Structure Lab

Study Earth’s twists and turns

Dive into the dynamic world of structural geology with hands-on experiential learning. Investigate folds, faults, and fractures to decode Earth’s geological history with state-of-the-art equipment and expert guidance, gaining practical skills essential for a career in geoscience.

Welcome

Welcome to the Structure Lab at Iowa State University! If you want to know more about how rocks deform, and how we can investigate processes leading to phenomena such deformation localization, fracture patterns, stick-slip, or creep by using physical experiments you are in the right place.

To find out who is working in the lab and what we are currently working on, visit our people and research pages.

News

  • EOS Research Spotlight

    Ross et al. (2022) was recently featured as an EOS Research Spotlight in a post by Sarah Derouin, "How Land […]
  • Congratulations to Dr. Tom Birren!

    Dr. Tom Birren successfully defended his PhD thesis, "Experimental analysis of semi-brittle deformation: Implications for deformation dynamics." Tom has been […]
  • Emily receives AGU Outstanding Student Presentation Award

    Lab member Emily Ross was awarded a 2020 AGU Outstanding Student Presentation Award for her talk titled "Off-Fault Deformation Due […]