Adrian M Bender
I study how Alaska's landscapes adjust to earthquake-related rock uplift, climatic change, and human action. My science is strongly fieldwork-oriented, and also uses geographic information systems, digital topography analysis, simple models, and collaborations with academic experts in cosmogenic isotope geochemistry and luminescence dating. Results from my work provide the general public and scientific community with basic information about how, when, where, and how fast or slow Alaska's land surface has uplifted, eroded, and produced mineral resources such as placer gold.
Professional Experience
2015 - Present Geologist, USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, Alaska
2012 - 2015 Physical Science Tech, USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, Alaska
2014 - 2015 Graduate Research Assistant, Western Washington University
2013 - 2014 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Western Washington University
2010 - 2012 Undergraduate Lab Assistant, University of Alaska, Anchorage
Education and Certifications
M.S. 2015 Western Washington University (WWU) Geology
B.S. 2012 University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) Geology
Affiliations and Memberships*
American Geophysical Union (2012-present)
Geological Society of America (2013-present)
Honors and Awards
WWU Outstanding Graduate Award, Geology Department (2015)
Hecla-Greens Creek Scholarship (2011)
Chugach Gem and Mineral Society Scholarship (2012)
Fran Ulmer Transformative Research Award, UAA (2012)
Global Change Research Grant, UA Statewide (2012)
Geological Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant (2014)
Geology Graduate Student Research Grant, WWU (2014)
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 19
Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Adjacent Canada Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Adjacent Canada
This data release provides three geospatical datasets showing the surface trace of the Eastern Denali Fault between the Alaska-Yukon international border and the village of Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. The datasets are: (1) a photogrammetry-based digital elevation model (DEM; average resolution of 4 m/pixel), (2) 13 digital aerial photo orthomosaics, and (3) a detailed (1:2,000 to 1...
Filter Total Items: 25
Ongoing bedrock incision of the Fortymile River driven by Pliocene–Pleistocene Yukon River capture, eastern Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada Ongoing bedrock incision of the Fortymile River driven by Pliocene–Pleistocene Yukon River capture, eastern Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada
Quantification of river incision via process rate laws represents a key goal of geomorphic research, but such models often fail to reproduce traits of natural rivers responding to base-level lowering. The Fortymile River flows from eastern Alaska in the United States to the Yukon River in Canada across a tectonically quiescent region with near-uniform precipitation and bedrock erosivity...
Authors
Adrian Bender, Richard O. Lease, Lee B. Corbett, Paul R. Bierman, Marc Caffee
Sculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska Sculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Within Glacier Bay National Park in southeastern Alaska, the Fairweather Fault represents the onshore boundary between two of Earth’s constantly moving tectonic plates: the North American Plate and the Yakutat microplate. Satellite measurements indicate that during the past few decades the Yakutat microplate has moved northwest at a rate of nearly 5 centimeters per year relative to the...
Authors
Robert C. Witter, Adam LeWinter, Adrian M. Bender, Craig Glennie, David C. Finnegan
Eastern Denali Fault surface trace map, eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada Eastern Denali Fault surface trace map, eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada
We map the 385-kilometer (km) long surface trace of the right-lateral, strike-slip Denali Fault between the Totschunda-Denali Fault intersection in Alaska, United States and the village of Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. In Alaska, digital elevation models based on light detection and ranging and interferometric synthetic aperture radar data enabled our fault mapping at scales of 1:2,000...
Authors
Adrian M. Bender, Peter J. Haeussler
The Peters Hills basin, a Neogene wedge-top basin on the Broad Pass thrust fault, south-central Alaska The Peters Hills basin, a Neogene wedge-top basin on the Broad Pass thrust fault, south-central Alaska
The Neogene Peters Hills basin is a small terrestrial basin that formed along the south flank of the Alaska Range during a time in which there was regional shortening. The formation of the Peters Hills basin is consistent with it being a wedge-top basin that formed on top of the active southeast-vergent Broad Pass thrust fault. Movement along this thrust raised a ridge of Jurassic and...
Authors
Peter J. Haeussler, Richard W. Saltus, Richard G. Stanley, Natalia Ruppert, Kristen Lewis, Susan M. Karl, Adrian M. Bender
Differential uplift and incision of the Yakima River terraces, central Washington State Differential uplift and incision of the Yakima River terraces, central Washington State
The fault-related Yakima folds deform Miocene basalts and younger deposits of the Columbia Plateau in central Washington State. Geodesy implies ~2 mm/yr of NNE directed shortening across the folds, but until now the distribution and rates of Quaternary deformation among individual structures has been unclear. South of Ellensburg, Washington, the Yakima River cuts a ~600 m deep canyon...
