Ryan Leary

My research focuses primarily on the evolution of sedimentary basins and on reconstructing the histories of orogenic (mountain) belts using sedimentary geology, basin and provenance analysis, geochronology, thermochronology, and paleoclimate records.

See below for detailed descriptions of my current and past projects.

Uplift history of the mongolian Altai

This collaborative NSF-supported project focuses on determining the timing of uplift in the Mongolian Altai range in western Mongolia. Research for this project will begin in 2022 and will use sedimentary geology, basin evolution, provenance analysis, detrital and basement thermochronology, and numerical modelling to 1) determine when Altai uplift initiated, 2) constrain the rate at which the range has been uplifted since uplift initiation, and 3) investigate the connections between Mongolian Altai uplift and the collision of the Indian subcontinent with the southern margin of Eurasia approximately 60 million years ago. This project is in collaboration with Jolante van Wijk (NMT/LANL), Andrea Stevens Goddard (Indiana University), and Gantulga Bayasgalan (Mongolian University of Science and Technology). We are currently accepting applications for 2 Ph.D. and 1 M.S. students to work on this project. See Updates and Opportunities for more information.

Evolution of the Rio grande rift

Details to come.

tectonics of the ancestral rocky mountains

Beginning in 2016 during my postdoc at Northern Arizona University and continuing in my current position at NMT, I have been studying the tectonics and sediment provenance of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains through regional geology, sedimentary geology, detrital geochronology, and sediment provenance analysis.

Evolution of the Darwin and Keeler Basins, eastern California

Is there a well exposed, easily accessible outcrop analog to the subsurface Permian Basin strata?