My interest in the Mongolian Altai (or Altay) began during the summer of 2008, when I participated in a Keck Geology Consortium undergraduate research experience studying active tectonics and Pleistocene glaciation in the region.
Beginning during the summer of 2022 (COVID-allowing), I am planning on returning to the Altai as part of a large, NSF-supported collaborative research project focused on determining the timing of uplift of the Mongolian Altai and the connection between Altai deformation and the India-Asia collision. The project will combine basement thermochronology from Altai subranges with analysis of adjacent sedimentary basins (including sedimentology, provenance analysis, detrital geochronology and thermochronology, and subsidence analysis) to understand the timing, rates, and paleogeographic evolution of Altai uplift. These results will then be integrated with numerical modelling to investigate the connections between Mongolian Altai uplift to the collision of the Indian subcontinent with the southern margin of Eurasia ca. 60 million years ago and whether or not such a connection can be explained geodynamically/geomechanically.
We are currently recruiting for 2 Ph.D. and 2 M.S. students to work on this project. Projects will include one Ph.D. project focused on sedimentology, basin and provenance analysis, and detrital thermochronology (NMT), a Ph.D. project focused on basement and detrital thermochronology (Indiana University), one M.S. project focused on geodynamic modelling (NMT), and one M.S. project focused on basement thermochronology (Indiana University). See Updates and Opportunities for more information.
See project descriptions of the New Mexico Tech and Indiana University awards for more information about the project.