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

我的主要研究兴趣是在超级大陆的组装和融合期间发生的造山过程。北美东部和西欧的晚古生代阿勒格尼亚-瓦里斯坎造山带尤为重要，因为它们记录了与盘古大陆形成有关的一级过程，这对我们地球的许多自然系统产生了深远的影响。因此，深入了解这些山脉是如何发育的，将有助于我们理解过去和现在的全球构造事件与我们的自然环境的关系。有太多的构造模型试图解释瓦里斯坎造山带的地质。然而，当区域构造模型被整合到这些模型中时，存在着许多不一致之处，这突显了我们对华力西地区局部和造山带尺度过程的理解之间的根本脱节。此外，对瓦里斯卡纳带的地球动力学过程如何与阿巴拉契亚山脉的已知事件相关也缺乏了解。为了解决这些问题，我将选择一些关键领域，在这些领域，可以检验相互竞争的假说和区域构造模型。

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.