
Professor Juliet Biggs
BA, MSci(Cantab.), PhD(Oxon.)
Expertise
Juliet uses satellite technology to study active tectonics, volcanism and anthropogenic deformation at new spatial and temporal scales, transforming our understanding of faults, volcanoes and ground stability.
Current positions
Professor of Earth Sciences
School of Earth Sciences
Contact
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Biography
Juliet received B.A. and M.Sci. degrees fromthe University of Cambridge, (2003), and a Ph.D.from the University of Oxford (2007). After a brief time in the US, she moved to the University of Bristol in 2010, becoming a full professor in 2019. Juliet has worked on earthquakes in all tectonic settings and all phases of the earthquake cycle. Through major multidisciplinary projects in the East African Rift, she has studied how dyke intrusions and faulting accommodate extension and the role of magma transport and storage, providing a scientific basic for new hazard assessments and building codes. In volcanology, she has found that numerous volcanoes previously considered dormant are actually restless and estimated the intrusive and extrusive fluxes that contribute to edifice building and continental growth. Working with the Bristol Visual Information Laboratory, she has pioneered the application of deep learning algorithms, changing the ways in which volcanoes are monitored and deformation signals interpreted. Recent projects are adapting these methods to for the UK's Digital Environment, using machine learning and satellite data to monitor deformation at abandoned mines and railway embankments. She is currently Deputy Director of the BGS Centre for the Observation and Monitoring of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET). She received the Bullerwell award of the British Geophysical Association in 2016, the Lloyds of London Science of Risk Prize in 2016 and the AGU John Wahr Early Career Award in 2017 and a Leverhulme Prize in 2018. She will start work on an ERC Consolidator Project in 2022.
Research interests
My research crosses the boundaries between volcanology, geophysics and tectonics. In the past decade, satellite technology has revolutionised our ability to measure Earth’s surface topography and deformation globally and with unprecedented resolution. My specialism is in using these tools to understand volcanoes, faults and ground stability and increasingly to influence hazard management. These advances have changed the ways in which volcanoes are monitored and deformation signals interpreted globally. My work in the East African Rift has increased awareness of volcanic and seismic hazards in the region.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Imaging Magmatic Architecture using Strain Tomography
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Earth SciencesDates
01/06/2021 to 31/05/2026
Forecasting volcanic activity using deep learning
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Earth SciencesDates
01/06/2020 to 31/01/2026
8035 GCRF GLOBAL RESEARCH TRANSLATIONAL AWARDS EP/T015462/1 - SAFER PREPARED
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
SAFER PREPARED is a UKRI funded GCRF project 2020-2021 led at University of Bristol in partnership with colleagues in Malawi.
It is part of a wider Programme on "Innovative data…Managing organisational unit
Department of Civil EngineeringDates
01/10/2019 to 31/03/2022
NERC Innovation Call
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Earth SciencesDates
01/03/2019 to 31/05/2021
Digital Environment: Dynamic Ground Motion Map of the UK
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Earth SciencesDates
04/02/2019 to 03/02/2020
Thesis supervisions
Tectonic, Volcanic and Geothermal Processes in a Continental Rift
Supervisors
Volcanic deformation and degassing
Supervisors
Examining the relationship between seismic swarms and ground deformation during volcanic unrest
Supervisors
Characteristics of aseismic afterslip and its effects on aftershock sequences
Supervisors
InSAR Observations of Active Magmatic and Tectonic Processes in the East African Rift
Supervisors
Volcano Monitoring with High-resolution satellite SAR
Supervisors
The effects of large tectonic earthquakes on transcrustal magmatic systems
Supervisors
Insights into moisture-driven landslides using electrical and seismic methods
Supervisors
Identifying active volcanic, tectonic, and geothermal deformation at the Northern Costa Rican Volcanic Arc using InSAR.
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
09/01/2025Distinct patterns of volcano deformation for hot and cold magmatic systems
Nature Communications
Spatial Relationships Between Coseismic Slip, Aseismic Afterslip, and On‐Fault Aftershock Density in Continental Earthquakes
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
The relationship between large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
Volcanica
The role of pre-eruptive gas segregation on co-eruptive deformation and SO2 emissions
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Towards a geodetic earthquake catalogue for Central America
Geophysical Journal International