Marissa Tremblay
Purdue University, IN·Earth & Environmental Science
Mountain ranges, high plateaus and the giant cliffs along continental coastlines take tens of millions of years to form, and the deep processes behind them are still debated. These two collaborative projects reconstruct the history of such landscapes.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
geology
tectonics
geomorphology
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Constrain when and where the Arizaro and Antofalla basins of the southern Puna plateau deformed and subsided, using geologic mapping, measured stratigraphic sections, and geo- and thermochronology.
- Test with numerical models whether lithospheric foundering explains opposite deformation in the Puna basins, and which thermal, compositional or structural crustal properties control its style.
- Measure the timing and amount of rock cooling along a bedrock transect across the southeast Australian escarpment using apatite 4He/3He thermochronology, which tracks helium in the mineral apatite.
- Use apatite 4He/3He results to drive paired landscape evolution and thermo-kinematic models that test whether rifting or later processes like mantle heat formed the escarpment.
More about the research
They do so by reading when rocks cooled as they rose toward the surface and by testing those records against computer models. One project studies a high plateau in the Andes, and the other studies a great escarpment in Australia.
Why it matters
This is basic Earth science. It will clarify how sinking deep rock reshapes mountain belts and whether continental breakup or later forces built coastal escarpments. These results could inform broader understanding of how large mountain belts, plateaus and passive continental margins evolve worldwide, and the new datasets and models may be reused by other researchers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Alexander Tye
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether lithospheric foundering explains Miocene subsidence and shortening of the Arizaro Basin and uplift and extension of the Antofalla Basin, using geologic mapping and measured stratigraphic sections.
Jessica Stanley
University of Idaho, ID·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify Cenozoic exhumation and relief growth in the upper Gallatin drainage using apatite (U-Th)/He and 4He/3He thermochronology, methods that date when rocks cooled near the surface, on valley-to-ridge transects of Cretaceous and Eocene intrusive rocks.
Chelsea Mackaman-Lofland
University of Tennessee-Knoxville, TN·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether high mountains in western Anatolia delayed hominoid migration from Africa into Eurasia. Reconstruct basin history, crustal thickness from zircon geochemistry, and past elevation using proxy-based paleoaltimetry.
The school
Purdue University: 43 labs on PI Pages, $932M a year on research, 833 research doctorates a year.
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