Virginia Toy

Virginia Toy (born 1979) is a New Zealand geologist who studies fault zones and earthquakes in New Zealand, Japan and Ecuador.[1] She is one of the leaders of the Deep Fault Drilling Project of New Zealand's Alpine Fault,[2] and was a research scientist on the Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project.[3][4] She then worked as a Research Associate Professor in geology and Associate Dean (International) in the Division of Sciences at the University of Otago.[5] Virginia currently works as a Professor at the University of Mainz.[6]

Virginia Toy
Born1979
Auckland, New Zealand
NationalityNew Zealander
Education
  • BSc MSc (Auckland)
  • MPhil (ANU)
  • PhD (Otago)
Scientific career
FieldsStructural Geology
InstitutionsUniversity of Mainz
ThesisRheology of the Alpine Fault Mylonite Zone: deformation processes at and below the base of the seismogenic zone in a major plate boundary structure (2008)
Doctoral advisorRichard Norris, Alan Cooper, Richard H. Sibson

Early life and education

Toy grew up on Auckland's North Shore and gained her Bachelor of Science then Master of Science (with honours) in geology from Auckland University. She then gained a Master of Philosophy in Earth Sciences from the Australian National University and a Doctor of Philosophy in geology from the University of Otago in 2008. Her PhD was on the (micro)structural geology of New Zealand's Alpine Fault.[1]

Career and impact

In 2016 Toy was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship by the Royal Society for her research entitled: 'Weaving the Earth's Weak Seams: Manifestations and mechanical consequences of rock fabric evolution in active faults and shear zones'.[7]

In 2017 Virginia Toy co-published in Nature that they had discovered "extreme" hydrothermal activity beneath Whataroa, a small township on the Alpine Fault, which "could be commercially very significant"[8][9] and possibly globally unique.[10]

Toy also worked on building stability during earthquakes in Ecuador, using computer modeling to determine the relationship between rock type and building damage.[11] She has been used numerous times by New Zealand media as a geological expert, on the Kaikoura earthquake,[12] tsunami risk,[13] predicting the next earthquake on the Alpine Fault[14] and the misreporting of science in the media.[15] She has also been used as a popular science presenter in the book Terrain: Travels Through a Deep Landscape[16] and TV show Beneath New Zealand.

References
  1. "Virginia Toy staff page". otago.ac.nz. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  2. "DEEP FAULT DRILLING PROJECT-2 FAQs". gns.cri.nz. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  3. Geology, Department of. "Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST)". otago.ac.nz. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  4. Gibb, John (2012-05-31). "Lessons from Japan will aid NZ research". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  5. "Virginia Toy". Curious Minds, He Hihiri i te Mahara. 2015-08-20. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  6. "Prof. Dr. Virginia Gail Toy | Institut für Geowissenschaften". www.geowiss.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  7. "Virginia Toy Biography". royalsociety.org.nz. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  8. Sutherland, R.; Townend, J.; Toy, V.; Upton, P. and 62 others (1 June 2017). "Extreme hydrothermal conditions at an active plate-bounding fault" (PDF). Nature. 546 (7656): 137–140. Bibcode:2017Natur.546..137S. doi:10.1038/nature22355. PMID 28514440.
  9. "Geothermal discovery on West Coast". Otago Daily Times. 18 May 2017.
  10. Elder, Vaughan (18 May 2017). "Geothermal discovery on West Coast". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  11. "Why Do Buildings Fall During Earthquakes?". SEEQUENT. 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  12. Edward O'Driscoll (2017-03-24). "Quake-risen seabed an 'eyesore'". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  13. Elder, Vaughan (2013-02-09). "Research shows greater tsunami threat to NZ". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  14. Gibb, John (2014-08-20). "Predicting the next Big One". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  15. Spinoff, The (2017-11-20). "Just how freaked out should we be by predictions of more big earthquakes in 2018?". The Spinoff. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  16. Chapple, Geoff (2015). Terrain : travels through a deep landscape. Auckland. ISBN 978-1-77553-679-6. LCCN 2014482043. OCLC 913830572.
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