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Jackson School of Geosciences
Jackson School of Geosciences
Department of Geological SciencesBureau of Economic GeologyInstitute for Geophysics
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Faculty Research

email: Brian Horton

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Dr. Brian Horton


Current Research Programs & Projects:

Since arriving at UT-Austin in Fall 2007, Dr. Horton has formed a research group of graduate (Ph.D., M.S.) students, undergraduate students, and postdoctoral associates involved in diverse research projects in the Andes, Tibet, Middle East, western North America, and southwest Pacific.

Dr. Horton's research focuses on sedimentary processes in modern and ancient basins. The overarching theme is to understand the stratigraphic signatures of tectonic and climatic processes using an array of techniques, including sedimentology, geologic mapping, provenance analyses, quantitative basin modeling, geochronology (U-Pb, 40Ar/39Ar), thermochronology (fission track, (U-Th)/He), and magnetic polarity stratigraphy. Recent and ongoing research projects are listed below.
 
  • Evaluating along-strike variations in surface uplift of the Andes: Constraints from molecular paleoaltimetry in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia [NSF Tectonics]
  • STEEP: St. Elias Erosion-tectonics Project [NSF Continental Dynamics]
  • CAUGHT: Central Andean Uplift and the Geodynamics of High Topography [NSF Continental Dynamics]
  • Basin evolution and structural history of a regional transect through the Middle Magdalena Valley, Eastern Cordillera, and western Llanos basin of Colombia [Ecopetrol: Instituto Colombiano del Petróleo]
  • Development of extensional systems in regions of hot, thick crust: Insight from Tibet [NSF Tectonics]
  • Assessing the timing of initial Andean crustal shortening, northern Argentina [NSF Tectonics]
  • How is rifting exhuming the youngest HP/UHP rocks on Earth? [NSF Continental Dynamics]
  • Acquisition of a solid-state 193-nm laser-ablation system [NSF Instrumentation and Facilities]
  • Tectonic and climatic controls on rapid exhumation along the Altiplano-Eastern Cordillera boundary, Bolivia [NSF Tectonics]
  • Kinematic linkages among extrusion, fold-thrust shortening, and foreland basin evolution during early continental collision, Zagros Mountains, Iran [NSF Tectonics]
  • Detachment faulting and basin development in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru [NSF Tectonics]
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