Past Research Projects:

 

Appalachian Region:

• USGS EDMAP: The goal of this project is to generate a 1:24,000-scale geologic map and apply detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology to Lower Mississippian-Upper Devonian strata in the northern Valley Head 7.5-minute quadrangle, Randolph County, West Virginia, in order to improve stratigraphic divisions and regional lithostratigraphic correlation. The project will generate an improved Upper Paleozoic stratigraphic framework that will aid regional correlation and mapping of age-equivalent rocks in outcrop and subsurface boreholes of the surrounding area. 

  • Sage Muttel, PhD '24​

  • Thomas Spotloe, B.S. '23

  • Benjamin Schafler, B.S. '22

  • Sean Phillips, B.S. '22

  • Roger Carte, B.S. '22

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Mesozoic evolution of Southeastern Asia:

Building upon my expertise gained through my dissertation work (see CV: Weislogel et al., 2006; Weislogel et al., 2007; Weislogel, 2008; Weislogel et al., 2010), I was PI for two other projects aimed at understanding the Mesozoic geotectonic infrastructure that was later modified into the archetypical Himalayan continent-continent collisional orogeny and plateau system:

 

NSF-EAR (Tectonics Program) award: “Collaborative Research: Evaluating Ancestry of the Tibet Plateau: Did a Mesozoic Proto-plateau Exist?” (PI share $286,357/3 years). Our research team has studied the sedimentary record of Mesozoic tectonism in the SE Tibetan plateau region in order to evaluate the hypothesis that a precursor plateau occupied the region prior to development of the Cenozoic Tibetan Plateau. Our approach integrates sedimentology/stratigraphy, multi-tracer provenance analysis, stable isotope geochemistry, structural analysis and thermochronology.  To date research results have been presented at several conferences, including AAPG (2013), First Joint Geological Society of China-Geological Society of America Meeting in Chengdu, Sichuan (2013) and GSA (2014); recent results will be shared at the Second Joint Geological Society of China-Geological Society of America Meeting being held concurrently with GSA in Baltimore, MD (2015). Our results chronicle early Mesozoic convergent tectonism controlling basin-filling evolution from open to closed basin hydrology synchronous with a shift from marine to terrestrial paleoenvironment and a paleoclimate record that indicates mid-Cretaceous cooling driven by surface uplift. Our conclusion is that we have documented the oldest evidence of plateau development in eastern Tibet.

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Publications:

1. Jackson, W. T., Jr., Robinson, D. M., Weislogel, A. L., & Jian, X. †, 2020, Cenozoic reactivation along the Late Triassic Ganzi-Litang suture, eastern Tibetan Plateau. Geoscience Frontiers, 12 p. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2019.11.001

2. Jackson, W. T., Jr., Robinson, D.M., Weislogel., A.L., Shang, F., and Jian, X. †, 2018, Tectonic setting and sedimentary provenance interpreted from detrital U-Pb zircon geochronology of nonmarine basins in the northern Yidun terrane: Insights into eastern Tibetan Plateau Mesozoic deformation and deposition: Tectonics, v. 37, n. 8, p. 2446-2465, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018TC004995

3. Jackson, Jr., W.T., Robinson, D.M., Weislogel, A.L., Jian, X. † and McKay, M.P., 2018, Early Cenozoic development of the nonmarine Mula basin, southern Yidun terrane: deposition and deformation in the eastern Tibetan Plateau associated with the India-Asia collision: Tectonics, v. 37, n. 8, p. 2466-2485, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018TC004994.

 

NSF-EAR (Tectonics Program) award: “Collaborative Research: Hypothesis Testing: A Mediterranean-Style Closure of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean” (PI share $225,124/3 years). The project team including myself, Alex Pullen (U. of Arizona) and my recent post-doc Xing Jian, conducted field work in western China aimed at testing a back-arc basin opening model for the Mesozoic eastern Paleotethys through detrital zircon fingerprinting of continental crustal fragments and magmatic arcs that surround the collapsed ocean basin, and comparison of these potential sources with Triassic turbidites within the collapsed ocean basin. The goal of this project is to assess the role of the Wilson Cycle in forming nuclear Asian continental lithosphere as the only continent that was primarily assembled during the Phanerozoic. First results of this project were presented at GSA in 2014 and recent results will be presented at the Second Joint Geological Society of China-Geological Society of America Meeting being held concurrently with GSA in Baltimore, MD (2015). One manuscript in prep (Jian et al., in prep) reports provenance data that reflects progressive southwest-to-northeast inversion of the Paleotethys beginning in Middle Triassic time. This conclusion does not fit a model of Middle Triassic back-arc opening. Instead, we interpret the voluminous Paleotethyan turbidites reflect intense, regional shortening driven by collisional tectonisms along far-field plate boundaries throughout Triassic time.

1. Jian, X. †, Weislogel, A. and Pullen, A., 2019, Triassic Sedimentary Filling and Closure of the Eastern Paleo‐Tethys Ocean: New Insights From Detrital Zircon Geochronology of Songpan‐Ganzi, Yidun, and West Qinling Flysch in Eastern Tibet: Tectonics, v. 38, n. 2, pp.767-787, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018TC005300