Rock and Ice Mechanics Lab

“Now more than ever, we are growing our lab and building our program for exciting new experiments on both rock and ice.”

Ben Holtzman, Christine McCarthy, and Rob Skarbek, Rock & Ice Mechanics Lab Principal Investigators

Research in the Rock and Ice Mechanics Lab encompasses many aspects of ice and rock deformation, with applications on Earth and throughout the solar system. Using lab experiments, we work to understand the physics of faulting, exploring the properties of rocks and ice from the micro scale of defects and asperities up to the macro scale of fault heating and rupture. This research informs our understanding of earthquake dynamics, and sheds light on anomalous heat production found in icy faults on earth and in the outer solar system.

Rock & Ice Mechanics Lab Research News

A comparison between the experiment’s original material (left), which was mostly olivine, and the products after reaction with CO2 — mainly of rhombic magnesite crystals and small blobs of silica. Source: Presentation by Catalina Sanchez-Roa

Reactions That Store Carbon Underground Can Cause Cracking. That’s Good News.

The console that the Rock Mechanics team uses to adjust the Triaxial Deformation Apparatus.

Tools of the Trade: A Machine That Squeezes Rocks to Mimic Earthquakes

Christine McCarthy in the Rock Mechanics Lab

Christine McCarthy: A Cheerleader for the Physics of Ice

Heather Savage’s team sampled all along the Muddy Mountain thrust in Nevada and made some surprising discoveries. Credit: Heather Savage

Creating Earthquake Heat Maps: Temperature Spikes Leave Clues in the Rock

Research engineer Ted Koczynski explains how rock surfaces put pressure on a block of ice from each side as the ice is pushed downward in the new cryogenic deformation apparatus. Depending on the configuration, sensors throughout the device can measure friction, viscosity and anelasticity. Credit: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Crushing Ice to Learn About Glaciers & Icy Moons

Testing how rocks behave under stress in the Rock Mechanics Lab at Lamont. Credit: A.J. Wilhelm

Top Seismology Award Goes to Pioneer in Rock Mechanics: Christopher Scholz

Viewing Melting Glaciers, Via Microscope and Moving Images

Tools of the Trade: Machines that Squeeze and Tickle Rock and Ice

In the Rock & Ice Mechanics Lab, we use various laboratory instruments to study the physical properties of materials that are important to earth and planetary science. We study natural rocks and ice, with facilities for coring, sawing, and grinding of experimental samples. We have an adjacent machine shop, a central facility for more detailed jobs, and a cold room for ice sample preparation and storage. Learn more about the custom machines that we use for our research.

Rock & Ice Mechanics Lab Principal Investigators

Ben Holtzman, Research Professor

Ben offers his expertise on all things melt and microstructure-related. His research resides at the intersection of rock physics, seismology, and geodynamics.

Christine McCarthy, Research Professor

Christine studies how material behavior (flow, fracture, friction) at various spatial and temporal scales influence microstructure, and vice versa. She is currently measuring effects of tidal forcing on both glacier flow rates and frictional heating of icy satellites.

Rob Skarbek, Associate Research Scientist

Rob has a broad interest in geomechanical problems, including accretionary wedge behavior, fluid-flow and frictional controls on aseismic slip, and tidal modulation of glacier flow. He is currently the PI on an NSF project to study densification of firn.

Rock & Ice Mechanics Lab Research Staff

Jacob Tielke, Lab Manager, Associate Research Scientist

Jacob studies the feedbacks between deformation processes and the transport/reaction kinetics in Earth and planetary bodies. He is currently gearing up the lab for carbon mineralization experiments as a form of CO2 mitigation, including installation of a wide array of AE sensors.

Ted Koczynski, Research Engineer

As a longtime lab technician, Ted keeps everything running smoothly and is spearheading the rehabilitation of old machinery and the design and fabrication of new capabilities, like gas mixing, L-block friction experiments and many more.

Catalina Sanchez-Roa, Postdoctoral Fellow

Catalina is interested in crustal rheology, fluid flow, geochemical reactions, and microstructure. She is heading up our Sloan-funded experiments on carbonization of mantle peridotite as a way of removing and safely storing CO2.

Seth Saltiel, Postdoctoral Fellow

Seth is performing laboratory experiments to measure the dependence of ice-on-till friction as a function of temperature, till composition, basal pore pressure, and time-dependent forcing. The results should elucidate certain aspects of glacial sliding.

Vishaal Singh, Postdoctoral Scientist

Vishaal studies ices in our solar system, including ice shell composition, surface age, and evolution. Under two NASA COLDTech grants, his is currently evaluating communication tethers at cryogenic and seismically hostile conditions for ocean world exploration.

Hatsuki Yamauchi, Postdoctoral Scientist

Hatsuki is an expert on the properties that control seismic attenuation, including grain size, temperature, and partial melt (including pre-melt). Her work at Lamont is to additionally look at the effect of strain-induced dislocation structure and density on attenuation, using ice as an analog to upper mantle rock.

Maheenuz Zaman, Graduate Student

Mahi is studying the influence of partial melt (ice + ammonia) on friction and stability of faults on icy satellites like Enceladus. In particular, he is exploring frictional heating as a potential pathway for surface oxidants, which may shed light on habitability of these worlds.

Michael Nielson, Research Assistant

After completing his senior thesis on the microstructural evolution of polycrystalline ice samples, Michael stayed on to help with friction experiments and to design and fabricate all of our low temperature technologies.

Research Alumni

Genevieve Coffey used biomarkers as indicators for coseismic slip along faults since biomarkers can record changes in temperature and thereby constrain frictional heating. She is currently an Earthquake geologist at GNS Science in New Zealand.: Ben Robinson worked both on ice fabrication (as an undergraduate) and then on reaction-driven cracking.
Kristina Okamoto performed triaxial experiments to understand fault roughness and earthquake nucleation. She’s finishing up her PhD at USCS.: Nicholas van der Elst, NSF-EAR Postdoc fellow, used observational seismology and laboratory friction experiments to learn about earthquakes and fault mechanics and now works for the USGS.
Heather Savage used experiments and field work to study many aspects of earthquake and fault mechanics including induced seismicity and fault heating. She is now a faculty member at U.C. Santa Cruz.: Caitlin Dieck Locke, Columbia undergrad (2013) and research assistant, now Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory graduate student, conducted a research project on induced seismicity in the regions around wastewater injection locations.
Hannah Rabinowitz studied coseismic shearheating as a way of understanding the energy release of earthquakes. She is now a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program.: Rachel Sheppard, Columbia undergrad (2013) and research assistant, examined shear heating on faults by extracting organic molecules from sedimentary fault rock and analyzing it in a mass spectrometer.
Armando Domingos did his senior thesis on partial melt microstructures applicable to icy satellites and earned his MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley.: Mandy Duda, German University of Bochum Postdoc, visited the lab to run cyclic loading experiments under confining pressure using the triaxial apparatus.
Sarah Lambart split her time between rock mechanics and geochemistry as a postdoc to study reaction-driven cracking and permeability changes during carbonation of peridotite.