Research Themes

Tectonics grow and destroy mountain belts. The tectonic questions we're focused on currently center around two main themes: 1/Cordilleran style orogensis, and 2/accretion and terrane assembly.

Tectonics

Advances in analytical techniques allow for simultaneous acquisition of trace and rare earth elemental compositions and U-Pb dates on a variety of minerals using LA-ICP-MS. The utility of such methods is clear in bedrock settings but has only been applied in limited capacity in the detrital record. Since basins capture regionally integrated signals, application of detrital petrochronology has the potential to inform a variety of tectonic, sedimentologic, and fluid mobility questions.

Detrital Petrochronology

Climate

The sedimentary record stores critical information about past climatic shifts, which can be leveraged to help understand what will happen given continued anthropogenic warming. We study ancient sedimentary deposits at key climatic transitions to understand the earth surface response to climate shifts.