The Origin and Evolution of the Paleozoic Variscan Orogen: Implications for the Development of Curvilinear Mountain Belts

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My main research interests are orogenic processes occurring during the assembly and amalgamation of supercontinents. The Late Paleozoic Alleghanian-Variscan orogenic belts of eastern North America and Western Europe are of particular importance, because they record the first-order processes related to the formation of the supercontinent Pangea, which had profound influences on many of our earth's natural systems. Therefore, insight into how these mountain belts developed will contribute to our understanding of how global tectonic events in both the past and present relate to our natural environment. There are a plethora of tectonic models, which attempt to explain the geology of the Variscan orogen. However, when regional tectonic models are integrated into these models there exists a multitude of inconsistencies, highlighting a fundamental disconnect between our understanding of local and orogen-scale processes in the Variscan. In addition, there is a lack of understanding of how geodynamic processes in the Variscan belt relate to known events in the Appalachians. To address these questions, I will select some critical areas in which rival hypotheses and regional tectonic models can be tested.My proposed research program has four complementary goals: ((i) to test proposed genetic relationships between Pangean suture zone deposits along the length of the Variscan orogen; (ii) to determine how this orogen evolved following initial collision between Gondwana and Laurussia; (iii) to better understand this evolution in a global context, especially in terms of the connections between the Variscan orogen and the Appalachian orogen of eastern North America; and (iv) to understand how these processes relate to the assembly and amalgamation of supercontinents.To achieve these goals, I and my students will undertake detailed field work augmented by geochemical and isotopic analysis of critical samples throughout the Variscan orogen.