Organization

Risk Evaluation and Disaster Mitigation Research Division
Inland Earthquake and Volcano Lab
Visiting Associate Professor

GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Germany
Working group leader
Research Subject(s)
I am a geologist and use Earth’s landscapes as a window into past tectonics and climates. At the moment I investigate the earthquake cycle by studying the topography and bathymetry of Japan’s coasts. My research approach blends field work, remote sensing, and numerical modeling of landscape evolution.
Key Words
earthquake cycle / geomorphology / sediment transport / landscape evolution / numerical modeling
Website
Selected Works

Malatesta, L. C., Sueoka, S., Weiß, N., Gailleton, B., Tsukamoto, S., Ishimura, D., et al. (2025). Landscape Signature of Seismogenic Faults in the Off and Onshore Domains of the Noto Peninsula in Japan’s Back‐Arc. Geophysical Research Letters, 52(24), e2025GL116602. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL116602

Oryan, B., Olive, A., Jolivet, R., Malatesta, L. C., Gailleton, B., & Bruhat, L. (2024). Megathrust locking encoded in subduction landscapes. Science Advances, 10(17). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adl4286

Malatesta, L. C., Finnegan, N. J., Huppert, K. L., & Carreño, E. I. (2022). The influence of rock uplift rate on the formation and preservation of individual marine terraces during multiple sea-level stands. Geology, 50, 101–105. https://doi.org/10.1130/G49245.1

Malatesta, L. C., Bruhat, L., Finnegan, N. J., & Olive, J. L. (2021). Co‐location of the Downdip End of Seismic Coupling and the Continental Shelf Break. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 126(1). https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB019589

Malatesta, L. C., Avouac, J.-P., Brown, N. D., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Pan, J., Chevalier, M.-L., et al. (2018). Lag and mixing during sediment transfer across the Tian Shan piedmont caused by climate-driven aggradation-incision cycles. Basin Research, 30(4), 613–635. https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.12267