Skip to main content

Current Research Projects

Kyrgyzstan

Changes in paleo-erosion rates, and Interactions between erosion, deposition and deformation in the Issyk Kul basin, Kyrgyzstan (3 year DFG-funded project: SO 436/9-1)

Cenozoic exhumation history of the central Tien Shan Mountains (China, Kirghistan); tectonic and climatic controls; funded by China Research Council.

Cenozoic exhumation history of the Chatkal range, Kyrgyz Republic. Funded by DARIUS-Program (completed)

Constraining deformation history of the Talas-Fergana strike-slip fault and kinematically-linked thrust faults. Funded by "Tethys Northern Margin" Program (TOTAL and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris) (completed)

Examination of the exhumation history of the Tersky range in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan using the depositional record of the adjacent foreland basins: Cooperative Research Project with scientists from the Kyrgyz Republic (2.5 year DFG-funded project: 436 KIR 113/2/0-1) (completed)

Has late Cenozoic climate change lead to enhanced erosion in the Kyrgyz and Chinese Tien Shan? (3 year DFG-funded project: SO 436/4-1) (completed)

Pamir

Structural and geomorphic origin of anomalous topographic culminations in the Chinese Pamir: Muztagh Ata and Kongur Shan (Contributed to proposal for 2 year DFG-funded project: STR 373/20-1) (completed)

Investigation of a possible Jurassic oceanic basin in the northernmost Pamir supported by "Tethys Northern Margin" Program (TOTAL and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris) (completed)

Did the Pamir slab form by intracontinental subduction or lithospheric delamination? Clues from the deformation and thermal history (3 year DFG supported project: SO 436/12-1) (completed)

Himalaya

Mesozoic to Pliocene Tectonostratigraphic and structural evolution and deformation style of the Sulaiman fold and thrust belt, Western Himalayas Pakistan

Structural Geology and Thermochronology of Kohat-Potwar fold thrust belt, Pakistan. (completed)

Climatic - tectonic interaction in the development of the Himalaya orogen: The example of the Sutlej valley, NW Himalaya, India.  (completed)

Present and Past group members

Current doctoral candidates:

Nowrad Ali (Dr. rer. nat. expected in 2026): Mesozoic to Pliocene Tectonostratigraphic and structural evolution and deformation style of the Sulaiman fold and thrust belt, Western Himalayas Pakistan

Lingxiao Gong (Dr. rer. nat. expected in 2025): Uplift and exhumation history of the Tian Shan mountain belt, Xinjiang, China.

Asfaw Erbello (Dr. rer. nat. expected in 2023): Active faulting and seismic potential in Continental rifting: a case study from the Southern Main Ethiopian Rift.

Willemijn van Kooten (Dr. rer. nat. expected in 2023): Depositional and exhumation history of the Cretaceous Lomas de Olmedo rift basin.

Johannes Rembe (Dr. rer. nat. expected in 2023): Did the Pamir slab form by intracontinental subduction or lithospheric delamination? Clues from the deformation and thermal history

Anna Kudriavtseva (Dr. rer. nat. expected in 2023): Interactions between erosion, deposition and deformation in the Issyk Kul basin, Kyrgyzstan.

Former doctoral candidates:

Julian Hülscher  (Dr. rer. nat., 2021; Frei Universität Berlin): Towards the inversion of tectonic signals from deep-marine archives: Competing tectonic signal propagation from across the Alps into the marine sink.

Humaad Ghani  (Dr. rer. nat., 2019): Structural Geology and Thermochronology of Kohat-Potwar fold thrust belt, Pakistan.

Sebastian Zapata (Dr. rer. nat., 2019): The influence of inherited extensional structures on the growth of basement-cored ranges and their foreland basins.

Mahdi Behyari (PhD 2015, from Tarbiat Modares University, Iran): Determination of uplift mechanism in the Misho Mountain along the North Tabriz Fault (NW Iran)

Alejandro Bande (Dr. rer. nat., 2016): Constraining deformation history of the Talas-Fergana strike-slip fault and kinematically-linked thrust faults, Kyrgyz Republic.

Dr. Renjie Zhou (PhD 2015, University of Toronto): Regional Deformation and Dynamic Processes of the Southern Puna Plateau, Central Andes.

Dr. Euan Macaulay (Dr. rer. nat., 2013): Has late Cenozoic climate change lead to enhanced erosion in the Kyrgyz and Chinese Tien Shan?

Anke Deeken (Dr. rer. nat. not completed, died in 2018): Long-term erosion and exhumation rates across different climatic zones in the Indian NW Himalaya.

Dr. Stefan Löbens (Dr. rer. nat., 2012, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen): Structural and morphotectonic evolution of the Sierras Pampeanas (Argentina) constrained by a multithermochronometer approach.

Dr. Franziska Wilke (Dr. rer. nat., 2011): Quantifying crystalline extrusion in the Himalaya: does channel flow need the Monsoon? (DFG Graduate School 1364)

Dr. Mauricio Parra (Dr. rer. nat., 2009): Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the northeastern Andean foreland basin, Colombia.

Dr. Andrés Mora (Dr. rer. nat., 2007): Late Cenozoic uplift and deformation of the eastern flank of the Columbian Eastern Cordillera.

Dr. Rasmus Thiede (Dr. rer. nat., 2005): Climatic - tectonic interaction in the development of the Himalaya orogen: The example of the Sutlej valley, NW Himalaya, India. 

Dr. Harald Ege (Dr. rer. nat., 2004, Freie Universität, Berlin): Tectono-sedimentary evolution of the southern Altiplano: Basin evolution, thermochronology and structural geology. 

Dr. Frank Warkus (Dr. rer. nat., 2002): Investigation of the relation between foreland basin development and unroofing history of the Patagonian Andes.

Diploma / MSc candidates:

Adrian Jablanovski (Master's thesis, 2018): Geological Interpretations of new Apatite Fission Track Data from the Chamba Himalaya, Northwestern India.

Anke Deeken (Diploma, Freie Universität, Berlin, 2007): Age of initiation and growth pattern of the Puna Plateau, NW-Argentina, constrained by AFT thermochronology.