Rebecca Colquhoun

Academic Profile

I completed my integrated masters in Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford in 2020 with a first class result. My masters' project investigated what foreshock-aftershock ratios of earthquakes tell us about the involvement of external processes in nucleation. I was an academic scholar at Worcester College, and was awarded an academic prize in 2017. I won the Schlumberger Prize for outstanding performance in Geophysics in 2020. During my undergraduate degree, I worked as a research assistant looking at active faulting in the Alboran Sea using reflection seismic and also completed an independent research project looking at the growth of non-tectonic faults in the Vøring Basin, Norway. I am passionate about improving equality, diversity, inclusion and access. I was on the committee of the Oxford Students Union Disability Campaign, including working as treasurer. I have also worked on a number of outreach events, from short events (including through volunteering for the Oxford University Museums), to the 1-week UNIQ program. I also served as the MPLS taught students divisional representative, on behalf of around 4000 students at senior divisional committees.

Current Research

I am interested in the physical processes which explain earthquake nucleation. My DPhil research will look at at what stage of nucleation big and small earthquakes become fundamentally different, and what this means for our understanding of earthquake hazard. 

Publications

Colquhoun, R., Fernando, B., 2020. An audit for action. Astronomy & Geophysics 61, 5.40-5.42. https://doi.org/10.1093/astrogeo/ataa075

Contact information