Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

Collaborative National Research Centers on Integrating Tectonics, Climate and Mammal Diversity

Stony Brook University is leading a research project that focuses on the interplay between the evolution of the landscape, climate, and fossil record of mammal evolution and diversification in the western United States. A little explored aspect of this geosciences research is the connection between gravitational forces deep in the Earth and landscape evolution. In a newly published paper in Nature Communications, the researchers show by way of computer modeling that deep roots under mountain belts (analogous to the massive ice below the tip of an iceberg) trigger dramatic movements along faults that result in collapse of the mountain belt and exposure of rocks that were once some 15 miles below the surface.

The origin of these enigmatic exposures, called metamorphic core complexes, has been hotly debated within the scientific community. This study finding may alter the way scientists attempt to uncover the history of Earth as an evolving planet.

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