Current research

Linking erosion and the sediment record: Detrital thermochronology in Taiwan

Understanding the shape of the modern landscape as a product of long-lived interactions between external forces, such as climate, tectonic activity and surface processes requires comprehension of how these influential factors can be unravelled from each other in the sedimentary record but more importantly how their influence scales with time.

I propose to use both the modern and ancient record of sediment supply from the Central Ranges of eastern Taiwan to investigate long term erosion rates and document whether climate or tectonic activity dominates the erosion record in this active orogen. End member scenarios where climate or tectonic activity dominates the signal will be modelled independently using a surface dynamic model thereby potentially fingerprinting climate versus tectonic forcing in ancient sedimentary records.

Ultimately the results should have a major impact on our understanding of the tectonic, climate and surface process controls on past landscape and crustal evolution, and facilitate the recognition of the fluvial response to allogenic controls in ancient sediments.

Exhumation in active orogenic settings

The coupling of multiple thermochronometers including U-Pb, fission track and (U-Th)/He techniques to dating both bed rock and detrital sediments provides significant insight into the evolution of an orogenic belt. In Ladakh, north-western Himalayas this approach has revealed a significance phase of rapid exhumation in the Early Miocene (~22 Ma) and can be used to argue for a punctuated unroofing history of the batholith. The recognition of orogen-wide deformation and rapid erosion north of the Indus suture zone increases the overall width of the actively deforming wedge and disposes the canonical view of southward progression of deformation through the orogen.