Professor Boulton has previously used digital elevation data to study the geomorphology of regions like the Atlas Mountains.
Delivering a seismic shift in disaster prediction
Academic Spotlight: Professor Sarah Boulton
Sarah Boulton has spent almost two decades studying plate tectonics and their power to dramatically shift landscapes. But in November 2016, she saw – and felt – their impact at very close quarters. In New Zealand to pursue a fellowship, thanks to funding from the Leverhulme Trust, she was staying in Wellington when the Kaikōura earthquake rocked New Zealand's South Island.
"As a geologist, I think my first reaction was something like ‘oh wow, I’m in an earthquake’," Sarah says. "Then I realised it was a really big one, and I remember hoping – influenced by my scientific knowledge – that it wasn’t caused by the nearby Wellington Fault. Ultimately, self-preservation kicked in and I simply tried to remember what to do to in an earthquake."
Having successfully come through the event, the Kaikōura experience represented Sarah's second close encounter with seismic activity in just over a year. She had been on a family holiday in Nepal, leaving shortly before a huge earthquake in the Everest region destroyed whole communities and left almost 9,000 people dead.
But actually being in an earthquake, and feeling the thousands of aftershocks that followed it, gave her a heightened appreciation of the power of nature and its effect on people.
"Until that point, I’d studied a lot about the theoretical side of tectonic activity," she says. "But being there, I was able to see how an earthquake resulted in multiple landslides, and to observe people’s responses to them. We’re now almost a decade on from that, but it’s certainly had a lasting effect on my research."
Sarah's interest in the Earth and what it is formed of goes back to her childhood. As a teenager, she had a clear vision of wanting to be a scientist – it was just a case of determining which particular field to go into. Family holidays often involved trips into historic mines or cave systems, and the stunning landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. Perhaps unsurprisingly, geology became the subject of choice.
An integrated Masters at University College London was followed by a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, for which she examined tectonic and sedimentological evolution in southern Turkey. During that time, she came to a conference in Plymouth – meeting several of what would ultimately become her future colleagues – and when a lectureship was advertised at the University, she was encouraged to apply.
"As well as going straight into teaching, we ran field trips here in the South West and further afield to places like the Atlas Mountains in Morocco," Sarah says. "But my research at that point primarily involved looking at active tectonics and the interplay of landscapes using satellite data. It means you can extract a lot of information relatively cheaply."
That work resulted in the fellowship in New Zealand, initially envisioned as an opportunity for Sarah to learn a number of new analysis techniques. But being in the earthquake shifted her focus. Since 2016, she has worked on a number of projects looking at co-seismic activity – earthquakes that result in unstable landscapes, and landslides that ultimately create as much potential for devastation and disruption as the initial event.
Collaborating with colleagues in Plymouth and globally, she has been involved in studies showing the combined effects of earthquakes and extreme rainfall in parts of the Himalaya. That work is now being expanded through the EXCESS project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, which it is hoped will go some way to providing communities and governments with information that could ultimately save thousands of lives.
Sarah's current project – EXCESS – uses high-resolution satellite imagery to collect data on landslides.
There are many things that can cause a landslide, from natural disasters and heavy rainfall to human activity. They can cause untold devastation and disruption, often in some of the poorest and most remote regions in the world. As such, we need to do everything we can to improve our forecasting of these events.
Dr Sarah Boulton
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Between 2004 and 2016, almost 56,000 people died worldwide in more than 4,800 separate landslide events. Predicting natural disasters is obviously no easy task, with some describing it as a form of Holy Grail. But to try and overcome that, the EXCESS project will catalogue landslides from before and after earthquakes in six parts of the world. This will allow Sarah and her team to analyse long-term landslide occurrence in each region, as well as periods of increased landsliding following an earthquake.
Ultimately, the goal will be to increase the ability to accurately forecast the location of landslides across earthquake cycles.
Breaking down barriers with Girls into Geoscience
As well as her ongoing research, one of Sarah’s key focuses in recent years has been the development and expansion of Girls into Geoscience. A programme she co-founded with Dr Jodie Fisher in 2013, it is based around a weekend of talks and workshops open to female A-level students from across the UK. Its vision is simple: to encourage more girls and young women to both study the Earth sciences, and adopt it as a career.
"I had been taught by, and worked with, female geologists before I came to Plymouth," Sarah says. "But while there was a much smaller team here, there weren’t many female academics – or students. We wanted to do something about that and show girls there was no real barrier to them succeeding in the subject."
More than a decade on, the programme continues to be a resounding – and award-winning – success. Attracting up to 100 students each year, the programme in Plymouth now has sister events in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. It continued through the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit without the field trips, but with all four nations coming together virtually. All in all, around 1,000 young women have taken part in Plymouth, and nearly 1,000 more across our sister events, with clear evidence of it encouraging more of them to study the subject beyond their A-levels.
"We know students who have taken part in Girls into Geoscience, then come to study here," Sarah says. "In fact, some of them have even gone on to do PhDs and are now working as researchers themselves. When we started out, the proportion of female to male students in the geosciences wasn’t great, but now, in Plymouth, it’s close to 50:50. It is really fulfilling to think our programme might have contributed in some way to that."
The Girls into Geoscience (GiG) Network
An award-winning STEM outreach initiative featuring an annual two-day event, with optional Dartmoor field trip, held at the University of Plymouth. Co-founded by Professor Boulton and
Dr Jodie Fisher
, GiG aims to introduce female, those who identify as female, and non-binary A-level students to the Earth sciences to demonstrate the world of careers open to graduates today.
With seminars from women working in geology, and hands on workshops looking at geographic information systems, microfossils and planetary geology, this year’s girls into geoscience event isn’t one to miss.
The Centre for Research in Earth Sciences (CRES)
We embrace the broad spectrum of research across Earth sciences, from plate tectonics to climate change, to modern surface processes, to the evolution of life on Earth. Across this breadth, our expert researchers shared ethos is to understand the drivers of change in the Earth system, and the impact of these changes on the Earth and to society. CRES provides an inclusive environment that promotes high quality, novel and interdisciplinary research, alongside a platform for training the next generation of Earth scientists.
