Collaborative Research: Quantifying temporal relationships between tectonic forcing and landscape responses in the central Andean Precordillera, Argentina

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This project will focus on understanding landscape changes, such as mountain building and erosion, caused by the collision of tectonic plates. By using a new method of combining two different types of analyses (thermochronology and cosmogenic radio nuclide dating) the research team will be able to determine patterns in how faults grow and how fast a landscape can change in a collisional system. The two different dating techniques are complementary as they record information about geologic changes on different but overlapping timescales, and thus combining them will fill an important gap between shorter- and longer-term geologic changes. This project will facilitate the professional development of a postdoctoral fellow by providing professional training in both research and teaching, and by establishing connections with international colleagues. The postdoctoral fellow will receive instruction on new methods of teaching and education and apply these approaches through participation in established programs for K-12 outreach and by leading Earth Science seminars and field trips.The project will develop and use a novel combination of low-temperature thermochronometry and cosmogenic radionuclide techniques to quantify changes in recent and paleo erosion rates related to faulting and sedimentation driven by compressional tectonics. This study will develop and refine the combination of two geochronological methods that span different spatiotemporal scales to understand links between rock uplift, faulting, basin subsidence, and lag times between erosion and sediment deposition. The central Andean Precordillera is ideal for this study as there has been active faulting and deformation from the early Miocene to present in a region with relatively stable and arid climate conditions during that time. This suggests that landscape development has been driven primarily by tectonics rather than climate. Acquiring new data to address rates of deformation and landscape response times across several geologic structures will not only advance knowledge about the development of the central Andean Precordillera fold-thrust belt, but also contribute more generally to the growing body of research on landscape responses to tectonic perturbations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.