People in the Project: Dr Kathleen Wils
Role in Ngā Ngaru Wakapuke
Katleen is a geologist from Belgium and is now a Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington. She works on an MBIE Endeavour Fund – Smart Ideas project focussed on how we can use lakes as natural (paleo)seismometers. As part of this project, Katleen contributes to Ngā Ngaru Wakapuke RA3 “The Past”. With a passion for the outdoors and (earthquake) science, she also lived and worked in the European Alps (Innsbruck, Austria) before coming to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Research background
Katleen has always had a passion for earthquake research and started her academic career as a sedimentologist reconstructing earthquake histories using lake and fjord sediments in Chile and Indonesia. This led to some amazing fieldwork experiences and an ever-growing interest to explore and understand our planet. Determined to not just use lake sediments to obtain a record of how often shaking happened in a certain location, but also how strong it was, she additionally acquired ground-motion modelling skills and was involved in some of the first attempts to quantify sedimentary shaking records.
Current research
Her current research focusses on determining the earthquake shaking intensities needed to disrupt different lake-margin landforms, such as river deltas, and leave a sedimentary imprint for us to find on the bottom of a lake. To do this, she combines fibre optic seismology to measure sediment stability with sedimentary DNA to identify which landforms contributed to the sedimentary imprints formed during past earthquakes. With an initial focus on Lake Tūtira and the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, the Smart Idea project will also target Lake Rotoroa and its Alpine Fault record, thus directly feeding into the objectives of NNW RA3.
Publications
Wils, Katleen and Arne Ramisch. 2026. “Synchronicity Testing for Event Records (SyncER) Using Log-Ratios and Tied Age-Depth Models.” SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. doi:10.1038/s41598-026-67943-7.
Wils, Katleen, Gonzalo Montalva, Maarten Van Daele, Marc De Batist, and Jasper Moernaut. 2026. “Peak Ground Velocity and Shaking Duration Control Coseismic Surficial Sediment Remobilization on Lacustrine Slopes and Emplacement of Seismoturbidites.” SEISMOLOGICAL RESEARCH LETTERS 97 (1): 309–322. doi:10.1785/0220240487.
Niederstätter, Markus, Katleen Wils, ..., and Jasper Moernaut. 2026. “Multi-Lake Turbidite Records of Chilean Megathrust Earthquakes: Refining the Use of Turbidite Volume as Paleoseismic Proxy.” QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS 392. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.110272.
Coveney, Saoirse M., Rebecca E. Bell, Katleen Wils, Galderic Lastras, and Alexander C. Whittaker. 2025. “The Early Evolution of a Young Normal Fault in the Aysén Fjord, Chile.” TECTONICS 44 (7). doi:10.1029/2025tc008835.
Praet, Nore, Maarten Van Daele, Katleen Wils, ..., and Marc De Batist. 2025. “Refining the Earthquake History of South-Central Alaska through Lake Records.” EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS 271. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2025.105249.
Moernaut, Jasper, Jamie Howarth, Katrina Kremer, and Katleen Wils. 2025. “Lacustrine Records of Past Seismic Shaking.” In Understanding Past Earthquakes, ed by. Austin Elliott and Christoph Grützner, 169–227. Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-73580-6_7.
Niederstätter, Markus, Katleen Wils, ..., and Jasper Moernaut. 2025. “Strong Earthquake in a Low Seismicity Area of the European Southern Alps during Roman Times : A Lacustrine Paleoseismic Evaluation.” QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS 357. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109341.
Daxer, Christoph, Katleen Wils, Arne Ramisch, Michael Strasser, and Jasper Moernaut. 2024. “Contrasting Sedimentary and Long-Lasting Geochemical Imprints of Seismic Shaking in a Small, Groundwater-Fed Lake Basin (Klopeiner See, Eastern European Alps).” SEDIMENTOLOGIKA 2 (1). doi:10.57035/journals/sdk.2024.e21.1296.
Molenaar, Ariana, Katleen Wils, ..., and Jasper Moernaut. 2024. “Shaken and Stirred : A Comparative Study of Earthquake-Triggered Soft-Sediment Deformation Structures in Lake Sediments.” GEOCHEMISTRY GEOPHYSICS GEOSYSTEMS 25 (6). doi:10.1029/2023GC011402.
Vervoort, Morgan, Katleen Wils, ..., and Maarten Van Daele. 2024. “Co- and Postseismic Subaquatic Evidence for Prehistoric Fault Activity near Coyhaique, Aysén Region, Chile.” NATURAL HAZARDS AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES 24 (10): 3401–3421. doi:10.5194/nhess-24-3401-2024.
Wils, Katleen, Maxim Deprez, Catherine Kissel, Morgan Vervoort, Maarten Van Daele, Mudrik R. Daryono, Veerle Cnudde, Danny H. Natawidjaja, and Marc De Batist. 2021. “Earthquake Doublet Revealed by Multiple Pulses in Lacustrine Seismo-Turbidites.” GEOLOGY 49 (11): 1301–1306. doi:10.1130/G48940.1.
Wils, Katleen, Marlies Wermersche, David Van Rooij, Galderic Lastras, Frank Lamy, Helge W. Arz, Giuseppe Siani, Sebastien Bertrand, and Maarten Van Daele. 2021. “Late Holocene Current Patterns in the Northern Patagonian Fjords Recorded by Sediment Drifts in Aysen Fjord.” MARINE GEOLOGY 441. doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2021.106604.
Wils, Katleen, Mudrik R. Daryono, Nore Praet, Arianto Budi Santoso, Aan Dianto, Sabine Schmidt, Morgan Vervoort, Jyh-Jaan Steven Huang, Edi Kusmanto, Purnama Suandhi, Danny H. Natawidjaja, and Marc De Batist. 2021. “The Sediments of Lake Singkarak and Lake Maninjau in West Sumatra Reveal Their Earthquake, Volcanic and Rainfall History.” SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY 416. doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2021.105863.
Wils, Katleen, Maarten Van Daele, Catherine Kissel, Jasper Moernaut, Sabine Schmidt, Giuseppe Siani, and Galderic Lastras. 2020. “Seismo-Turbidites in Aysen Fjord (Southern Chile) Reveal a Complex Pattern of Rupture Modes along the 1960 Megathrust Earthquake Segment.” JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SOLID EARTH 125 (9). doi:10.1029/2020JB019405.
Vanneste, Kris, Katleen Wils, and Maarten Van Daele. 2018. “Probabilistic Evaluation of Fault Sources Based on Paleoseismic Evidence from Mass-Transport Deposits : The Example of Aysen Fjord, Chile.” JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SOLID EARTH 123 (11): 9842–9865. doi:10.1029/2018JB016289.
Wils, Katleen, Maarten Van Daele, Galderic Lastras, Catherine Kissel, Frank Lamy, and Giuseppe Siani. 2018. “Holocene Event Record of Aysén Fjord (Chilean Patagonia) : An Interplay of Volcanic Eruptions and Crustal and Megathrust Earthquakes.” JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SOLID EARTH 123 (1): 324–343. doi:10.1002/2017JB014573.