Professor Toke's Geoscience Blog

The 2026 Summer is more than half over and it is hot here in Orem. The past two days (July 11-12) reached record high temperatures (All time, not daily) and looking at the weather map it was no joke. Afternoon temperatures were between 101 and 112 across the Wasatch Front and over 95 on the Wasatch Back, even in places like Park City! It's still not as hot as Phoenix was and cool enough for recreating pleasantly in the mornings, so I will be thankful for that!  Summer has been relaxed this year with very little travel for Debjani and me, but it has continued to be productive: In May, I led a week of our Geology Field capstone course right here along the northern Provo segment of the Wasatch fault zone. Students created a geomorphic/geologic strip map of the fault zone from Cedar Hills (in the North) to Battle Creek Trailhead on the southeast side of the town of Pleasant Grove. Some student maps were really quite impressive (see below - by Parker J.).  That week of work has led...

Well spring 2026 is over. So technical is sabbatical. But now it’s summer!  I’ve received news of success with the Geosphere manuscript and I am working on copy edits for that paper now. The journal Remote Sensing rejected my LiDAR differencing paper about ground subsidence in Cedar Valley despite two positive reviews and one negative one. So I reformatted and made a few small edits and submitted the Manuscript to Earth’s Future which is more about results and application than mythological focus which was the criticism by the one reviewer.  I also go through the very helpful edits by Dr Bunds and sent the Topliff Hills manuscript to the rest of our coauthors.  Got 10+ survey responses from Students that used my OER draft book. Will work to make edits before the start of fall.  Planning to submit a tectonic geomorphology paper with Parker and Veronica to a special issue stemming from the ICG meeting. Also contemplating how to move forward with the Genola north fault p...

Dr Bunds gave me some really good feedback on the draft of our Topliff fault manuscript this past week and I am about half way through those edits. Hope to finish those this weekend or the beginning of next week so I can send a better version to the rest of our coauthors. I heard back (last week) from Geosphere’s editorial and contracts office that our TLF manuscript is headed toward publication! I applied for and received a SAC award to cover the publication charges. Now just waiting on official word and proofs from the editorial office. The 2nd round reviews appear to be back from the lidar differencing paper about subsidence in Cedar and Parowan Valleys is S. Utah. I could see feedback in the submission system which was positive from two reviewers and less so from a third. Hopefully the editorial group sides with the majority!  I completed a peer review for JGR Earth Surface last week. I chatted with K. Smith about working on the Genola North fault manuscript soon!  The Par...

This week, I responded to four reviewers’ comments on our Southern Utah Land Subsidence paper. Comments were substantial, but not too onerous. The paper is being looked over by David Munsey and I should be able to resubmit it by the start of next week! Then, I’ll get back to finalizing the Topliff paper or continue working on the central SAF paper. I also had an organizing meeting as we worked to post an announcement for the Parkfield 2.0 SCEC workshop that will take place this June in the Bay Area. 

I completed a draft of the Topliff Hill fault zone paleoseismology paper and sent it off to my primary coauthor Dr Bunds for feedback today. It took about a month to write this paper. Along with other ongoing stuff. Feeling pretty good about it overall.  Yesterday I received feedback from four peer reviewers on the paper I wrote based upon work with David Munsey: LiDAR differencing to explore ground subsidence in southern Utah. The feedback was pretty critical. Seems like the reviewers really wanted it to be a methods paper, but it’s really a case study and explorative paper about what’s possible to see with LiDAR differencing with ground subsidence. I’ll see what I can do to appease them and if it doesn’t work out I’ll find a journal that’s more about geology than remote sensing methods. 

This week I used ScarpVS to analyze ~120 fault displacements across various geomorphic fan surfaces along the Topliff Hills Fault (and S Oquirrh Mtns FZ) which are just west of the Wasatch Front. Mike Bunds and I (along with 2019 Field Camp students) trenched this fault and have loose constrains on the ages of 4-6 earthquakes, so this work complements the trench study. I’ve already got 5 figures, 1 table and a few pages of writing done. Here is a summary of the displacement information along the fault:

This week I finalized and submitted a manuscript titled: "Imaging Subsidence Rates and Structures within Cedar and Parowan Valleys, Utah, USA from Lidar Differencing." with my coauthor David Munsey to the journal Remote Sensing (MDPI journal) AND I finished edits and resubmitted the Thousand Lake fault manuscript titled: "Variable Geologic Slip Rate and the Most Recent Earthquakes along the Thousand Lake Fault, Eastern Basin and Range, Utah, USA." by Nathan Toké, David Johnson, Christopher Bailey, David Marchetti, Tammy Rittenour, Robert Biek, Hanna Bartram, Sally Ward, Rachel Richards, and Clayton Forster. The revision is now under further consideration with Geosphere (GSA Journal).  It was a good week for writing as I was dealing with a fairly painful back strain which was so bad it was hard to walk and get up and down last weekend, but now is just keeping me from running and any quick pulling motions. Physical therapy for the issue is walking, so I walked to UVU ...

