Brett Carpenter was the Earth Science Week speaker at the University of Tulsa’s Geo Seminar on Oct. 16, in Tulsa, Okla. Carpenter, recipient of the AAPG Foundation’s Inspirational Geoscience Educator Award, is an assistant professor of structural geology with the School of Geosciences at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla. He presented his research titled, “The Susceptibility of Oklahoma’s Basement to Seismic Reactivation: Constraining the Necessary Ingredients for Induced EQs,” a project that examines the elements that make pre-existing basement faults prone to earthquakes.

Carpenter and his graduate assistants identified Precambian basement faults in Oklahoma’s Osage and Kay counties, analyzed the seismic activity in the north-central portion of the state and studied exposed faults in the Arbuckle Mountain region. His group’s goals were to better understand the conditions that resulted in an increase in the number of recorded earthquakes between 2009-16. His group used a “holistic approach” and “independent data streams,” that combine “outcrop satellite mapping, 3D seismic analyses, basement core investigation and experimental determination of basement strength, stability and petrophysical properties” to produce the research data.  

To read Carpenter’s abstract, visit Nature Geoscience at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0440-5.

In addition to Nature Geoscience, Carpenter has also published research in Science Advances Magazine and the Journal of Geophysical Research – Solid Earth.

Each year the AAPG Foundation honors one college or university professor with the Inspirational Geoscience Educator Award (IGEA) for outstanding leadership and excellence in the field of geoscience education. Nominations for the 2020 IGEA will be open 1 January - 31 March 2020, at https://foundation.aapg.org/inspirational-geoscience-educator-award.