Christine Regalla

About

Dr. Christine Regalla is an Associate Professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability at Northern Arizona University, where she has been a faculty member since 2019, recently promoted to Associate Professor in 2024. She is a field geologist whose research centers on understanding where, when, and how faults accommodate active deformation and seismicity.

Research Interests

• How the landscape response to fault slip can be used to compliment paleo-seismic and seismic records to characterize the slip history of seismogenic and tsunamigenic faults in onshore and offshore environments.
• How temporal and spatial patterns of deformation can be used to interpret the dynamics of lithospheric-scale deformation.
• How outcrop-scale to micro-scale deformation can be used to investigate processes that lead to seismic slip

Education

• Ph.D. Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University (2013)
• M.S. Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University (2009)
• B.S. Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University (2005)

Career History

Academic Positions

• Associate Professor, Northern Arizona University (2024-present)
• Assistant Professor, Northern Arizona University (2019-2024)
• Assistant Professor, Boston University (2015-2019)
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (2014-2015)

Postdoctoral Experience

• NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University (2014-2015)

Research Impact

Dr. Regalla has made significant contributions to structural geology and active tectonics. Her research focuses on subduction forearcs and zones of distributed deformation, including field areas in Japan, Cascadia and the Western US.

Research Approach

As a field geologist, Dr. Regalla employs multidisciplinary approaches including:

• Field mapping and structural analysis
• Tectonic geomorphology techniques
• Paleoseismic investigations
• Numerical modeling of tectonic processes
• Integration of geological and geophysical data

Key Research Areas

Subduction Zone Research

• Impact of outer-rise normal fault subduction on structural evolution
• Forearc fault systems and their seismic hazards
• Subduction processes and earthquake geology

Basin and Range Studies

• Characterizing paleoseismic fault slip histories for eatthquake hazard analyses
• Normal fault evolution and interaction
• Crustal deformation patterns in extensional environments

Graduate Student Supervision

Dr. Regalla mentors graduate students in:

• Field geology and structural analysis techniques
• Tectonogeomorphic mapping
• Paleoseismology
• Interdisciplianry research methods
• Professional communication via presentations, proposals, and papers.

##If interested in graduate research

If you are interested in potential graduate programs, please visit my personal website http://christineregalla.com/ to look at some of the active research project info below, and some of our groups publications. Then send me an email with the following: - what project(s) and/or project components you are interested in, and why - what prior experiences of yours will help you be successful in this project(s)