Free lecture with Dr. Tanya Atwater

Co-sponsored by the Solvang Library
Thursday, April 12, 7:00 p.m.
Legion Wing, Solvang Veterans Memorial Building
1745 Mission Drive in Solvang

Featured graphic of plate tectonic action courtesy of Tanya Atwater

Geoscience educator Dr. Tanya Atwater has concentrated her land research on the tectonic evolution of western North America. During the last 100 million years this continental edge was first a major subduction zone and then changed, gradually, to the plate-shear boundary of the San Andreas Fault. Dr. Atwater studies this geologic evolution, integrating and comparing the global plate motion record with the regional continental geologic records. The emerging relationships reveal the origins of many major geologic features, with exceptionally interesting implications for Southern California and our local landscapes.  Dr. Atwater has created geological animations that are used extensively by teachers, museums and the media. She’ll share these animations in this evening’s presentation.

Tanya Atwater is a professor emerita at UCSB. She was educated at MIT, UC Berkeley, and Scripps Institute of Oceanography, earning her PhD in 1972. She was a professor at MIT before joining the UCSB faculty. Atwater’s research in tectonics has taken her to the bottoms of the oceans and to mountains on many continents. She is especially well known for her works on the plate tectonic history of western North America and the San Andreas Fault system. In her retirement she is devoted to science communication, working with the media, museums, civic groups, and teachers.