Delores Robinson
Associate Professor
Contact +1 (205) 348-4034
dmr@geo.ua.edu
Office: 2015 Bevill Building
Fax: +1 (205) 348-0818
Department of Geological Sciences
The University of Alabama
Box 870338
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 USA
Welcome. I invite you to browse through my homepage to learn more about my research and teaching activities. To clarify some confusion some of you may have about my name. I’ll explain. In the Himalayan community, everyone calls me D. Even though this website begins with my full name, Delores, you will see that here I use D. If you are interesting in collaborating or coming to the University of Alabama as a student, please contact me. The pictures above are from Northwest India. I took my daughter on a research trip in 2009. On the above left, we are in camp for the night and on the above right, I took a picture with her because it is her first snow picture. The picture to the left is a village sign from central Nepal.
Education
Ph.D. 2001, University of Arizona,Tucson, AZ
M.S. 1997, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
B.S. 1994, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC
NEWS
-D. is on sabbatical as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She welcomes the challenge of learning new techniques. You can still contact her at her geo email.
-Subodha completed an internship with a mining company in Alaska this past summer. He is starting his 3rd year of his Ph.D. and will defend his dissertation proposal soon. He continues to work in central Nepal on the geochronology and petrology of Lesser and Greater Himalayan rocks and the structural geology of the region.
-Subho completed an internship with a mining company in Utah this past summer. He is working in NW India on the structural geology and stratigraphy of the region. Subho is starting his 3rd year of his Ph.D. and will defend his dissertation proposal soon.
-Lance is working furiously to complete his thesis on the evolution of the Tampa Embayment in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico in September. He has full time employment with Marathon in Houston, TX.
-Bryan will finish his thesis in December. He is working with seismic data and well data and cores from the Eastern Gulf of Mexico on the Upper Jurassic Norphlet Formation.
- Welcome to Craig Cato – the newest addition to our group. He will be working in the Appalachian Mountains of Alabama.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
I enjoy discovering and researching how orogenic systems evolve from the proto-magmatic arc to fully mature collapsing systems. I want to understand how mountain belts grow and change in different tectonic environments. I combine tectonics, structural geology, geochemistry, geochronology, sedimentology, petrology, and field mapping to decipher the evolved structural architecture in orogenic systems. I concentrate my effort in the Himalaya–Nepal, India, Bhutan, southern Tibet. My research in the U.S. focuses on the development of the Appalachian Mountains in Alabama and the Cordilleran in Montana, and the rifting of Pangea and evolution of the Gulf of Mexico.
THE HIMALAYA
NW India: For the past 2 years, I have been working in NW India from the Sutlej Valley eastward toward the Yamuna Valley. This project has NSF funding for determining whether the channel flow model or the critical taper model best explains the geologic features in this part of India. In 2009, I spent 6 weeks with Matt Kohn (Boise State), Jen Chambers (St. Andrews University, Scotland), Bob Phaff, and Sudip Paul (Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology) in this region. My 4 month old daughter traveled with us as my “field assistant”. In the Fall of 2010, my student, Subho Mandel worked in the region collecting data for his Ph.D. This region is an active research area for me. Students wanting to work in NW India should contact me.
Nepal: My Ph.D. was completed on the structure, stratigraphy, and kinematic history of western Nepal. I have walked 100’s of kilometers in the region and produced a geologic map (Robinson et al., 2006) and balanced cross sections (Robinson, 2008). Recently, I completed two field seasons in central Nepal to determine how the structures and stratigraphy compare from western to central Nepal. In 2006, I went to central Nepal with Aaron Martin (University of Maryland) and walked down the Modi Khola and Kali Gandaki. We gathered enough data to produce a map and cross section, which is currently in progress (expected 2011). In 2008, I went to central Nepal with my student, Subodha Khanal, and helped him complete work for his M.S. thesis along the Budhi-Gandaki River which he completed in 2009 (Khanal and Robinson, expected 2011). Subodha is working on his Ph.D. in central Nepal (see student section) and I have active research projects in Nepal.
Eastern Tibet: Amy Weislogel (WVU) and I have a funded NSF collaborative research project in Eastern China that began in July 2011. We will be working in the Qamdo Basin on the structure, stratigraphy, and sedimentology in the basin. The objective is to understand the tectonic history of the basin with a goal of determining the pre-Cenozoic contribution to the building of the Tibetan Plateau. I am currently looking for a Ph.D. student to work on this project. Please contact me if you are interested.