Whirlwind of a tour of New Zealand in bullet points: *Wonderful pre conference (ICG) field trip from Wellington to Kaikoura and then on to Christchurch: observing uplifted coastal platforms, fault scarps, landslides and discussing sediment cascades through the fluvial network from the thousands of mass wasting events associated with the 2016 Kaikoura EQ.  *great talks at the International Conference on Geomorphology. It was refreshing to experience a non-north American centric conference. So much learning about glacial, peri/para glacial, aeolian, pluvial and other geomorphic study sites around the world. Day 2 was obviously a highlight for me with all day in back to back tectonic geomorphology sessions and presenting my work extending Parker and Veronica’s Ksn of Utah study. I also found myself stuck in a number of planetary geomorphology sessions. fascinating!  *visited the Earthquake City museum in Christchurch and also toured the red zone neighborhoods by bicycle which wer...

I’m writing from the South Island of New Zealand. Spent a few days in Auckland, climbed several cinder cones and swam in the comfortable 70 degree waters. Flew to Wellington, spent an evening there, hiked an escarpment above the Wellington fault and then completed a draft of a manuscript about lidar differencing and ground subsidence in Southern Utah for the Journal Remote Sensing before embarking for the pre conference field trip that I’m on now. The field trip began with a ferry ride on the Cook Straight, great weather today, but I cannot imagine how windy it must get in stormy conditions! Then we spent the day driving across the many valleys and ranges associated with the oblique slip faults in the northern half of the South Island, ending the day near the 2016 Kaikoura ruptures. Looking forward to tomorrow’s second half of the field trip and arriving in Christchurch for the conference! 

Week 3 of Spring 2026 was busy. I attended the first GE committee meeting of the semester where we discussed how to mitigate AI from impacting the GE experience at UVU, even considering how to effectively ban faculty and student from using AI in GE courses (or limiting it to no more than 10% of class structure/content). Seems like a good, but possibly controversial plan given the emails that all administrators here at UVU have been sending for the past 1.5 years.  I got reviews back on the Thousand Lake Fault Geosphere Manuscript and they were positive with some helpful suggestions for clarifying and and precision of language in a few places and adding in some things (e.g., fault scarp profile interpretations) to an e-supplement. Made some initial progress addressing those things and some of my colleagues will handle other aspects, will finish up those minor revisions in mid February upon return from New Zealand.  The figures above are views of subsidence across the Enoch Grab...

This week I went from feeling relaxed and accomplished, easing toward the trip to New Zealand, to  joining the organizing committee for a 3 day SCEC workshop (Parkfield 2.0) with the likes of Bill Ellsworth, Cliff Thurber, and Roland Burgmann. Additionally I was invited to submit a contribution to a Special Issue of Remote Sensing on ground subsidence. So I spent most of the week working on that paper instead of the Topliff Fault paper. I need to submit it in later February, but that feels pretty close by and now Topliff is on the back burner for the moment. Oh well… it’s all exciting! 

Happy to report that it has finally become winter in northern Utah. December and early January's abnormally high temperatures (50 degrees nearly every day) have dipped to a seasonal 35 and it even snowed (a little). We need snowpack for our long dry and warm summers! Cannot say I didn't enjoy my gravel bike riding along the Bonneville shoreline this past week, but this is the time of year bike trainers were made for. Grateful to have had a restful break without the grind of prepping classes in just two weeks. Instead I was able to finish a draft of the Advanced GIS Textbooklet which Dr. Olson is utilizing in his class and I prepared my talk for the IAG meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand at the beginning of next month. (abstract can be found here: https://confer.eventsair.com/iag2026 ). After getting some feedback from the coauthors, I will probably upload a version of the talk to my YouTube page:  https://www.youtube.com/@nathantoke5266   For now, here is a screen capt...

Heading into the Christmas and New Year’s Break I’ll just recap progress on sabbatical goals and outline my plan moving forward: Publication Goals - submit two papers and work on 3-4 papers. Book Goals - Advanced GIS open textbook Conference Goals - Attend International Conference and Field Trip Service Goals - Contribute to GE committee, be occasionally useful to department, participate in peer review. So Far: One Manuscript (Thousand Lake fault) submitted (Geosphere). Two other Manuscripts have received significant attention (Dry Lake Valley and Topliff fault) The advanced GIS book is almost complete (draft): 4/5 content chapters are complete and I am working on the 5th now. I am mostly prepared for the IAG conference in New Zealand and have 3 days of structured geology field trip learning scheduled. Should get two days of independent field learning by bike and boat near the Southern Alps too. Will present on Ksn across Utah landscapes in a Tectonic geomorphology of Mtns session whic...

