Detailed project information

The research forms part of a 'duo-project' that has the aim of constraining possible scenarios for tectonic deformation, using various thermochronological methods combined with numerical modelling. The emphasis of the project will be on fault-related deformation and its relation to the rheological and thermal structure in the crust and lower lithosphere.

Researcher B (i.e. this research) will focus especially on the thermal structure of the lithosphere: (1) what kind of processes influence the thermal field and how? But also vice versa: (2) how does the temperature influence tectonic processes? Building on earlier work in the tectonic department, a new step will be made in the development of numerical models that can translate thermochronological results into tectonic scenarios for the geological history of the area where the rocks are sampled. In addition to the (already included) mechanisms of fault movements and heat transport by advection and conduction, important new features that will be incorporated are meltgeneration, magma-transport and hydrothermal effects, but also, in close cooperation with 'researcher A', surface processes. These items are very important to distinguish tectonic uplift from erosion/denudation, and to study how local erosion/sedimentation rates differ from the average (both in time and space). Regarding question (2), we will focus on the weakening/strengthening effect of temperature on the material, and its influence on following tectonis deformation. Weakening due to an increase in temperature might occur both in the horizontal and in the vertical sense, and therefore influences the location where subsequent deformation will occur as well as the deformation mechanism itself. These items will be studied using the new, kinematic model together with additional information from both analogue and dynamical modelling carried out in the Tectonics department. Modelling results will be tested by comparison with thermochronological data from the Isotope-Geochemistry Department, and finally (in the same department) the model will be applied on geological case-studies.