THESIS RESEARCH PLAN: MAGNETOSTRATIGRAPHY AND ROCK MAGNETISM IN THE WESTERN US

The UPLIFT project aims to better understand and separate the processes of classic plate tectonic theory from vertical motion driven by mantle plumes. The so-called “unifying Plume-Mode-Stratigraphic Model” arising from dynamic topography envisages a change in time and place where sediments should be deposited as the height and width of the plume slowly increases and then abates. As continentally-derived sediments are notoriously fossil poor, they are hard to date with classic paleontology, making magnetostratigraphy a desirable tool to constrain their ages.

Magnetostratigraphy provides a continuous, high-resolution time record of the sediments whose detailed sedimentation rates can be used to reconstruct the exhumation and erosion histories. Moreover, by studying variations in magnetic mineralogy and sedimentary fabric through time, one can trace potential changes in source rock and/or the hydrodynamic regime acting during sedimentation. The magnetism research group in Munich has carried out several such studies in Central Asia. The same methodology will be applied to basins related to the CR-Yellowstone plume system in the western US and the first field study has just been carried out.