Structural Geology and Tectonics draws on all geoscience disciplines to
address fundamental questions about plate tectonic and deformation processes. In
recent years, there has been an explosion of new technologies which allow
scientists to answer questions that were once beyond their reach. This research
not only leads to advances in basic research, but is also relevant to society,
through the exploration for natural resources and understanding of natural
hazards.
Structural Geology and Tectonics research at the Jackson School spans the entire
spectrum from continental to oceanic and upper crustal to mantle tectonics. Only
a handful of programs in the country cover such a wide range. Researchers
investigate processes at all scales using field and marine geophysical-based
observations; laboratory-based petrologic, geochronological, structural and
geochemical analyses; and theoretical and physical modeling.
Tectonically-focused research addresses processes at active and ancient plate
boundaries. At convergent margins, research topics range from subduction zone
processes to interactions among volcanic arcs, subduction zones and continents,
including collision, uplift, and basin evolution. Extensional tectonic processes
under investigation range from continental extension in the deep to shallow
crust to evolution of passive margins, spreading ridges, and oceanic crust.
Other research concentrates on the evolution of transitional plate boundaries as
well as transform boundaries. The Jackson School also has a large research
program investigating Precambrian tectonics and plate reconstructions, including
using such orogens to study evolution of the deep crust.
Other major research areas focus on deformation processes including thin-skinned
fold and thrust belt processes and associated fluid flow; formation of salients;
salt tectonics; and strain partitioning in extensional and contractional shear
zones. Another major research focus is on understanding fracturing, fracture
processes, fractured reservoirs and relationships to diagenesis and fluid flow.
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- California: evolution of the Franciscan subduction complex, Great Valley
forearc basin, and the transition to transform tectonics.
- Southwestern US: structural and metamorphic evolution of the Mesozoic Maria
fold and thrust belt; initiation of unroofing and formation of corrugations on
metamorphic core complexes
- Texas: investigation of Grenville age Llano and west Texas uplifts;
petrologic, structural, and geochronologic studies of granitic, ultramafic, and
metamorphic rocks in the collisional orogen core and transpression and focused
fluid flow in the foreland
- Sierra Madre, Mexico: structural research on detachment folding, opening-mode
fractures and faults, and formation of salients in thin-skinned fold and thrust
belt
- Central Andes: coupling between active deformation and magmatism
- Indonesia: tectonics and petrology of the Ertsberg (Gunung Bijih) copper-gold
district, west New Guinea; seismic imaging and tectonic interpretation in the
area of the great Sumatran earthquake
- Southwestern Australia, Greenland, Scandinavia, Eastern Canada, North Africa: evolution of the deep crust along plate margins
- Fracturing and fractured reservoirs: field and microscopic observation of
fracture populations; analysis of fracture scaling and reservoir properties.
- Strain partitioning in shear zones in contractional and extensional orogens
- Macquarie Ridge Complex: transition of the Australia-Pacific plate boundary
sout of New Zealand from a spreading ridge to a transform plate boundary and
locally to an incipient subduction zone.
- Japan: 3-D seismic imaging, interpretation, and integration with upcoming
Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone (NanTroSEIZE) drilling project of the Integrated
Ocean Drilling Program (IODP)
- Alaska: Reflection and refraction studies of the Yakuata microplate collision
and the tectonic-climatic interactions of the St. Elias orogeny
- Taiwan: Onshore-offshore seismic study of the Taiwan orogen
- Active tectonics and seismic hazards in the circum-Caribbean region: remote
sensing, field-based fault mapping, shallow geophysical studies of coastal
regions, tectonic geomorphology of subaerial and submarine faults, trenching of
subaerial faults, tsunami-related studies.
- Antarctica and southern South America: tectonics and GPS instrumentation of
the southern continents and ocean.
- Arctic Ocean: Investigations of the tectonic origin of the Arctic Ocean basin
- Arctic Canada: interplay of salt tectonics and tectonostratigraphy in the Sverdrup Basin in the context of regional plate tectonics since the Carboniferous.
- Gulf of Mexico: mechanisms and kinematics of Neogene thrust advance of the Sigsbee Escarpment along the abyssal deformation front of the Louann salt basin.
- Eastern Mediterranean: Neogene interplay between extension and shortening in multilayered Messinian evaporites on the Levant continental margin.
- Gulf of Mexico: three-dimensional kinematics of salt-canopy systems of the mid-slope region.
- Seismic stratigraphy, structure, and hydrocarbon potential of the Caribbean
and Gulf of Mexico basins using a combination of data collected by academic
surveys and data collected by the oil industry.
- Using sedimentary provenance studies to constrain tectonic reconstructions
in the circum-Caribbean area.
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Few programs in the country have an array of analytical instruments as
comprehensive as that in the Jackson School. All facilities and equipment are
available for student research.
The equipment includes: a unique high-resolution X-ray CT scanner; an
electron microprobe; two scanning electron microscopes with EDS, EBSD, and CL
capabilities; a quadrupole ICPMS and a magnetic-sector ICPMS, both with
laser-ablation capabilities; two mass spectrometers for stable isotopic studies;
and a TIMS for radiogenic isotopic analyses. For field and geophysical research,
the program operates: a new portable high-resolution seismic imaging system, portable seismographs, ground penetrating radar, LIDAR, a
gravimeter, seismic sources, GPS receivers, portable magnetometers, an
aero-geophysical instrument package and an ocean bottom seismometer system.
There are also dedicated laboratories for stable and radiogenic isotopic
analysis, paleomagnetic analysis, experimental petrology and physical modeling.
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Students in this program receive mentoring in all aspects of becoming a professional in Structural Geology and Tectonics, including conducting research; publishing in peer reviewed journals; presenting at national and international meetings; and teaching. Students leaving the program are well prepared for work in academia, research labs and industry.
“I was able to work with the best people in my field of interest ... In addition, my interactions with my mentors provided me with opportunities that I don't think could have been repeated very easily at other places. In my case, I was able to work in an area of the Andes mountains that very few people in the world get to visit, let alone investigate scientifically. The opportunities I received at Texas gave me experiences that are among the most valuable in my life.” –
Keith Klepeis, Associate Professor, Dept. of Geology, University of Vermont
“The part of my graduate experience that most prepared me for my current work
was the diversity in my experience. I'm doing projects now I never dreamed I'd
have undertaken while there.” – Robert Roback, Team Leader, Radionuclide
Geochemistry, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National
Laboratory
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Researchers and students in this program area routinely work in the western U.S., Mexico, Antarctica, South America, Australia, Indonesia, Pacific rim, Caribbean, Greenland, Labrador, Scandinavia, and Scotland.
Research opportunities are greatly expanded due to two affiliated institutions:
the Institute for Geophysics and the Bureau of Economic Geology, the latter of
which functions as the state geological survey. These institutions house, for
example, the following research groups: CBTH (Caribbean Basins, Tectonics &
Hydrocarbons); PLATES (Plate Tectonics); the Fractures Group; and the Salt
Tectonics Group.
Students in this area have the opportunity to do research in a broad range of
field settings, including modern and ancient mountain belts around the world and
aboard ocean-going research cruises to conduct marine geophysical investigations
of active plate boundaries. Students also investigate tectonic and deformation
processes in the laboratory using state of the art tools for geochronology,
geothermobarometry, 3D imaging and physical modeling.
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