Maria Seton (''nee'' Sdrolias) is an Australian geologist in the Faculty of Science EarthByte Group School of Geosciences at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. Seton's research is in the field of

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

and

geodynamics Geodynamics is a subfield of geophysics dealing with dynamics of the Earth. It applies physics, chemistry and mathematics to the understanding of how mantle convection leads to plate tectonics and geologic phenomena such as seafloor spreading, mo ...

. Her main focus is the link between

plate tectonic Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...

and mantle processes. Seton also works on kinematic controls on subduction and back-arc basin formation and the relationship between tectonics and palaeo-climate.

Research

Subduction and Back-arc-Basin

Seton has recently updated the palaeo

subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

and

back-arc basin A back-arc basin is a type of geologic basin, found at some convergent plate boundaries. Presently all back-arc basins are submarine features associated with island arcs and subduction zones, with many found in the western Pacific Ocean. Most of ...

parameters. This important data was visualised in a new grid map available online. One of the main achievements of this work is the correlation made between the age of the subducting oceanic lithosphere and the intermediate dip of the slab. Related to the

survey, back-arc-basins were studied, and their occurrence was correlated to the age of subducting oceanic lithosphere.

SW Pacific and Philippine Sea tectonics

Seton had surveyed the SW Pacific Ocean and collected important new bathymetry, gravity and magnetic data on the FAUST2 cruise. She published the results concerning the spreading history in the inactive back-arc basins in The Australian Plate GSA Special Volume.[Seton (nee Sdrolias), M., Müller, R., Gaina, C. (2003). Tectonic evolution of the southwest Pacific using constraints from backarc basins. Geological Society of Australia Special Publication, 22, 343–359.]. Seton also examined the rotation history of the Philippine Sea plate.

Collaborative projects

Seton is involved a collaborative work on the creation of the new agegrid as well as palaeo-agegrids. Another collaborative work she is involved with is the modelling the palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate of the Southern Ocean during the past 40 million years.

Sandy Island enigma

In one of her research cruises through the South Pacific Ocean, Dr Seton and her colleagues realised that an island charted on

Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

and scientific maps in fact does not exist. A close investigation exposed a mistake that was made by sailors in the 19th century when the region was mapped.

Sandy Island, New Caledonia Sandy Island (sometimes labelled in French , and in Spanish ) is a non-existent island that was charted for over a century as being located near the French territory of New Caledonia between the Chesterfield Islands and Nereus Reef in the ea ...

was removed from the official French hydrographic charts by the French Hydrographic Service in 1974 after a flying recognition campaign and by AHS in 1985. The information about the status of the phantom island was passed on to other national hydrographic services around the world, but Sandy Island remained in global coastline and bathymetry compilations used by the anglophone community and was still there when the R/V ''Southern Surveyor'' sailed toward the Coral Sea in October 2012.

