Veleda Muller
Postdoc at the University of Arizona
Born as a metamorphic-igneous petrologist and structural geologist in South America, I did my PhD in Europe focused on the interactions between Tectonics and Climate to understand mountain building.
Currently at the University of Arizona I integrate field, lab, and computational techniques to understand complex processes, such as exhumation of fold-and-thrust belts and orogenic plateaus. My study regions are the Andes, the Alps, the Grenville Orogen in North America, and the North American Cordillera.
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In my postdoc I use geodynamic numerical models of subduction and collision, and geo-thermochronology (U-Pb, U-Th/He, Ar/Ar, AFT) to study orogenic cycles. I am funded by the TANGO Project, which integrates geology and geophysics to unravell the processes forming the high topography and crustal thickness of the Andes.
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I am teaching "Hands-on Geochronology" in the University of Arizona, performing a "teaching as research" project of multi-chronometric dating and petrology of rocks from the Adirondack Mountains. This course involves undergrad and graduate students, and we use the facilities of the Arizona LaserChron Center.
Modeling
Latest Release
AGU talk: Tectonic shortening vs. mantle dynamic control on the topography and subsidence of the Central and Southern Andes using numerical modeling
My first participation at AGU24 was chairing the poster and oral sessions T51B and T53D "From the Surface to the Mantle: Integrating Geophysical, Seismological, and Tectonics Perspectives Along the South American Margin".
It was the first time I presented results of my first year of postdoc at the University of Arizona, specifically regarding the numerical modeling component of the TANGO Project that I am developing.
In my presentation entitled "Tectonic shortening vs. mantle dynamic control on the topography and foreland basin subsidence of the Central and Southern Andes using numerical modeling" I showed that the viscosity of the upper mantle might be one of the fisrt-order controls on intraplate coupling in a subduction environment, consquently controlling the amount of crustal shortening in the upper plate. We compared the results with the lithospheric structure of the Central, Southern and Patagonian Andes.
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AGU24 took place in Washington D.C. from 9 to 13th December.
Lastest Reseale
Muller et al. (2024), Tectonics
My last research article is published in Tectonics!
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It is an honor to publish the first dataset of low-temperature thermochronology from the Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine plutonic complexes!
With that we quantify the effects of mantle dynamics and glacial-fluvial erosion along the strike of the southern Patagonian Andes.
This article highlight that both the deep Earth and the surface erosion forces shape the geomorphology of alpine valleys, but sometimes one force predominate over each other, and in few cases we are capable to differentiate them.
Torres del Paine, Chilean Patagonia
(photo by Veleda Muller)
Grey Glacier, Southern Patagonian Icefields, Chile
(photo by Veleda Muller)
Muller et al. (2024),
Solid Earth
My research article about the effect of the slab window on glacial isostatic adjustment in southern Patagonia is published in Solid Earth!
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Using forward numerical modeling, we show that the thermal anomaly generated by the slab window in southern Patagonia is necessary to generate the present-day outstanding uplift rates of 10-40 mm/yr measured by GPS around the Southern Patagonian Icefields.
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We also show that this high magnitude of uplift is generated by both the Little Ice Age (400 years ago) and the Last Glacial Maximum (20000 years ago).
doi.org/10.5194/se-15-387-2024
Muller et al. (2022), Scientific Reports
My article "Climatic control on the location of volcanic arcs" is published on Nature portfolio!
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I used thermomechanical numerical modeling and a compilation of geochronology and thermochronology data to show that volcanic arcs can migrate in function of surface erosion. I used the Southern Andes and the North Cascade volcanic arcs as case studies, where the volcanism migrated towards the more eroded side of the orogenic belt. We propose this migration is entailed by the intensified orography associated with the westerlies winds.
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This article shows for the first time that orography can force volanic arc migration, revealing one more link between climate and tectonics.
Schematic representation of the orographic forcing on the location of continental volcanic arcs
Muller et al. (2021), Tectonophysics
My first research article about the closure of the Rocas Verdes Basin is published in Tectonophysics!
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This articles presents an integrated field-work, geochronology, petrology, and thermodynamic modeling study of the metamorphic rocks of the Magallanes fold-and-thrust belt, which were once the rocks of the backarc ocean-floored Rocas Verdes Basin in southern Patagonia.
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We show that this meta- volcanic and sedimentary rocks experienced at least 20 km of tectonic burial in an accretionary wedge, and started to be exhumed in the Late Cretaceous. We show that this rocks record the passage from an extensional to a compressive tectonic setting in southern South America, when the Andes start to form and the southern tip of the continent start being bended.
Field pictures and photomicrographs of the mylonitic rocks of Tobífera Fm. in the hanging wall of the Eastern Tobífera Thrust at Estero Wickham, southern Patagonia, Chile
(photo by Veleda Muller)
About Veleda Muller
Welcome to my research website!
I am Veleda Muller, a geologist committed to perform new and interdisciplinary research in Geosciences, using field-work, laboratory, and modeling techniques. I am driven by a passion by mountains, nature, exploration, and curiosity about the dynamics of the Earth.