Southern Tibet: In 2006, Nadine McQuarrie and I traveled to southern Tibet to look at the Tibetan fold-thrust belt. We flew into Lhasa and traveled by vehicle southward to Qomolangma and eastward toward Kodari. We had a Chinese field assistant, Sunxia, from Chengdu. This is an active research project for me. I am interested in the stratigraphy of the Tethyan sediments and how those sediments correlate to rocks of the same age in the Himalayan fold-thrust belt. Students interested in working on this project have to possess the qualities of determination, patience, curiosity, and a willingness to deal with the unknown.
Bhutan: In 2006, I went with Nadine McQuarrie to Bhutan (McQuarrie et al., 2008). Djordie Grujic was also on this trip. I went as an advisor to teach her the Lesser Himalayan stratigraphy. In the process, I gained a greater understanding of how the Lesser Himalayan stratigraphy changes across the Himalayan arc. I am not actively working in Bhutan but using what I learned in other papers. If a student wished to work in Bhutan, I would try to make that happen.
insert photos
GULF OF MEXICO
I finish the 3rd year of working on a project in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico with Amy Weislogel (West Virginia University) in conjunction with Murphy Oil and Exploration Company and Spectrum. This project involves understanding the dynamics of the opening of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and understanding the depositional pathways of the Upper Jurassic Norphlet Formation. See Lance and Bryan in the student section for more information about what they are doing. This project combines seismic data, well data, and core data in try to determine how the Eastern Gulf of Mexico opened. I anticipate that this project will be funded for another 3 years and am looking for two M.S. students or one Ph.D. student to continue work on this project. Please contact me at my geo email if you are interested.
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
The University of Alabama is located just within the Black Warrior Basin, which means, unfortunately, the university is not in the Appalachian fold-thrust belt. I have had two students (Gates, 2006; Bailey, 2007) work on seismic data from the fold-thrust belt and produce balanced cross sections. I also have an interest in tying the synorogenic sediment from the foreland basin to the rocks from the different terranes in the Appalachians. I have not made much progress on that research and would welcome a student who wanted to pursue it.
CORDILLERAN
I am interested in using synorogenic sediment to understand how a thrust belt evolves over time. Montana is a great spot to do this because not a lot of work has been done in the region. One of my student has completed an M.S. thesis in the Beaverhead Conglomerate in Bannack, near Dillon, Montana (Czeckowskyj, 2007) and relating that to the evolution of the Sevier fold-thrust belt. Students should contact me if they are interested in studying the sediments to determine how a thrust belt works.
photos
CURRENT STUDENTS
Subodha Khanal: Subodha is working in central Nepal in the 3rd year of his Ph.D. For his doctorate, he is combining garnet petrography, Sm-Nd geochronology, P-T estimates and modeling, U-Pb zircon geochronology, structural modeling, and structural mapping.
Subho Mandel: Subho is working in Northwest India along the Sutlej, Tons, Yamuna and Kali River Valleys. His first big challenge is to correlate the stratigraphy along strike in NW India. Then he will be working on large scale structural mapping, reconstructions, and modeling.
Lance Wilson: Lance is working with seismic lines donated by Spectrum of the coast of Florida near Tampa and extending out into the deep water. These lines form a grid with which Lance will be studying the opening of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and then he will use software to model the evolution.
Bryan Hunt: Bryan is working in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico also. He is using well logs donated by TGS and acquired through the Bureau formerly known as MMS to determine how the facies in the Norphlet Formation and Haynesville formation vary in space and time. He will also be using detrital zircons to determine the provenance of Haynesville sands (similar to the work done by Lovell and Weislogel, 2010).
PAST STUDENTS
Marty Gates, M.S. Fall 2006, “Structure of the Wills Valley Anticline in the Vicinity of Mentone, Alabama”, employed at U.S. Corps of Engineers
Ryan Bailey, M.S. Fall 2007, “Seismic Interpretation and Structural Restoration of a Seismic Profile through the Southern Appalachian Thrust belt under Gulf Coastal Plain Sediments”, employed at Anadarko Oil Company
Rachael Czechowskyj, M.S. Fall 2007, “Kinematic Reconstruction of the Sevier Thrust Belt using the Synorogenic Beverhead Group, Southwest Montana”, employed at Hess Oil Company
Subodha Khanal, M.S. Fall 2009, “Upper Crustal Shortening and Forward Modeling of the Himalayan Fold-Thrust Belt along the Budhi-Gandaki River, Central Nepal”, now in Ph.D. program at UA
TEACHING
- Structural Geology (GEO 365)
- Comparative Structural Geology (Graduate. GEO 565)
- Global Tectonics (Graduate. GEO 583)
- The Dynamic Earth (GEO 101)
- Field Camp (GEO 496)
DEPARTMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES (2010-2011)
Awards and Honors Committee (Chair)
Textbook Committee (Chair)
Ad hoc Committee: Criteria in Faculty Evaluation and Merit Pay Increases
Ad hoc Committee: Chair Sedimentary/Stratigraphy Search Committee
Tenure, Promotion, and Retention Committee
RECENT PUBLICATIONS (ONLY PAPERS)
2010 Khanal, S., and Robinson, D.M., Upper crustal shortening and forward modeling of the Himalayanfold thrust belt along the Budhi-Gandaki River, central Nepal, in prep.