Select publications and bibliography

*Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Whittaker, J., Wessel, P., Müller, R., DeMets, C., Merkouriev, S., Cande, S., Gaina, C., Eagles, G., Granot, R., et al. (2014). Community infrastructure and repository for marine magnetic identifications. G3: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems: an electronic journal of the earth sciences, 15, 1629–1641. *Gallagher, S., Exon, N., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Ikehara, M., Hollis, C., Arculus, R., D'Hondt, S., Foster, C., Gurnis, M., Kennett, J., et al. (2014). Exploring new drilling prospects in the southwest Pacific. Scientific Drilling, 2(17), 1–6. *Butterworth, N., Talsma, A., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Bunge, H., Schuberth, B., Shephard, G., Heine, C. (2014). Geological, tomographic, kinematic and geodynamic constraints on the dynamics of sinking slabs. Journal of Geodynamics, 73, 1–13. *Zahirovic, S., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Müller, R. (2014). The Cretaceous and Cenozoic tectonic evolution of Southeast Asia. Solid Earth, 56, 227–273. *Flament, N., Gurnis, M., Williams, S., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Skogseid, J., Heine, C., Müller, R. (2014). Topographic asymmetry of the South Atlantic from global models of mantle flow and lithospheric stretching. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 387, 107–119. *Coltice, N., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Rolf, T., Müller, R., Tackley, P. (2013). Convergence in tectonic reconstructions and mantle convection models for significant fluctuations in seafloor spreading. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 383, 92–100. *Bower, D., Gurnis, M., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2013). Lower Mantle Structure from paleogeographically constrained dynamic Earth models. G3: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems: an electronic journal of the earth sciences, 14(1), 44–63. *Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Williams, S., Zahirovic, S., Micklethwaite, S. (2013). Obituary: Sandy Island (1876–2012). EOS, 94(15), 141–142. *Morra, G., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Quevedo, L., Müller, R. (2013). Organization of the tectonic plates in the last 200 Myr. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 373, 93–101. *Müller, R., Dutkiewicz, A., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Gaina, C. (2013). Seawater chemistry driven by supercontinent assembly, break-up, and dispersal. Geology (Boulder), 41(8), 907–910. *Shephard, G., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2013). The tectonic evolution of the Arctic since Pangea break-up: Integrating constraints from surface geology and geophysics with mantle structure. Earth-Science Reviews, 124, 148–183. *Wright, N., Zahirovic, S., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2013). Towards community-driven paleogeographic reconstructions: integrating open-access paleogeographic and paleobiology data with plate tectonics. Biogeosciences, 10(3), 1529–1541. *Matthews, K., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Müller, R. (2012). A global-scale plate reorganisation event at 105–100 Ma. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 355–356, 283–298. *Greenwood, D., Herold, N., Huber, M., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2012). Early to middle Miocene monsoon climate in Australia. Geology (Boulder), 40(6), e274-e274. *Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Müller, R., Zahirovic, S., Gaina, C., Torsvik, T., Shephard, G., Talsma, A., Gurnis, M., Turner, M., Maus, S., et al. (2012). Global continental and ocean basin reconstructions since 200 Ma. Earth-Science Reviews, 113(3–4), 212–270. *Zahirovic, S., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Flament, N., Gurnis, M., Whittaker, J. (2012). Insights on the kinematics of the India-Eurasia collision from global geodynamic models. G3: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems: an electronic journal of the earth sciences, 13(4). *Herold, N., Huber, M., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2012). Modeling the Miocene climatic optimum: Ocean Circulation. Paleoceanography, 27(1), 1–22. *Gurnis, M., Turner, M., Zahirovic, S., DiCaprio, L., Spasojevic, S., Müller, R., Boyden, J., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Manea, V., Bower, D. (2012). Plate Tectonic Reconstructions with Continuously Closing Plates. Computers and Geosciences, 38(1), 35–42. *Chandler, M., Wessel, P., Taylor, B., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Kim, S., Hyeong, K. (2012). Reconstructing Ontong Java Nui: Implications for Pacific absolute plate motion, hotspot drift and true polar wander. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 331–332, 140–151. *Herold, N., Huber, M., Greenwood, D., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2011). Early to middle Miocene monsoon climate in Australia. Geology (Boulder), 39(1), 3–6. *Goes, S., Capitanio, F., Morra, G., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Giardini, D. (2011). Signatures of downgoing plate-buoyancy driven subduction in Cenozoic plate motions. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 184(1–2), 1–13. *Herold, N., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2010). Comparing early to middle Miocene terrestrial climate simulations with geological data. Geosphere, 6(6), 952–961. *Liu, L., Gurnis, M., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Saleeby, J., Müller, R., Jackson, J. (2010). The role of oceanic plateau subduction in the Laramide orogeny. Nature Geoscience, 3(5), 353–357. *Tong, J., You, Y., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2009). Climate model sensitivity to atmospheric concentrations for the middle Miocene. Global and Planetary Change, 67(3–4), 129–140. *Herold, N., You, Y., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M. (2009). Climate model sensitivity to changes in Miocene paleotopography. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 56(8), 1049–1059. *Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Gaina, C., Müller, R., Heine, C. (2009). Mid-Cretaceous seafloor spreading pulse: Fact or fiction? Geology (Boulder), 37(8), 687–690. *Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Gaina, C., Roest, W. (2008). Age, spreading rates, and spreading asymmetry of the world's ocean crust. G3: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems: an electronic journal of the earth sciences, 9(4), 1–19. *Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Gaina, C., Steinberger, B., Heine, C. (2008). Long-Term Sea-Level Fluctuations Driven by Ocean Basin Dynamics. Science, 319(5868), 1357–1362. *Herold, N., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Müller, R., You, Y., Huber, M. (2008). Middle Miocene tectonic boundary conditions for use in climate models. G3: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems: an electronic journal of the earth sciences, 9(10), Q10009-1-Q10009-10. *Whittaker, J., Müller, R., Leitchenkov, G., Stagg, H., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Gaina, C., Goncharov, A. (2008). Response to comment on "Major Australian-antarctic plate reorganization at Hawaiian-emperor bend time". Science, 321(5888), 490. *Whittaker, J., Müller, R., Leitchenkov, G., Stagg, H., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Gaina, C., Goncharov, A. (2007). Major Australian-Antarctic plate reorganisation at Hawaiian-Emperor bend time eport Science, 318(5847), 83–86. *Whittaker, J., Müller, R., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Heine, C. (2007). Sunda-Java trench kinematics, slab window formation and over-riding plate deformation since the Cretaceous. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 255(3–4), 445–457. *Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Müller, R. (2006). Controls on back-arc basin formation. G3: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems: an electronic journal of the earth sciences, 7(4), 1–40. *Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Roest, W., Müller, R. (2004). An Expression Of Philippine Plate Rotation: The Parece *Vela And Shikoku Basins. Tectonophysics, 394, 69–86. *Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Müller, R., Mauffret, A., Bernardel, G. (2004). Enigmatic Formation Of The Norfolk *Basin, Sw Pacific: A Plume Influence On Back-Arc Extension. G3: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems: an electronic journal of the earth sciences, 5(6), 1–28. ore Information*Hall, C., Gurnis, M., Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Lavier, L., Müller, R. (2003). Castastrophic initiation of subduction following forced convergence across fracture zones. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 212, 15–30. *Seton (née Sdrolias), M., Müller, R., Gaina, C. (2003). Tectonic evolution of the southwest Pacific using constraints from backarc basins. Geological Society of Australia Special Publication, 22, 343–359.

References

External links

Staff Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seton, Maria Living people Australian geologists University of Sydney faculty Australian women geologists 21st-century women scientists Year of birth missing (living people)