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 2023 Elliott Prize has been awarded to Taylor Ducharme and their coauthors, David Schneider, Bernard Grasemann, and Iwona Klonowska for their paper, Stretched thin: Oligocene extrusion and ductile thinning of the basal unit along the Evia shear zone, NW Cyclades, Greece, published in Tectonics.
Short list committee citation: Ducharme et al.’s paper is an excellent integrated structural, geochronological and petrologic study of a major extensional shear zone in the NW Cyclades with significant implications for regional geodynamics. Grounded in good field geology, this well-written and well-illustrated synthesis brings together structural observations, 40Ar/39Ar and (U-Th)/He dating, and thermodynamic modeling to identify an Oligocene ductile to Miocene brittle-ductile extensional structure of regional extent.
Separating HP rocks of the Basal Unit from the Cycladic Blueschist Unit, the Evia Shear Zone is shown to have facilitated exhumation through simultaneous normal displacement and oblate coaxial flattening. This study demonstrates the importance of ductile thinning in controlling exhumation of HP rocks in the Cyclades and similar tectonic settings elsewhere.
2023 Honourable mentions:
John Waldron and coauthors, Phil McCausland, Sandra Schofield, Doug Reusch and Lei Wu, for their paper, Terrane history of the Iapetus Ocean as preserved in the northern Appalachians and western Caledonides, published in Earth Science Reviews.
Past recipients:
2022: 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.
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 2023 Elliott Prize has been awarded to Taylor Ducharme and their coauthors, David Schneider, Bernard Grasemann, and Iwona Klonowska for their paper, Stretched thin: Oligocene extrusion and ductile thinning of the basal unit along the Evia shear zone, NW Cyclades, Greece, published in Tectonics.
Short list committee citation: Ducharme et al.’s paper is an excellent integrated structural, geochronological and petrologic study of a major extensional shear zone in the NW Cyclades with significant implications for regional geodynamics. Grounded in good field geology, this well-written and well-illustrated synthesis brings together structural observations, 40Ar/39Ar and (U-Th)/He dating, and thermodynamic modeling to identify an Oligocene ductile to Miocene brittle-ductile extensional structure of regional extent.
Separating HP rocks of the Basal Unit from the Cycladic Blueschist Unit, the Evia Shear Zone is shown to have facilitated exhumation through simultaneous normal displacement and oblate coaxial flattening. This study demonstrates the importance of ductile thinning in controlling exhumation of HP rocks in the Cyclades and similar tectonic settings elsewhere.
2023 Honourable mentions:
John Waldron and coauthors, Phil McCausland, Sandra Schofield, Doug Reusch and Lei Wu, for their paper, Terrane history of the Iapetus Ocean as preserved in the northern Appalachians and western Caledonides, published in Earth Science Reviews.
Past recipients:
2022: 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.
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.