Ian Norton

Senior Research Fellow

Ph.D., 1978, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, S Africa

Telephone: 512-471-0423
email: norton@ig.utexas.edu

Research Interests Fundamental understanding of the structure of passive continental margins has changed dramatically over the last few years, driven by concepts of mantle exhumation that have been demonstrated by deep drilling on the Newfoundland and Iberian margins. In these areas large amounts of relative motion between continental blocks has been accommodated by low-angle exhumation of lower crust and mantle, as opposed to the more traditional concepts of block faulting of brittle continental crust. Ian's research is focused on understanding the structural evolution of continental margins, particularly trying to reconcile deformation amounts that can be predicted from regional-scale plate reconstructions with deformation that can be inferred from local-scale structural data. Ian is also conducting research in the Basin and Range province of western North America. Another area of large-magnitude extension.