Authors
Adrian M. Bender, Colin B. Amos, Paul R. Bierman, Dylan Rood, Lydia M. Staisch, Harvey M. Kelsey, Brian Sherrod
Unusually large tsunamis frequent a currently creeping part of the Aleutian megathrust Unusually large tsunamis frequent a currently creeping part of the Aleutian megathrust
Current models used to assess earthquake and tsunami hazards are inadequate where creep dominates a subduction megathrust. Here we report geological evidence for large tsunamis, occurring on average every 300–340 years, near the source areas of the 1946 and 1957 Aleutian tsunamis. These areas bookend a postulated seismic gap over 200 km long where modern geodetic measurements indicate...
Authors
Robert C. Witter, G. A. Carver, Richard W. Briggs, Guy R. Gelfenbaum, R.D. Koehler, SeanPaul M. La Selle, Adrian M. Bender, S.E. Engelhart, E. Hemphill-Haley, Troy D. Hill
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 19
Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Adjacent Canada Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Adjacent Canada
This data release provides three geospatical datasets showing the surface trace of the Eastern Denali Fault between the Alaska-Yukon international border and the village of Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. The datasets are: (1) a photogrammetry-based digital elevation model (DEM; average resolution of 4 m/pixel), (2) 13 digital aerial photo orthomosaics, and (3) a detailed (1:2,000 to 1...
Filter Total Items: 25
Ongoing bedrock incision of the Fortymile River driven by Pliocene–Pleistocene Yukon River capture, eastern Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada Ongoing bedrock incision of the Fortymile River driven by Pliocene–Pleistocene Yukon River capture, eastern Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada
Quantification of river incision via process rate laws represents a key goal of geomorphic research, but such models often fail to reproduce traits of natural rivers responding to base-level lowering. The Fortymile River flows from eastern Alaska in the United States to the Yukon River in Canada across a tectonically quiescent region with near-uniform precipitation and bedrock erosivity...
Authors
Adrian Bender, Richard O. Lease, Lee B. Corbett, Paul R. Bierman, Marc Caffee
Sculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska Sculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Within Glacier Bay National Park in southeastern Alaska, the Fairweather Fault represents the onshore boundary between two of Earth’s constantly moving tectonic plates: the North American Plate and the Yakutat microplate. Satellite measurements indicate that during the past few decades the Yakutat microplate has moved northwest at a rate of nearly 5 centimeters per year relative to the...
Authors
Robert C. Witter, Adam LeWinter, Adrian M. Bender, Craig Glennie, David C. Finnegan
Eastern Denali Fault surface trace map, eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada Eastern Denali Fault surface trace map, eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada
We map the 385-kilometer (km) long surface trace of the right-lateral, strike-slip Denali Fault between the Totschunda-Denali Fault intersection in Alaska, United States and the village of Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. In Alaska, digital elevation models based on light detection and ranging and interferometric synthetic aperture radar data enabled our fault mapping at scales of 1:2,000...
Authors
Adrian M. Bender, Peter J. Haeussler
The Peters Hills basin, a Neogene wedge-top basin on the Broad Pass thrust fault, south-central Alaska The Peters Hills basin, a Neogene wedge-top basin on the Broad Pass thrust fault, south-central Alaska
The Neogene Peters Hills basin is a small terrestrial basin that formed along the south flank of the Alaska Range during a time in which there was regional shortening. The formation of the Peters Hills basin is consistent with it being a wedge-top basin that formed on top of the active southeast-vergent Broad Pass thrust fault. Movement along this thrust raised a ridge of Jurassic and...
Authors
Peter J. Haeussler, Richard W. Saltus, Richard G. Stanley, Natalia Ruppert, Kristen Lewis, Susan M. Karl, Adrian M. Bender
Differential uplift and incision of the Yakima River terraces, central Washington State Differential uplift and incision of the Yakima River terraces, central Washington State
The fault-related Yakima folds deform Miocene basalts and younger deposits of the Columbia Plateau in central Washington State. Geodesy implies ~2 mm/yr of NNE directed shortening across the folds, but until now the distribution and rates of Quaternary deformation among individual structures has been unclear. South of Ellensburg, Washington, the Yakima River cuts a ~600 m deep canyon...
Authors
Adrian M. Bender, Colin B. Amos, Paul R. Bierman, Dylan Rood, Lydia M. Staisch, Harvey M. Kelsey, Brian Sherrod
Unusually large tsunamis frequent a currently creeping part of the Aleutian megathrust Unusually large tsunamis frequent a currently creeping part of the Aleutian megathrust
Current models used to assess earthquake and tsunami hazards are inadequate where creep dominates a subduction megathrust. Here we report geological evidence for large tsunamis, occurring on average every 300–340 years, near the source areas of the 1946 and 1957 Aleutian tsunamis. These areas bookend a postulated seismic gap over 200 km long where modern geodetic measurements indicate...
Authors
Robert C. Witter, G. A. Carver, Richard W. Briggs, Guy R. Gelfenbaum, R.D. Koehler, SeanPaul M. La Selle, Adrian M. Bender, S.E. Engelhart, E. Hemphill-Haley, Troy D. Hill
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government