Patrick Fulton

Patrick Fulton

Assistant Professor and a Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
3126 Snee Hall
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Biography

Patrick Fulton joined the faculty of Cornell’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in January 2019. Fulton is an assistant professor and a Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow whose research interests include hydrologic and thermal processes within fault zones and how these processes either control fault slip behavior or provide insightful signatures within fault rocks.  After post-docs in Oregon and Texas and a stint as a research scientist in California, Fulton took a faculty position at Texas A&M in 2016, where he taught for three years.

Research Interests

Fulton uses observation, quantitative analysis, and numerical modeling to study heat and fluid in fault zones. His work combines hydrogeology, thermal geophysics, and geomechanics, and has applications to earthquake physics, tectonic processes, and the transport of subsurface heat and fluids.

Selected Publications

  • Fulton, P.M., E.E. Brodsky (2016), In situ observations of earthquake-driven fluid pulses within the Japan Trench plate boundary fault zone, Geology, G38034.1, doi:10.1130/G38034.1
  • *Smith, A.J., P.B. Flemings, and P.M. Fulton (2014), Hydrocarbon Flux from Natural Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Vents, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 395, 241–253, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2014.03.055.
  • Fulton, P.M., E.E. Brodsky, Y. Kano, J. Mori, F. Chester, T. Ishikawa, R.N. Harris, W. Lin, N. Eguchi, S. Toczko, and the Exp. 343/343T & KR13-08 Scientists (2013), Low Coseismic Friction on the Tohoku-Oki Fault Determined From Temperature Measurements, Science, 6 December 2013: 1214-1217.
  • Fulton, P.M. and R.N. Harris (2012), Thermal considerations in inferring frictional heating from vitrinite reflectance and implications for estimates of shallow coseismic slip within the Nankai Subduction Zone, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 335–336, 206–215, 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.04.012.
  • Fulton, P.M., and A.P. Rathbun (2011), Experimental constraints on energy partitioning during stick-slip and stable sliding within analog fault gouge, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 308, 185-192, 10.1016/j.epsl.2011.05.051.

Selected Awards and Honors

  • BRB2020 Cohort 2020
  • Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow 2019

Education

A.S. Science, Young Harris College 1999
B.S. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology 2001
Ph. D. Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University 2008

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