[ESS] Marco Herwegh (University of Bern)

“Continent-Continent Collision: From the grain to the plate tectonic scale”

During late stage continent-continent collisions, formerly passive continental margins of subducting plates are involved in mountain building processes. In this talk we visit late stage collision in the European Alps in general and the External Crystalline Massifs (EMC) in particular. EMCs are uplifted basement domes from the former proximal continental European passive margin. Where and why did they emerge? What are the related exhumation structures/processes and what is the associated rheology? The talk will address these points by combining field data, geophysical information and rock deformation experiments.

Earth Science Seminar —

Lecture portion of the EAPS graduate-level class 12.571, covering current research in geophysics, geology, geochemistry, and geobiology. All members of the MIT community are welcome to join for presentations by guest speakers, held approximately every two weeks during the term.

Contact: earth-science-seminar-info@mit.edu