02 · Research

Passive margin subsidence

past

Passive continental margins are multi-million-year archives of vertical motion, recording isostatic flexure from sediment loading alongside dynamic support from slow currents in the underlying mantle. This project used stratigraphic backstripping and paleobiological constraints to untangle these signals along the eastern seaboard of North America and the equatorial margin of Brazil, revealing how deep-Earth processes modulate apparent subsidence over geological time.

Earth from orbit
River delta and continental margin
Continental margins from space
Coastal landscape from space
Mountain range and foreland
Sedimentary basin from space

Publications

2023
Basilone, L., Roberts, G. G., Maia de Almeida, N., Fernandes, V. M., Souza, A. C. B., Alves, D. P. V., & Jovane, L. Cretaceous to Recent tectono-sedimentary history and subsidence of the Barreirinhas, Ceará and Potiguar Basins, Brazilian Equatorial Margin. Basin Research. doi.org/10.1111/bre.12810
dynamic toposediment
2021
Fernandes, V. M., & Roberts, G. Cretaceous to Recent net continental uplift from paleobiological data: insights into sub-plate support. GSA Bulletin, 133(5-6), 1217–1236. doi.org/10.1130/B35739.1
dynamic topo
2020
Morris, M., Fernandes, V. M., & Roberts, G. G. Extricating dynamic topography from subsidence patterns: examples from Eastern North America’s passive margin. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 530. doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115840
dynamic topostudent-led
2019
Fernandes, V. M., Roberts, G. G., White, N., & Whittaker, A. Continental-scale landscape evolution: a history of North American topography. JGR: Earth Surface, 124(11), 2689–2722. doi.org/10.1029/2018JF004979
dynamic toposediment
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