2010 Robinson, D.M., Reconstructing the Erosional History of the Central Himalayan Thrust belt: in prep
2010 Robinson, D.M., Bailey, R.M., and Goodliffe, A.M., Structure of the Appalachian Thrust Belt under the Gulf Coastal Plain Sediments: Geosphere, in prep.
2009 Robinson, D.M., Gates, M.G., and Goodliffe, A.M., Structure of the Wills Valley Anticline, Alabama: Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions, v. 59, p. 663-671.
2008 Robinson, D.M., Forward modeling the kinematic sequence of the central Himalayan thrust belt, western Nepal: Geosphere, v. 4, p. 785-801, doi: 10.1130/GES00163.1
2008 McQuarrie, N., Robinson D.M., Long, S., Tobgay, T., Gruijic, D., Gehrels, G., and Ducea, M., Preliminary Stratigraphic and Structural Architecture of Bhutan: Implications for the along strike architecture of the Himalayan system: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 272, p. 105-117, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2008.04.030.
2006 Robinson, D.M., DeCelles, P.G., and Copeland P., Tectonic evolution of the Himalayan thrust belt in western Nepal: Implications for channel flow models: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 118, p. 865-885, doi: 10.1130/B25911.1.
2006 Robinson, D.M. and Pearson, O.N., Exhumation of Greater Himalayan rock along the Main Central Thrust, Nepal: Implications for channel flow: In Law, R.D., Searle, M.P., and Godin, L. (eds) Channel Flow, Extrusion, and Exhumation in Continental Collision Zones. Geological Society of London, Special Publications, v. 268, p. 255-267.
2004 Dupont-Nivet, G., Robinson, D., Butler, R.F., Yin, A., and Melosh, J., Concentration of crustal displacement along a weak Altyn Tagh fault: Evidence from paleomagnetism of the northern Tibetan Plateau; Tectonics, v. 23, TC1020, doi:1029/2002TC001397, 9 p.
2003 Robinson, D.M., DeCelles, P.G., Garzione, C.N., Pearson, O.N., Harrison, T.M., and Catlos, E.J., Kinematic model for the Main Central Thrust in Nepal; Geology, v. 31, p. 359-362, doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(2003)031<0359:KMFTMC>2.0.CO;2.
2003 Robinson, D.M., DeCelles, P.G., Garzione, C.N., Pearson, O.N., Harrison, T.M., and Catlos, E.J., Reply to Comment: Kinematic model for the Main Central Thrust in Nepal; Geology, v. 31, e41.
2003 Robinson, D.M., Dupont-Nivet, G., Gehrels, G.E., and Zhang, Y., The Tula uplift, northwestern China: Evidence for regional tectonism of the northern Tibetan Plateau during late Mesozoic-early Cenozoic time; Geological Society of America Bulletin, v.115, no. 1, p. 35-47.
2002 DeCelles, P.G., Robinson D.M., and Zandt, G., Implications of shortening in the Himalayan fold-thrust belt for uplift of the Tibetan Plateau; Tectonics, v. 21, no. 6, p. 1062-1087, doi: 10.1029/2001TC001322.
2001 Robinson, D.M., DeCelles, P.G., Patchett, P.J., and Garzione, C.N., The kinematic evolution of the Nepalese Himalaya interpreted from Nd isotopes; Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 192, p. 507-521, doi.10.1016/S0012-821X(01)00451-4.
2001 DeCelles, P.G., Robinson, D.M., Quade, J., Ojha, T.P., Garzione, C.N., Copeland, P., and Upreti, B.N., Stratigraphy, Structure, and Tectonic Evolution of the Himalayan Fold-Thrust Belt in Western Nepal; Tectonics, v. 20, p. 487-509, doi: 10.1029/2000TC001226.
1999 Robinson, D.M., and Miller, C.F., 1999, Record of magma chamber processes preserved in accessory mineral assemblages, Aztec Wash pluton, Nevada; American Mineralogist, v. 84, p. 1346-1353.
