Andrew Cohen | Deposystem Evolution in the Foreland Basin Lakes of South America

The UA Paleolimnology Lab has conducted an extensive investigation of the sedimentology of modern foreland basin lakes, using the Andean foreland as our model system (McGlue et al., 2011a, 2011b, 2012, 2013, 2015; Cohen et al., 2015. Most of the stratigraphic and sedimentologic models of tectonic lakes currently available are based on studies of rift basins. However, rifts fill and evolve very differently than forelands due to their different subsidence and  watershed histories. As a result our studies hold great promise for better understanding ancient foreland basin )lake deposits such as the Green River Fm. and the Sevier belt paleolakes of the western US.


 

 

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1a and 1b. Model of the various tectonic settings where lakes can accumulate adjacent to compressional mountain belts

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2. Former UA graduate students Mike McGlue (right, now Asst. Professor of Geology at the University of Kentucky) and Andrew Kowler coring Laguna Pozuelos, a piggy-back basin in the Puna region of northern Argentina.