Earthquake energy

January 12, 2026

A Memorial University researcher is harnessing the power of earthquakes to create a 3D model beneath the surface of Newfoundland, down to a depth of about 250 kilometers.

Dr. Kim Wilford buries a seismograph near Valentine Lake, New Delhi

Image: Introduction

This is the distance between Corner Brook and Grand Falls-Windsor. Kim Wilford, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences in the Faculty of Science, and her collaborators, including community members, students and researchers from the University of Quebec in Montreal and Yale University, record seismic energy released by distant earthquakes to develop their models.

“It's basically like doing an MRI scan of the island of Newfoundland,” Dr. Wilford said. This study represents the largest and deepest geophysical survey of the island. “The fact that this has never been done on this scale represents a huge gap in our knowledge of the province and how it was shaped by tectonic processes.” The resulting 3D rendering of the island's deep structures will help the team figure out how they assembled during the formation of Earth's last supercontinent, Pangea.

“It's basically like having an MRI scan on the island of Newfoundland.” – Dr. Kim Wilford

The information collected through the survey will also shed light on the processes that formed important minerals necessary for greening the economy, and where these minerals are found on the Earth's surface.

A “pioneer” study.

Researchers and students successfully deployed a passive seismic array of 22 stations across the island in July 2025.

They call the initiative the PACMIN (Passive Matrix for Critical Minerals on the Island of Newfoundland) Project.

Topographic and bathymetric maps of (a) eastern Canada and (b) the island of Newfoundland. Red stars indicate locations of PACMIN seismic stations and yellow stars are permanent seismic stations maintained by the Canadian Geological Survey.

Image: Introduction

The stations will record seismic waves from distant earthquakes using sensitive seismometers and use the waves to extract information about how rocks vary from the Earth's crust to the upper mantle beneath the island.

Each seismograph is equipped with sensors to track tremors in three directions: vertically, from north to south, and from east to west. “Our devices are sensitive enough to record distant earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater, and to detect smaller, local earthquakes,” Dr. Wilford said. Coincidentally, the full set of earthquakes was live and listening just hours before the 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck in Kamchatka, Russia, on July 30, 2025. It was the sixth largest earthquake ever recorded by scientific instruments.

The team distributed the tools across the island as evenly as possible, securing installation sites in national and provincial parks, in government buildings, in corporate buildings, in homes, and on private property.

PACMIN seismic station (code name NOVA) in Terra Nova National Park. The seismograph and recording equipment are buried, while solar panels provide continuous power from above.

Image: Introduction

“We are extremely grateful to everyone who is currently hosting the site,” Dr. Wilford said. “They contribute greatly to our deep knowledge of the island.”

Using this technology and combining the results of previous studies, the team will build models of the entire lithosphere structure of the East Coast of North America, all the way from the southeastern United States to the island of Newfoundland, tracing the roots of the Appalachians dating back 480 to 260 million years.

Teamwork

The PACMIN project is a joint initiative involving Memorial University, Dr. Fiona Darbyshire, a professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal, and Dr. Maureen Long, a professor at Yale University, who has been heavily involved in similar seismic experiments in the eastern United States as part of the 15-year USArray program.

From left to the PACMIN team are Maureen Long, Mitra Kangazian, Frederic Lenk, Benjamin Rock, Alison Leach, Kim Wilford, Wopmlak Negosi Aligen, Gavin White and Fiona Darbyshire.

Image: Introduction

“This is a key area for exploring the continuity of the eastern Appalachian mountain belt, the relationship between Newfoundland's complex surface geology and its deep structure, as well as the connections between the Appalachians and corresponding structures in Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia, which predated the opening of the Atlantic Ocean,” Dr Darbyshire said. Many students also participated in deploying seismic monitoring stations.

Gavin White, an undergraduate student at Memorial University, was hired as a field assistant and several graduate students volunteered. A postdoctoral fellow from the University of Mainz, Germany, also participated in the publication team.

University field assistant Gavin White calibrates seismometers in the kitchen in Grand Falls-Windsor, New Delhi

Image: Introduction

“This was an excellent opportunity to gain practical experience in this field and to be part of new geophysical research here on the island,” Mr White said.

Future goals

The first year's data will be collected this summer, which will be used to build subsurface prototypes.

The team will then download the remaining data and disassemble the sites in 2027. “Everything we discover during this project will be completely new knowledge, as this type of experiment has never been tried on the island before,” Dr. Wilford said.

Once the large, island-scale model tells team members where to look, they hope to revisit key areas and conduct higher-resolution experiments.

Funding for this experiment was provided through Natural Resources Canada's Targeted Geoscience Initiative program, with additional financial support from Yale University. Experiment instruments were provided by the US-based EarthScope Primary Instrumentation Center.

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