Over the last week I completed the Geologic PCA analysis section (half) of chapter 4 of the Advanced GIS textbook, including four video tutorials, seven figures, and three tables along with 10 pages of writing. I aim to get this chapter done in the coming week or so and finish the next chapter/book before Christmas, gift for Dr. Olsen and next semester!  Additionally, I made a few of the figures for the Topliff Hill Fault Paleoseismology paper and got the go ahead from Dr. Bunds to prepare it for Seismica. So far, four figures, one table and a few pages of writing are there. Aim is to get a draft of this paper to Dr. Bunds before I go to New Zealand. 

Bulleted List: -Submitted the Thousand Lake fault MS to Geosphere.  -Attended the 2025-2026 USHE geology major meeting, representing UVU. Was a good meeting overall. Sad to see some Utah programs having trouble replacing retired faculty (Utah Tech especially who is kind of down to 1-2 one faculty members at the moment). -Attended the last GE committee meeting of the semester where we finalized and approved the committee bylaws.  -Reviewed my IAG conference abstract and began planning my talk which will take place on Feb 5 in Christchurch NZ in the Tectonic Geomorphology of Mountains Session.  -read a recent Geosphere paper about the east Traverse Mountains by the BYU group studying mega landslides want to reread it a bit, certainly interesting.  -listened to my first undergraduate research mentor Keith Klepeis on Geology Bites. how awesome!!! Third professor I know that has appeared on that program.  -Started a book about the history of New Zealand.  -Worke...

This past week, I completed figure and text edits and reformatted the Thousand Lake fault manuscript for submission to a GSA journal (Geosphere) instead of Seismica (kept the old version just in case). Unfortunately, I feel that the open-access charge for GSA Bulletin is too expensive to justify submitting there, but Geosphere should reach a similar audience which is broader in scope than Seismica. I sent the reformatted version out for a last check with co-authors and hopefully will have a submission receipt with GSA by mid week.  I also started (opened and made the cover page) for Chapter 4 of the Advanced GIS book. This follows upon meeting with Dr. Olson in detail about the class this past week. I hope to finish the book (at least the first 5 chapters) in just a few weeks, so time to push hard toward that.  Biking was good again this past week and I've steadily been pushing up my weekly vertical climbing, reached over 7000 ft for the week (about as much as one day of the T...

Whoa, getting behind in posting this sabbatical blog/journal. This post covers the last week of October and first week of November (through the following weekend).  I attended two department meetings in a row, one in person and the second over TEAMs. The motivation was just to touch base and being 1/3 of the way through the sabbatical I also wanted to light a motivational fire for myself. It worked. I was amazed by the nitty gritty details of the two meetings and how frustrating all the little things can be, especially when they have so little to do with teaching or research. Most things at meeting seem to have to do with service and/or administration which is mostly satisfying the ideas of others outside of the department and even the University. Anyway, I am pretty convinced that most of that stuff is to keep faculty away from doing anything academic. It's basically a war against knowledge coming down from above. So mission accomplished, I need to relish this time where those tho...

I turned 45 on October 21st and we celebrated with a nice dinner out in SLC and then had a few friends over at the end of the week too. Time is flying by in the semester 2/3 of semester means 1/3 of the sabbatical. I still am about 1/3 done with the work I proposed for the sabbatical, so that is good, but I have stagnated a bit on progressing with the DLV San Andreas Fault paper. Mostly I've been dealing with slowly digitizing and re-digitizing some of the trench logs. There were 9 trenches! It's challenging because it was strike slip faulting, with pervasive faulting/fracturing and how to represent oblique to the trench fractures that generally reach the surface, but often don't continue with the trench wall due to their obliquity to the surface trace of the fault makes the logs a bit cartoonish when you need to close polygons. It's a compromise and will require some nuanced discussion and different types of figures to completely represent everything. Given the slow do...

Mostly last week was spent tending to Dallas as he recovered from surgery and also doing a bunch of winterization of the house/yard as well as some editing of the TLF paper. Still waiting on a couple of important coauthors to provide feedback before it can be officially submitted. Some coauthors want to submit to GSA Bulletin, which would be cool, but it’s so much money. Just doesn’t seem right to spend so much University money on publishing fees when there are well peer reviewed journals now freely available. But we’ll see. Still thinking about it. Time is flying and I haven’t don’t that much on paper number 2 yet and need to get to it!!! 

This week I finished digitizing four trench logs from the DLV site along the San Andreas fault and created two more trench figures. Some of these I started working on so long ago that the ArcGIS program changed and I needed to redo some of the work. I have three more trench walls to (re)digitize to unify the formatting of the trench units and one more trench figure to produce and then I can get back to finalizing the writing on that paper. I think I should be able to produce a full draft of that paper and send it to colleagues before I turn 45 or at least by the end of the month of October.  This week I also got back edits from D. Johnson on the Thousand Lake fault paper. He provided some really useful edits and I have made the changes. Tomorrow I should be able to finalize some figure edits I wanted to accomplish before sending it to the broader coauthor group for further internal review. I think I will ask that they send back comments by October 16th, with hopes of submitting tha...