Samuel Martin

My PhD research focuses on sedimentary basin records of central Andean mountain-building. I am using detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology to constrain the three-dimensional subsidence history of the Altiplano Basin in western Bolivia and Peru, providing a regional chronostratigraphic framework for basin analysis. My goal is to track the surrounding orogen's evolution through time through its influence on basin geometry and sedimentology. I am also using stable isotopes in hydrated volcanic glass from central Andean tuffs - a material which typically preserves the composition of environmental water around the time of tuff emplacement - to better understand the regional surface uplift history of the central Andes and its tectonic/geodynamic causes. Finally, I am exploring alternative methods of heavy mineral separation from rock samples to alleviate common bottlenecks in the standard sample preparation workflow. My past MSc research focused on fault kinematics and basin fill histories of late Cenozoic extensional tectonics in the southwestern USA and on plate boundary reorganization in the western Pacific.