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Our Research

We are currently pursuing research in four broad themes:

  • Plate motion and dynamics in the Alpine-Mediterranean area
  • Coupling between mantle, crust and the surface
  • Subduction and Accretion
  • Lithospheric extension during convergence

MB-4D Program

Priority Programme "Mountain Building Processes in Four Dimensions (MB-4D)" SPP 2017
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Current Projects

Past Projects (members FU Tectonics group in boldface)

  • New kinematic reconstructions of the Adriatic Plate as a key to understanding subduction processes in the Western Mediterranean (KAPMED) (DFG, Le breton, Handy, Ustaszewski)
  • Understanding subduction by linking surface exposures of subducted and exhumed crust to geophysical images of slabs (DFG, Pleuger, John, Tilmann, Xiaohui, Kaus, Handy, Mechie)
  • Carving rivers in the Dinarides – mapping and cosmogenic nuclides help trace the geomorphologic response to sea-level change, glacial (un)loading and tectonic uplift (northeastern Albania and Kosovo) (DFG, Gemignani, Handy)
  • Slab tearing or slab retreat as triggers of extension at the Dinaric-Hellenic transition (DFG, Handy, Giese, Gemignani, Pleuger)
  • Assembly and breakup of Gondwana – seismological signatures of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system in southern Madagascar (DFG, Rümpker, Tillmann, Yuan, Giese)
  • “Orogen-parallel motion in the Alps-Carpathians-Dinarides orogenic system” DAAD (Handy, Pleuger, Giese, Le Breton)
  • Changing patterns of shortening, and lateral extension at the end of the axial zone in a mountain belt - the case of the Tauern Window at the eastern end of the Alps (DFG, Handy, Oberhänsli, Rosenberg, Garcia)
  • Lateral extrusion and exhumation of orogenic crust during indentation by rigid continental lithosphere (Tauern Window, Eastern Alps) (DFG, Handy, Rosenberg)
  • Formation of the Tibetan Plateau and its relationship to rapid exhumation of deep crust in the Eastern Himalayan (Namche Barwa, China) Syntaxis (DFG, Handy, Konrad-Schmolke, O’Brien)
  • Localization of deformation on different scales at the transition from frictional sliding to viscous flow in the continental crust (North-Pyreneen shear zone, Spain) (DFG, Handy)
  • Seismicity and stress states in the continental lithosphere (DFG, Handy)
  • Investigation of the exhumation mechanisms of the axial core of a collisional orogen, by means of structural analysis of brittle deformation and of thermochronology in the Eastern Alps (DFG, Rosenberg, Handy, Garcia
  • Relationship of the Andean orogeny to uplift of the Altiplano Plateau (Chile, Bolivia, Argentina) (DFG-SFB, Handy, Scheuber, Medvedev)
  • Fault Systems in Front of the Apulian Orogenic Indenter and their Role in Exhuming High Pressure Rocks in the Sesia Zone, Western Alpine Arc (DFG, Handy, Hammerschmidt, Oberhänsli, Rosenberg)
  • Exhumation Mechanisms of Middle and Lower Crust In the Eastern Alps (DFG, Rosenberg, Hammerschmidt, Handy)
  • Melt segregation and migration in ductile shear zones (DFG, Rosenberg, Handy)
  • Ascent and emplacement of granitic melts in the Earth’s crust (DFG, Rosenberg, Handy)
  • Migration of pressurized fluids along shear zones in deep continental crust (DFG, Handy, Rosenberg)
  • Oligo-miozäne Tektonik nördlich des Dolomitenindenters und ihre Beziehung zur Platznahme des Rieserferner Plutons (DFG, Handy, Rosenberg)