MEGAN A. MUELLER
Sedimentary Geology, Tectonics, Geochronology
RESEARCH
I am working on a number of projects in the fields of tectonics, sedimentary basin analysis, and detrital geochronology. Check out the Publications and Photos pages for more!
DETRITAL PETROCHRONOLOGY
We address the limitations of single mineral approaches, such as detrital zircon, in tracking sediment input from mafic and metamorphic sources in convergent margin settings. We demonstrate that detrital rutile is able to address this gap. However, rutile U-Pb geochronology is difficult due to low uranium concentrations and the incorporation of common Pb. To address these challenges, we have developed a new workflow that incorporates common Pb corrections and discordance filters specifically tailored for low-U rutile. Importantly, our results highlight that a multi-mineral approach, especially inclusive of low-U rutile, provides a more comprehensive and holistic provenance reconstruction.
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Jupyter notebooks for detrital rutile data reduction, analysis, and visualization: https://github.com/mmueller13/Detrital-UPb-and-TE
COLLISIONAL TECTONICS AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
Our work in Türkiye is a collaboration between geologists and paleontologists to explore the timing of continental collisions, their geodynamic drivers, and the biogeographic consequences. We demonstrate links between mammalian dispersals and Neotethys subduction and collision tectonics.
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Check out some of our work in the news:
In the news: NBC, Smithsonian, VICE
ACADIAN BASIN
This project investigates the thermochronological signatures of sediment recycling and basin reheating during continental growth. We are using zircon and monazite U-Th-Pb geochronology and (U-Th)/He thermochronology double dating to fingerprint sedimentary provenance and burial heating in the Devonian Catskill clastic wedge in Pennsylvania.
FOREARC EVOLUTION
Recent work suggests that sediment thickness in forearc basins and sediment subducted by bypassing the forearc both have important controls on the thermal regime and the megathrust shear zone viscosity. This work investigates the influence of forearc sediment supply on forearc basin evolution, megathrust rheology and underplating, and upper plate deformation.
NORTH AMERICAN CORDILLERA
The North American Cordillera is one of the most well-studied orogenic systems and is the foundation for our modern understanding of convergent margins. For this reason, it is an ideal place to investigate orogenic evolution. This project uses sedimentary provenance proxies to document continental-scale changes in drainage networks as a function of convergent margin processes.
