UC Riverside

Research presented here focuses on the tectonic-sedimentary evolution of the north Indian margin and explores the influence of plate tectonics on climate change and metazoan biodiversification during a critical interval of Earth history. The first part of the dissertation focuses on the Himalaya, Vindhyan, and Aravalli sectors of northern India. This project establishes new age constraints for poorly dated Proterozoic sedimentary successions, explores the relationship of these successions across northern India, and tests predeformational models for the Himalayan margin through an integrative study that utilizes aspects of sedimentology, detrital zircon geochronology, sedimentary geochemistry, and paleontology. The second focus of the dissertation uses a global compilation of detrital zircon age data to demonstrate an intrinsic link between spatial and temporal variation in continental arc volcanism - a key source of atmospheric CO2 - with climate change and metazoan evolution across the Neoproterozoic-Early Paleozoic transition.