vol. 441, pp. 1-26, 15 Aug 2007
2007: J.K. Madsen, D.J. Thorkelson (Simon Fraser University), R.M. Friedman (University of British Columbia) and D. D. Marshall (Simon Fraser University) for the paper: "Cenozoic to Recent plate configurations in the Pacific Basin: Ridge subduction and slab window magmatism in western North America”, Published in: Geosphere, v. 2, no. 1, p. 11-34
2005: Dr. Paul F. Williams (University of New Brunswick) and Dr. Dazhi Jiang (University of Western Ontario) for the paper: "An investigation of lower crustal deformation: Evidence for channel flow and its implications for tectonics and structural studies", published in Journal of Structural Geology, v. 27, p. 1486-1504.
The 2022 Elliott Prize has been awarded to Jeremy Rimando (McMasterU, UoT and GSC) and his coauthors Lindsay M. Schoenbohm, Gustavo Ortiz, Patricia Alvarado, Agostina Venerdini, Lewis A. Owen, Erin G. Seagren, Paula Marques Figueiredo, Sarah J. Hammer for their paper: “Late Quaternary Intraplate Deformation Defined by the Las Chacras Fault Zone, West Central Argentina”, published in Tectonics.
Short list committee citation: The Rimando et al. paper presents a robust integration of structure, GPS data and dating techniques across the width of the flat slab segment of the subducting Nazca plate from the western Precordillera to the eastern Sierra Pampeanas in West-Central Argentina. Geomorphically-derived shortening rates show an interesting relationship with the flat and steeply dipping segments of the downgoing slab; lower shortening rates were determined where the flat segment changed to a more steeply dipping slab beneath the Las Chacras Fault, whereas uplift rates remain similar, likely due to the steeper dips of the faults east of the flat slab segment. An additional conclusion with important societal relevance for this part of Argentina, lies in calculating the risk and magnitude of earthquakes that may be generated due to movements accommodated by the Las Chacras Fault. Using the relationships between earthquake magnitude , fault slip rate and fault length scaling, the authors indicate the potential to generate relatively high magnitude earthquakes (M: 6.5-7.1).
2022 Honourable mentions:
Phillips and Ji for their paper "Constraining the ductile deformation mechanisms of garnet across pressure-temperature space" published in Journal of Structural Geology.
Godet, Guilmette, Labrousse, Smit, Cutts, Davis and Vanier for their paper "Lu–Hf garnet dating and the timing of collisions: Palaeoproterozoic accretionary tectonics revealed in the Southeastern Churchill Province, Trans-Hudson Orogen, Canada" published in Journal of Metamorphic Geology.
Past recipients:
2021: Mike Duvall (UAlberta) and his coauthors John Waldron (UAlberta), Laurent Godin (Queen’s U) and Yani Najman (Lancaster U) for their paper: “Active strike-slip faults and an outer frontal thrust in the Himalayan foreland basin”, Published in PNAS, 117(30)17615-17621 (2020).
2020: Pascal Audet (U Ottawa), Claire A. Currie (U Alberta), Andrew J. Shaeffer (U Ottawa, now at GSC Pacific) and Alexander M. Hill (U Ottawa) for their paper “Seismic evidence for lithospheric thinning and heat in the northern Canadian Cordillera”. Published in Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (8) 4249-4257 (2019).
2019: Renaud Soucy La Roche of the Geological Survey of Canada, along with coauthors Laurent Godin (Queen's U), John Cottle (U California, Santa Barbara) and Dawn Kellett (Geological Survey of Canada) for their paper “Preservation of the Early Evolution of the Himalayan Middle Crust in Foreland Klippen: Insights from the Karnali Klippe, West Nepal”. Published in Tectonics, 37, 1161-1193 (2018).
2018: Jordan McDivitt of Laurentian University, with coauthors Bruno Lafrance, Daniel Kontak and Lise Robichaud for their paper “The Structural Evolution of the Missanabie-Renabie Gold District: Pre-orogenic Veins in an Orogenic Gold Setting and Their Influence on the Formation of Hybrid Deposits, published in Economic Geology, 112, 1959-1975 (2017).
2017: Mirko van der Baan of University of Alberta, along with coauthors David W. Eaton and Giona Preisig for their paper “Stick-split mechanism for anthropogenic fluid-induced tensile rock failure”, published in Geology, 44, 503-506 (2016).
2016 : Mark Higgins of McGill University for his paper entitled “New kinematic and geochronologic evidence for the Quaternary evolution of the Central Anatolian fault zone (CAFZ).” Co-authors include Lindsay M. Schoenbohm, Gilles Brocard, Nuretdin Kaymakci, John C. Gosse, and Michael A. Cosca, published in Tectonics, 34(10), 2118–2141 (2015).
2015: John Waldron, David Schofield, Brendan Murphy, & Chris Thomas, for the paper: “How was the Iapetus Ocean infected with subduction?” published in Geology, volume 42(12), 1095-1098 (2014).
2014: Reid Staples, Dan Gibson, Rob Berman, Jim Ryan & Maurice Colpron, for the paper: "A window into the Early to mid-Cretaceous infrastructure of the Yukon-Tanana terrane recorded in multi-stage garnet of west-central Yukon, Canada" which appeared in Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 31(7), 729-753,
2013: Dr. Toby Rivers of Memorial University of Newfoundland, for the paper published in 2012: “Upper-crustal orogenic lid and mid-crustal core complexes: signature of a collapsed orogenic plateau in the hinterland of the Grenville Province” which appeared in Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 49, 1-42.
2012: Elena Konstantinovskaya and Jacques Malavieille for the paper: "Thrust wedges with décollement levels and syntectonic erosion: A view from analog models". Tectonophysics 502 (2011) 336–350.
2011: Kyle P. Larson, William J. Davis and Don W. Davis of University of Saskatchewan; and Laurent Godin of Queen’s University, for the paper: “Out-of-sequence deformation and expansion of the Himalayan orogenic wedge: insight from the Changgo culmination, south central Tibet”, published in Tectonics (2010) doi:10.1029/2008TC002393.
2008: Elena A. Konstantinovskaya, Lyal B. Harris, Jimmy Poulin, Gennady M. Ivanov, "Transfer zones and fault reactivation in inverted rift basins; insights from physical modelling Tectonophysics", vol. 441, pp. 1-26, 15 Aug 2007
2007: J.K. Madsen, D.J. Thorkelson (Simon Fraser University), R.M. Friedman (University of British Columbia) and D. D. Marshall (Simon Fraser University) for the paper: "Cenozoic to Recent plate configurations in the Pacific Basin: Ridge subduction and slab window magmatism in western North America”, Published in: Geosphere, v. 2, no. 1, p. 11-34
2005: Dr. Paul F. Williams (University of New Brunswick) and Dr. Dazhi Jiang (University of Western Ontario) for the paper: "An investigation of lower crustal deformation: Evidence for channel flow and its implications for tectonics and structural studies", published in Journal of Structural Geology, v. 27, p. 1486-1504.
