In March of 2020 a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit Magna, Utah and was felt throughout the Salt Lake Valley. The significant shaking and over 500 aftershocks were a stark reminder that Salt Lake sits on the Wasatch Fault, which experts have long cited as a risk for a major earthquake in the next 50 years.
One of the long-standing mysteries in the study of earthquakes is what causes earthquake events at depths greater than 70km where we would expect the rocks of the earth’s mantle to be able to deform ductility under pressure. This lack of understanding has created a gap in the ability to interpret the origins of these earthquakes as well as has hindered our ability to predict their occurrence.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Owen Kingstedt has received a three-year $3,000,000 National Science Foundation TRAILBLAZER Award to advance existing experimental techniques, namely Pressure Shear Plate Impact (PSPI) experimentation, to increase the pressures and temperatures achieved and study the hypothesized mechanisms that may be causing these earthquakes, which has not been possible in the past.
The number of PSPI experiments reported in literature on geomaterials can be counted on one hand. Kingstedt’s approach will adopt modern heating approaches incorporating IR heating to reach new temperatures combined with the use of diamond anvil and flyer plate materials. They will also be leveraging mechatronics to precisely align specimens with the goal of improving experiment throughput.
“These new methods should let us reach temperatures in excess of2500C and pressures of 30GPa,” said Kingstedt, “allowing us to study the possible causes of deep focus earthquakes. Achieving a better understanding of the conditions and mechanisms of these quakes will help us better understand when, where, and how these events occur.”
Deep focus earthquakes predominantly occur in slab subduction zones, places where one tectonic plate is sliding beneath the neighboring plate. One example of this is the Cascadia subduction zone that runs from northern California to British Columbia. While rare, deep-focus earthquake events can also occur in non-subducted regions, such as the Sept. 10th, 2025 event that took place just outside of Vernal, UT.
“Improving our understanding of the hazards presented in these zones will help support mitigation strategies,” said Kingstedt. “We want to protect supply chains and reduce the impact on humans that these natural phenomena can have.”
This work includes a collaborative team representing mechanical engineering (Dr. Owen Kingstedt), robotics (Dr. Kam Leang), and geophysics (Dr. Lowell Miyagi).
“I am exceptionally honored to be selected by NSF to work on this project, and excited to work on a collaborative team to achieve our goals,” said Kingstedt.
The NSF Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award, known as TRAILBLAZER, supports individual investigators who propose novel research projects with the potential to innovatively and creatively address national needs or grand challenges, advance US leadership, and catalyze the convergence of engineering and science domains. TRAILBLAZER supports engineers and scientists who leverage their distinctive track record of innovation and creativity to pursue new research directions that are distinct from their previous or current research areas.