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Virginia Toy

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Virginia Toy
Toy in 2021
Born
Virginia Gail Toy

1979
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

Virginia Gail 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] Toy currently works as a Professor at the University of Mainz.[6]

Early life and education

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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][7]

Career and impact

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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'.[8]

In 2017 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"[9][10] and possibly globally unique.[11]

Toy also worked on building stability during earthquakes in Ecuador, using computer modelling to determine the relationship between rock type and building damage.[12] She has been used numerous times by New Zealand media as a geological expert, on the Kaikōura earthquake,[13] tsunami risk,[14] predicting the next earthquake on the Alpine Fault[15] and the misreporting of science in the media.[16] She has also been used as a popular science presenter in the book Terrain: Travels Through a Deep Landscape[17] and TV show Beneath New Zealand.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Virginia Toy staff page". otago.ac.nz. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  2. ^ "DEEP FAULT DRILLING PROJECT-2 FAQs". gns.cri.nz. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  3. ^ Geology, Department of (4 August 2014). "Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST)". otago.ac.nz. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  4. ^ Gibb, John (31 May 2012). "Lessons from Japan will aid NZ research". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Virginia Toy". Curious Minds, He Hihiri i te Mahara. 20 August 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  6. ^ "Prof. Dr. Virginia Gail Toy | Institut für Geowissenschaften". www.geowiss.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  7. ^ Toy, Virginia (2008). Rheology of the Alpine Fault Mylonite Zone: deformation processes at and below the base of the seismogenic zone in a major plate boundary structure (Doctoral thesis). OUR Archive, University of Otago. hdl:10523/4548.
  8. ^ "Virginia Toy Biography". royalsociety.org.nz. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  9. ^ 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. S2CID 205256017.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "Geothermal discovery on West Coast". Otago Daily Times. 18 May 2017.
  11. ^ Elder, Vaughan (18 May 2017). "Geothermal discovery on West Coast". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Why Do Buildings Fall During Earthquakes?". SEEQUENT. 1 May 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  13. ^ Edward O'Driscoll (24 March 2017). "Quake-risen seabed an 'eyesore'". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  14. ^ Elder, Vaughan (9 February 2013). "Research shows greater tsunami threat to NZ". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  15. ^ Gibb, John (20 August 2014). "Predicting the next Big One". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  16. ^ Spinoff, The (20 November 2017). "Just how freaked out should we be by predictions of more big earthquakes in 2018?". The Spinoff. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  17. ^ Chapple, Geoff (2015). Terrain : travels through a deep landscape. Auckland. ISBN 978-1-77553-679-6. LCCN 2014482043. OCLC 913830572.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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