ONGOING WORK
Mechanisms and signatures of uplift and subsidence in plate interiors
The interiors of tectonics plates are located far from the tectonic stresses, crustal loading, and thermal perturbations ubiquitous at plate margins and are instead situated over thick, continental lithosphere typically indicative of long-term stability in the Earth’s crust. In these settings, there is a limited understanding of the mechanisms that govern uplift - including ranges like the Mongolian Altai that are seismically active (M = 8.1!) with relief >3 km or low-relief arches like those that characterize the midcontinent of North America. There are also outstanding questions of how basins form and are modified in these settings. The research group uses basin analysis with a focus on low-temperature thermochronology to evaluate the roll of lithospheric processes, plate boundary tectonics, and intracratonic sediment routing on cratonic basin formation and evolution. The research group has received external funding for work in plate interiors in both North America and Asia.
Support
My research in the southern Patagonian Andes investigates the exhumation history of the Cenozoic fold and thrust belt which has important implications for understanding the feedback between lithospheric (slab windows, spreading ridge subduction) and climatic (glaciation, precipitation) processes on surface deformation patterns. I use thermo-kinematic models based on low-temperature thermochronometers from the fold and thrust belt to identify the key mechanisms controlling exhumation.
Support
Related Work
Tectonic evolution of the Sierras Pampeanas Region, Argentina
Research in the Central Andes focuses on Miocene-Pliocene synorogenic sedimentation and exhumation in the northern Sierras Pampeanas in the La Rioja Province of Argentina. Components of this project include:
1) Integration of Miocene - Pliocene sedimentary systems in the Andean foreland basin system between ~27° and 32° S. Including the connectivity and depositional setting of the fluvial system in the Greater Bermejo basin to evaluate changes in regional topography, climate and lithospheric-scale subsidence mechanisms.
2) Detailed thermochronology, geochronology, and sedimentology of the Neogene foreland basin sediments to identify the timing and style of major basin reorganization, spatio-temporal changes in the basin thermal regime, and the evolving geodynamic conditions during basin subsidence.
3) Low temperature thermochornology of the Pampean basement block uplifts. Detailed thermal modeling suggests the pre Neogene tectonic history plays an important role in the evolution of these ranges.
Support
Related Work
PAST WORK
Using thermal history models to reconstruct Laramide tectonics
Advances in low temperature thermochronology in the past 20 years including the standardization of sample preparation and evolution of modeling capabilities provide higher precision analyses that can be used to tease out the thermal records chronicling tens to hundreds of millions of years. Together with colleagues at the University of Arizona, I reanalyzed apatite fission track (AFT) samples from the Wind River Range in west-central Wyoming originally published in an classic Tectonics paper by Cerveny and Steidtmann (1993). Our work demonstrated that standardized procedures produced systematically younger cooling ages (~8 My),and enabled the application of thermal history modeling that constrains protracted Cenozoic thermal history. Results providing constraints on the timing of peak Laramide exhumation (65-50 Ma) and estimates of subsequent maximum burial and exhumation (Stevens et al., 2016, Tectonics).
Related Work
Sedimentary record of arc-continent collision, Southern Alaska
In collaboration with Dr. Ken Ridgway at Purdue University of Dr. Jeff Trop at Bucknell University, I worked on the detrital zircon record in the Alaskan Mesozoic forearc basin (Stevens Goddard et al., 2018, Tectonics). The detrital zircon record over a period of ~ 105 m.y. (~ 190 - 85 Ma) chronicles the growth of the Talkeetna oceanic arc, arc-continent collision, and the development of a continental arc system. In addition to providing the first detrital zircon geochronology on Mesozoic strata in Southern Alaska, this work provides an important insight into collisional processes because it provides a complete dataset of sedimentary and magmatic processes before, during, and after arc collision and accretion.
Related Work
Mechanisms and signatures of uplift and subsidence in plate interiors
The interiors of tectonics plates are located far from the tectonic stresses, crustal loading, and thermal perturbations ubiquitous at plate margins and are instead situated over thick, continental lithosphere typically indicative of long-term stability in the Earth’s crust. In these settings, there is a limited understanding of the mechanisms that govern uplift - including ranges like the Mongolian Altai that are seismically active (M = 8.1!) with relief >3 km or low-relief arches like those that characterize the midcontinent of North America. There are also outstanding questions of how basins form and are modified in these settings. The research group uses basin analysis with a focus on low-temperature thermochronology to evaluate the roll of lithospheric processes, plate boundary tectonics, and intracratonic sediment routing on cratonic basin formation and evolution. The research group has received external funding for work in plate interiors in both North America and Asia.
