My
present research focuses on the following two areas of primary interest:
1. The development of superposed contractional and extensional structures in the
Basin and Range province of eastern Nevada and western Utah, and implications for the structural evolution of the Sevier hinterland region.
Present work in the Confusion Range of western Utah is focused on understanding the structural geometry of this hinterland portion of the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt. We have used a combination of existing geologic mapping and detailed new mapping in key areas to develop a series of balanced and retrodeformable cross sections across the Confusion Range. These have now been published as Utah Geological Survey Open-File Report 613. A more regional discussion of the style and significance of Confusion Range fold-thrust structures can be found in The Confusion Range, west-central Utah: Fold-thrust deformation and a western Utah thrust belt in the Sevier hinterland: Geosphere, v. 10, no. 1; p. 148-169.
The goal is to understand the connections between this zone of localized shortening and crustal thickening and regions of major crustal shortening to the east (Sevier frontal thrust belt) and extension to the west (Snake Range core complex). Future work will focus on documenting this fold-and-thrust system to the south in the Burbank Hills and Mountain Home Range, and on understanding the relations between early Tertiary basin formation and the transition from Sevier thrust faulting to low-angle extensional faulting in the eastern Basin and Range.
2. Understanding the structure and stratigraphy of metamorphic roof pendants in the Sierra Nevada of California, and the information these pendants provide about the Paleozoic and Mesozoic tectonics of the central Cordillera. Present work, with collaborator Erik Klemetti, is focused on new structural studies, strain analyses and dating in the Mineral King pendant and adjacent plutons in the southern Sierra Nevada, and the Mesozoic section of the Mount Morrison pendant in the central Sierra.
Planned future projects in the Sierra Nevada include continued geologic mapping and structural studies in the upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks of the Mount Morrison and associated roof pendants; and investigation of the Mount Goddard and other primarily Mz pendants.
Past research projects have included:
1. An investigation of Paleozoic intraplate tectonics in central Australia,
where early extensional structures associated with the Neoproterozoic break-up
of Rodinia have been reactivated as reverse faults during the mid-Paleozoic
Alice Springs intraplate orogeny. These pictures from field
work in central Australia show some of the geologic structures and terrain of
the Aussie "Red Centre" and suggest some of the logistics required
for fieldwork in the outback. Major results of this project are published
in Tectonics (Greene, 2010), as well as a number of abstracts with students (see Publications).
2. Previous work on the Early Archean Isua Supracrustal Belt in West Greenland
is now complete, with publication of results in Tectonophysics (Hanmer and Greene, 2002). These pictures from field
work in southwest Greenland show the field area, including geologic structures,
very young landforms emerging from the ice, and logistics for working at the
edge of the ice cap.