I am a forth year research student based in the Grant Institute

My Ph.D. research focuses on the tectonic (the sedimentary and structural) evolution of the Hatay Graben in Southern Turkey. This is an active extensional graben situated between the Dead Sea Fault Zone, East Anatolian Fault Zone and the Cyprus Arc. There is a paucity of published material on the development of this area so it is important due to the location of the Hatay Graben in an actively deforming continental setting to better constrain the past and present tectonics of the region. The majority of the data was collected over three field seasons and I have used a range of different skills to investigate the problem including XRD, SEM, strontium isotope analysis and stress inversions.

My main research interests are threefold :

1. I am interested in the mechanisms and characteristics of extensional tectonics, and how the different tectonic regimes cause variations in basin formation.
2. Also I am interested in syntectonic sedimentation and deformation and how this can be used to document the structural evolution of an area.
3. Additionally, I am interested in the Cenozoic geological evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean region as a whole.

Recently I have also become interested in how geology and archaeology can be used together to look at (relatively!) recent tectonic events, this is especially relevant in the Mediterranean region.

My supervisors for this project are Professor Alastair Robertson (University of Edinburgh, Dr. Hugh Sinclair (University of Edinburgh) and Dr. Ulvi Can Unlugenc (Cukurova University, Turkey).
Other students working on related related projects are:

• Sam Rice
• Tim Kinnaird
• Peter Makintosh
• Jennifer Inwood (University of Plymouth)

Contact details:
Address - School of GeSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, The King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JW.
Telephone - 0131 6505918
e-mail - sarah.boulton@glg.ed.ac.uk,