Support
- American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund UNI (Award #60299-UNI8 , 2019-2021), Investigating Mechanisms for Post-Depositional Heating in Sedimentary Basins: A case study in the Michigan Basin, USA
- NSF Tectonics Program (Award #2111940, 2021 – 2024) Collaborative Research: How and when did the Mongolian Altai (de-)form? Implications for intracontinental deformation
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Thurston, O.G., Malone, D.H., McLaughlin, P.I., Stewart, J., (2023) Cratonic basins as effective sediment barriers in continental-scale sediment routing systems of Paleozoic North America, Scientific Reports, doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37863-x.
My research in the southern Patagonian Andes investigates the exhumation history of the Cenozoic fold and thrust belt which has important implications for understanding the feedback between lithospheric (slab windows, spreading ridge subduction) and climatic (glaciation, precipitation) processes on surface deformation patterns. I use thermo-kinematic models based on low-temperature thermochronometers from the fold and thrust belt to identify the key mechanisms controlling exhumation.
Support
- University of Connecticut
- FONDECYT (Award #1161818 to M. Calderón, 2016-2019 - research participant): “Tectonic evolution of Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous oceanic basins related to the drift of Antarctic Peninsula away from South America and generation of Chilean ophiolitic complexes”
- FONDECYT (Award to M. Calderón, 2021-2025 - named international collaborator): "Cenozoic tectonic evolution of strike-slip basins developed between the South American and northwestern Scotia plates: the paleogeographic reconstruction of the Paleo-Magellan strait basin"
Related Work
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Fosdick, J.C., (2019) Multi-chronometer thermochronologic modeling of migrating spreading ridge subduction in southern Patagonia. Geology, v.47, no. 6, p.555-558. doi: 10.1130/G46091.1
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Fosdick, J.C., Calderón, M., Ghiglione, C., 2018, Cretaceous through Miocene along-strike changes in exhumation and erosion of the Southern Patagonian Andes, 51° - 54°S, using thermochronology. XV Chilean Geological Congress, Concepcion, Chile (talk).
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Fosdick, J.C., Calderón, M.N., Ghiglione, M.C., Romans, B.W., and Thomson, S.N., 2018, Evaluating the Effects of Orogenic Exhumation and Sediment Transfer in Foreland Basin Development: A 4D Perspective from the Southern Patagonian Andes. AGU Fall Meeting (poster).
Tectonic evolution of the Sierras Pampeanas Region, Argentina
Research in the Central Andes focuses on Miocene-Pliocene synorogenic sedimentation and exhumation in the northern Sierras Pampeanas in the La Rioja Province of Argentina. Components of this project include:
1) Integration of Miocene - Pliocene sedimentary systems in the Andean foreland basin system between ~27° and 32° S. Including the connectivity and depositional setting of the fluvial system in the Greater Bermejo basin to evaluate changes in regional topography, climate and lithospheric-scale subsidence mechanisms.
2) Detailed thermochronology, geochronology, and sedimentology of the Neogene foreland basin sediments to identify the timing and style of major basin reorganization, spatio-temporal changes in the basin thermal regime, and the evolving geodynamic conditions during basin subsidence.
3) Low temperature thermochornology of the Pampean basement block uplifts. Detailed thermal modeling suggests the pre Neogene tectonic history plays an important role in the evolution of these ranges.
