About

Professor Michael E. Oskin is affiliated with the Earth and Planetary Sciences department at the University of California, Davis. The provided page primarily lists his past graduate students, their degrees, graduation years, and current positions, including roles such as assistant professors and faculty at various institutions, as well as positions within geological surveys. There is no additional information on his research focus, background, or key contributions included in the provided text.

Research topics

• Geology
• Seismology
• Computer Science
• Geodesy
• Biology
• Geophysics
• Petrology

Selected publications

• INFLUENCE OF MORAINE DEGRADATION ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF BOULDER-DERIVED COSMOGENIC NUCLIDE AGES AT BISHOP CREEK, EASTERN CALIFORNIA

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• SOIL TRANSPORT AND WEATHERING ACROSS AN EROSION-RATE GRADIENT, PENINSULAR RANGES, CALIFORNIA

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• ACTIVE FAULTING OF LASSEN NP AND SURROUNDING AREAS

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• 2024 California Community Earth Models for Seismic Hazard Assessments Workshop Report

  ArXiv.org · 2025-03-14

  preprintOpen access

  The California Community Earth Models for Seismic Hazard Assessments Workshop (https://www.scec.org/workshops/2024/california-community-models, accessed December 16, 2024) was held online on March 4-5, 2024, with more than 200 participants over two days. In this report, we provide a summary of the key points from the presentations and discussions. We highlight three use cases that drive the development of community Earth models, present an inventory of existing community Earth models in California, summarize a few techniques for integrating and merging models, discuss potential connections with the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT), and discuss what "community" means in community Earth models. Appendix B contains the workshop agenda and Appendix C contains a list of participants.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• ACTIVE FAULTING WITHIN THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS PROVINCE REVEALED BY LiDAR DATA

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The SCEC Community Rheology Model for the Southern California Lithosphere: Geological Framework, Ductile Flow Laws, and Preliminary Implications

  2025-05-08

  preprintOpen access

  The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Community Rheology Model (CRM) comprises a three-dimensional geologic framework model (GFM) of southern California’s lithosphere, and synthetic aggregate ductile flow laws applicable to each GFM rock type under low-strain conditions. Given temperature, volatile content, pressure, and strain rate, the CRM may be used to calculate lithosphere effective viscosities and differential stresses. Here, we query the GFM and the SCEC Community Thermal Model (CTM) for rock type, province, and temperature, and use CRM flow laws for each rock type to compute effective viscosities throughout southern California. Assuming a simplified representation of geodetically inferred strain rates, we find that upper and middle crust viscosities exceed 1021 Pa s, except in the inner Salton Trough. Mean lower crust viscosities in the study region are in the 1019 to 1020 Pa s range, with considerable spatial variation. Mantle viscosities below the lithospheric “lid” are consistent with values inferred from postseismic deformation. Our estimates of crustal viscosities are comparable to those inferred from seismic velocities, but spatial patterns of viscosity differ substantially, reflecting CTM temperature patterns and to a lesser extent, assumed strain rates and lithology. In general, CRM effective viscosities are more sensitive to temperatures and strain rates than to lithological variations. To be consistent with observed postseismic deformation at lower crust and upper mantle depths, especially in the Mojave and Walker Lane regions, high-strain rate (and hence lower-viscosity) shear zones should be represented in upcoming versions of the CRM.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Coral reef terrace age deduced from retreating knickpoints

  Earth and Planetary Science Letters · 2025-12-18

  articleOpen access

  • Novel knickpoint-based method dates coral terraces, bypassing diagenetic limitations. • Linking sea-level history with river knickpoint formation for terrace age inference. • Coastal uplift rate ∼1 m/kyr, aligning with tectonic studies south of the research area. The accurate dating of Quaternary coral terraces has long been challenging due to recrystallization of aragonite corals. Here, we present an approach to infer terrace age based on (1) the linkage between sea-level drop and river knickpoint formation and (2) the history of sea-level rise and fall recorded by the elevation–age relationship of knickpoints. Our study in northwestern Luzon, Philippines, combines field surveys, sedimentological analysis, and topographic and river-profile analysis, through which we map the coral reef terrace extent and correlate terrace outer edges to the initiation location of major knickpoints in adjacent river profiles. Through χ transformation, the knickpoint retreat distance is equivalent to knickpoint/terrace age, and therefore the elevation–retreat distance relationship of the knickpoints can be used to determine the age of the correlated terrace. Using this method, we deduce that the lower coral reef terrace sequences (T1-T4) correspond to Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5a, 5c, 5e, and 7a, respectively. Furthermore, we suggest the coastal area is gently tilting seaward with an average uplift rate of ∼1 m/kyr, and the highest terrace surface (420–440 m) may be more than 400 kyr old. We propose that this technique offers a promising solution for dating coral reef terraces in uplifting coastal regions where absolute age-dating techniques fail due to diagenetic alteration, and for terraces associated with bedrock rivers that developed before the penultimate glacial period.

  PublisherDOI

• THE MOST RECENT SLIP EVENT ON THE LENWOOD FAULT, EASTERN CALIFORNIA SHEAR ZONE

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• PALEOSEISMIC SLIP MODEL FOR THE WASATCH FAULT

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• TIME-DEPENDENT EARTHQUAKE HAZARD CONSTRAINTS FROM A CALIFORNIA-WIDE PALEOSEISMIC DATABASE

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Timing and Controls on Plio-Pleistocene Erosion and Sedimentation in the Eastern Peninsular Ranges, Southern California

  NSF · $144k · 2009–2011

• Collaborative Research: Controls on Termination of Great Earthquakes in a Restraining Double-Bend of the Altyn Tagh Fault

  NSF · $311k · 2011–2015

• Collaborative Research: 3-D Near-field Coseismic Deformation from Differential LiDAR with Application to the El Mayor-Cucapah Earthquake

  NSF · $93k · 2012–2015

• Collaborative Research: Earthquake Gates: Linking Earthquake Rupture Length to the Dynamics of Restraining Double Bends on the Altyn Tagh Fault

  NSF · $416k · 2015–2019

• Collaborative Research: Testing Tectonic Geodesy from Fault Slip Rates Across the Eastern California Shear Zone

  NSF · $150k · 2004–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Yiran Wang

  52 shared

• Jing Liu‐Zeng

  Nankai University

  46 shared

• Scott Bennett

  36 shared

• A. J. Elliott

  Earthquake Science Center

  30 shared

• Yanxiu Shao

  Tianjin University

  27 shared

• Alba M. Rodríguez Padilla

  University of California, Davis

  26 shared

• Rebecca J. Dorsey

  University of Rochester

  23 shared

• A. E. Morelan

  United States Geological Survey

  23 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Earth and Planetary Sciences

  California Institute of Technology

  2001

• B.S., Earth and Space Sciences

  University of California Los Angeles

  1995

Awards & honors

• UC Davis Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Award (2020…