I work on convergent plate boundary systems, where I use the elastic waves emitted by earthquakes to decipher subsurface structures and processes. I am especially interested in the deep water cycle that withdraws water from the oceans at subduction zones and releases it back to the atmosphere through volcanic eruptions.
| 2021 - present | Postdoc University of British Columbia |
| Constraining Oceanic Mantle Hydration with Receiver Functions | |
| 2018 - 2021 | Postdoc German Geoscience Centre, Potsdam |
| Climatic and Tectonic Natural Hazards in Central Asia | |
| 2012 - 2017 | PhD Freie Universität Berlin |
| Anatomy of the Chilean subduction zone | |
| 2010 - 2012 | M.Sc. Freie Universität Berlin |
| Seismological Transients in the Northern Chile Coupling Zone | |
| 2006 - 2009 | B.Sc. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen |
| Structural Geology of the Leinetal Graben system |
Preprints
Bloch, W., Metzger, S., Schurr, B., Yuan, X., Ratschbacher, L., Reuter, S., Xu, Q., Zhao, J., Murodkulov, S., and Oimuhammadzoda, I. (2022) The 2015–2017 Pamir Earthquake Sequence: Fore-, Main-, and Aftershocks, Seismotectonics, Fault Interaction, and Fluid Processes. Earth and Space Science Open Archive, https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10508392.3
As first author
Bloch, W., Schurr, B., Yuan, X., Ratschbacher, L., Reuter, S., Kufner, S.-K., Xu, Q., Zhao, J. (2021). Structure and stress field of the lithosphere between Pamir and Tarim. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL095413. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL095413
Bloch, W., John, T., Kummerow, J., Salazar, P., Krüger, O. S., & Shapiro, S. A. (2018). Watching dehydration: Seismic indication for transient fluid pathways in the oceanic mantle of the subducting Nazca slab. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 19(9), 3189-3207. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GC007703
Bloch, W., Schurr, B., Kummerow, J., Salazar, P., & Shapiro, S. A. (2018). From slab coupling to slab pull: Stress segmentation in the subducting Nazca plate. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(11), 5407-5416. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078793
Bloch, W., Kummerow, J., Salazar, P., Wigger, P., & Shapiro, S. A. (2014). High-resolution image of the North Chilean subduction zone: seismicity, reflectivity and fluids. Geophysical Journal International, 197(3), 1744-1749. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggu084
As co-author
Xu, Q., Zhao, J., Yuan, X., Liu, H., Ju, C., Schurr, B., & Bloch, W. (2021). Deep crustal contact between the Pamir and Tarim Basin deduced from receiver functions. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(9), e2021GL093271. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093271
Herrera, C., Cassidy, J. F., Dosso, S. E., Dettmer, J., Bloch, W., Sippl, C., Salazar, P. (2021). The Crustal Stress Field Inferred From Focal Mechanisms in Northern Chile. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(8), e2021GL092889. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL092889
Kufner, S. K., Kakar, N., Bezada, M., Bloch, W., Metzger, S., Yuan, X., Mechie, J., Ratschbacher, L., Murodkulov, S., Deng, Z., Schurr, B. (2021). The Hindu Kush slab break-off as revealed by deep structure and crustal deformation. Nature communications, 12(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21760-w
F. Pasten-Araya, P. Salazar, S. Ruiz, E. Rivera, B. Potin, A. Maksymowicz, E. Torres, J. Villarroel, E. Cruz, J. Valenzuela, D. Jaldín, G. González, W. Bloch, P. Wigger, S. A. Shapiro (2018). Fluids along the plate interface influencing the frictional regime of the Chilean subduction zone, northern Chile. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(19), 10-378. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079283