Support
- National Geographic Young Explorer's Grant (PI, Award #9744-15, 2014-2015), The Rise of the Sierras Pampeanas
- American Geosciences Institute (2016-2017), American Harriet Evelyn Wallace Scholarship
- AAPG Foundation (2016), Student Grants in Aid
- Geological Society of America (2014-2015, 2015-2016), Student Research Grant
- Society for Sedimentary Geology (2016-2017), Student Research Grant
- University of Arizona Graduate College (2015-2016), GPSC Research and Project Grant
Related Work
- Ortiz, G., Stevens Goddard, A.L., Fosdick, J.C., Alvarado, P., Carrapa, B., and Crostofolini, E., (2021) Fault reactivation in the Sierras Pampeanas resolved across Andean extensional and compressional regimes using thermochronologic modeling. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 212, P1, doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2021.103533
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Carrapa, B., Aciar, R.H., (2020), Recognizing Drainage Reorganization in the Stratigraphic Record: A Case study in the Neogene Bermejo Basin of the Central Andes (Invited Research Article). Sedimentary Geology, 405, doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2020.105704
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Carrapa, B., (2018) Effects of Miocene-Pliocene global climate changes on continental sedimentation: A case study from the southern Central Andes. Geology, 46, no. 7, 647-650. doi: 10.1130/G40280.1.
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Larrovere, M., Carrapa, B., *Aciar, R.H., Alvarado, P., (2018) Reconstructing the thermal and exhumation history of the Sierras Pampeanas through low-temperature thermochronology: A case study from the Sierra de Velasco. Geological Society of America Bulletin. doi: /10.1130/B31935.1.
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Carrapa, B. (2017). Using basin thermal history to evaluate the role of Miocene – Pliocene flat-slab subduction in the southern Central Andes (27° S – 30° S). Basin Research, 1-22, doi: 10.1111/bre.12265.
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Carrapa, B., Aciar, R.H., 2018, Recognizing Drainage Reorganization in the Stratigraphic Record: A Case study in the Neogene Bermejo Basin of the Central Andes. AGU Fall Meeting (invited talk).
PAST WORK
Using thermal history models to reconstruct Laramide tectonics
Advances in low temperature thermochronology in the past 20 years including the standardization of sample preparation and evolution of modeling capabilities provide higher precision analyses that can be used to tease out the thermal records chronicling tens to hundreds of millions of years. Together with colleagues at the University of Arizona, I reanalyzed apatite fission track (AFT) samples from the Wind River Range in west-central Wyoming originally published in an classic Tectonics paper by Cerveny and Steidtmann (1993). Our work demonstrated that standardized procedures produced systematically younger cooling ages (~8 My),and enabled the application of thermal history modeling that constrains protracted Cenozoic thermal history. Results providing constraints on the timing of peak Laramide exhumation (65-50 Ma) and estimates of subsequent maximum burial and exhumation (Stevens et al., 2016, Tectonics).
Related Work
- Stevens, A.L., Balgord, E.A., and Carrapa, B. (2016). Revised exhumation history of the Wind River Range, WY and implications for Laramide tectonics. Tectonics, 35, doi:10.1002/ 2016TC004126.
- Stevens, A.L., Balgord, E.A., Carrapa, B., 2015, Reanalysis of apatite fission track thermochronology in the Wind River Range produces revised Laramide exhumation history. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, vol. 47, no. 7. (talk)
Sedimentary record of arc-continent collision, Southern Alaska
In collaboration with Dr. Ken Ridgway at Purdue University of Dr. Jeff Trop at Bucknell University, I worked on the detrital zircon record in the Alaskan Mesozoic forearc basin (Stevens Goddard et al., 2018, Tectonics). The detrital zircon record over a period of ~ 105 m.y. (~ 190 - 85 Ma) chronicles the growth of the Talkeetna oceanic arc, arc-continent collision, and the development of a continental arc system. In addition to providing the first detrital zircon geochronology on Mesozoic strata in Southern Alaska, this work provides an important insight into collisional processes because it provides a complete dataset of sedimentary and magmatic processes before, during, and after arc collision and accretion.
Related Work
- Stevens Goddard, A.L., Trop, J.M., Ridgway, K.D. (2018) Detrital zircon record of a Mesozoic collisional forearc basin in south-central Alaska: the tectonic transition from an oceanic to continental arc system. Tectonics, 37, doi: 10.1002/2017TC004825
- Stevens, A.L., Ridgway, K.D., Trop, J.M., 2012, Detrital geochronologic record of Jurassic oceanic arc genesis, arc-continent collision, and Cretaceous construction of a continental arc in a forearc basin, Matanuska Valley-Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, vol. 44, no. 7, p. 284. (poster)