Mountain Belts
The Structure Tectonics Team @ ANU
We are engaged principally in studying the Alpine-Himalayan chain, which is a connected orogenic welt comprising mountain belts, and relicts of mountain belts, that stretches thousands of kilometers from Europe to New Zealand. Mountains belts involve dynamic changes through time. Understanding how this mountain chain has evolved through time involves several aspects.
The Structure and Tectonic Team engages in two interlinked strands of research in order to better understand orogeny.
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Tectonic reconstruction, using the PPlates software, where data on the rotation and movement of plates is used to determine the complexities of how the plates have moved and deformed through time;
- Structural geology and geochronology. This strand of research involves extensive fieldwork in key locations. Geochronology is undertaken so as to bring 'time' into the understanding of processes of mountain building.
Peaks of the crystalline basement of the Higher
Himalaya in NW India.