She was a founder of GeoScienceWorld, an international journal aggregation for geoscientists.[4] Among her awards and honors, she is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, from which she received the Distinguished Service Award in 2003, after serving as its president in 2001, and an honorary fellow of the Geological Society of London.[4] In 1990 she was named Outstanding Educator by the Association for Women Geoscientists.[5] In 2020 she was acknowledged as the Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist.[6]
Research
Her primary research interests are in the evolution of complexly deformed terranes, strain analysis, deformation mechanisms, and the interaction between chemical and physical processes during deformation.[1]
Mosher's research involves structural petrology and field-oriented structural geology. She created and tested a new model for the collisional orogen along the southern margin of Laurentia, with specific emphasis on the Sierra Diablo foothills of west Texas and the Llano uplift of central Texas.[7] Shifting focus to her work in the examination of mesoproterozoic plate tectonics, Dr. Mosher has made great advancements in the study of plate tectonics and has changed the way of thinking of many in this field. Traditionally, mesoproterozoic mountain belts have been thought of as having a lack of ophiolites, high and ultra high pressure rocks but through her research Dr. Mosher has proven this not to be the case. This was done through the study of modern day high pressure metamorphism, subduction and collision of different crustal levels in the southern margin of the Laurentia and comparing them to current knowledge of tectonic evolution in the mesoproterozoic era.[8] She also studied the evolution of the Macquarie Ridge Complex, the Pacific-Australian plate boundary south of New Zealand, exploring how strain was divided during the boundary’s evolution, the processes that allowed the deformation, and the discontinuation of magmatism.[7] Macquarie ridge is unique as these sediments are easily accessible and therefore easy to study. Through this research Dr. Mosher has discovered that the active tectonic environment is primarily made of breccia, sandstone and siltstone turbidity-current generated debris fans and that faulting, sedimentation and volcanism are merely a small part of plate boundaries.[9] Another of her research projects focused on the partitioning of different types of strain during formation of ductile non-coaxial shear zones in both extensional and contractional environments, including the development of corrugations in metamorphic core complexes and the formation of rods and mullions in thrust nappes.[7]
Academic experience
Mosher is currently a professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, and has been a faculty member at the University of Texas since 1978.[10] She has been a full time professor specializing in structural geology, structural petrology and tectonics since 1990, teaching students at both the undergraduate and graduate level and has supervised 19 PhD students and 35 MS students.[11] She has 33 years of field and mapping experience, and was a Field Camp director for 15 years.[11]
Personal life
As a child in Illinois, Sharon Mosher was fascinated by geology, conducting mineral tests on rocks in the chemistry lab her dad set up for her in their basement. She decided she wanted to be a geologist the moment she learned that's what you'd call a person who studies rocks.[12]
Mosher’s father would take her as a child on Illinois State Geological Survey field trips, and whenever her family went on their annual vacation, Mosher would map the route, figuring out stops where she and her older sister could find rocks. Today, Mosher still hunts for rocks and maps out routes—only she is now mapping future paths for the acclaimed Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Since 2009, she has been Dean of the school, the largest geosciences academic institution in the country, however she was replaced as dean by Claudia Mora in February 2020.[13] Mosher is also known worldwide for her research on mountain formation millions of years ago when continents collided. She brought new life to two major geological associations, and helped spearhead a national initiative to evaluate what undergraduate students in geosciences across the country need to know.[14] As the president of the GSA (2000-2001), Mosher was interviewed in April, 2001 by the Geotimes. Mosher displayed a willingness to allow for technological access of electronic publications easily accessible to those that wanted to research geological studies. This could spark the interest of many to get involved with the science of geology. By using programs such as Earthscope, researchers could freely answer vast quantities of questions regarding tectonic plates.[15]
“Paleoenvironmental and tectonic controls of sedimentation in coal-forming basins of southeastern New England”[17]
“Structural and tectonic evolution of Mesozoic basement-involved fold nappes and thrust faults in the Dome Rock Mountains, Arizona”[18]
“Tectonic evolution of the eastern Llano uplift, central Texas: A record of Grenville orogenesis along the southern Laurentian margin”[19]
“Tectonic evolution of the southern Laurentian Grenville orogenic belt”[20]
“Laurentia‐Kalahari Collision and the Assembly of Rodinia”[21]
“Kinematic history of the Narragansett Basin, Massachusetts and Rhode Island: Constraints on Late Paleozoic plate reconstructions”[22]
Achievements and awards
Mosher has made several accomplishments within her academic career and has received multiple awards for her contributions to geology.
1990 - "Association of Women Geologists Outstanding Educator Award". Mosher received this award for her educational contributions and high-quality research in geoscience as a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas.[5]
2000-2001 - President of Geology Society of America (GSA)[6]
2003 - "GSA Distinguished Service Award". Received this award for her major involvement and development of GSA.[23]
2004 - Chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents[24]
2007-2009 - Chair of Department of Geological Sciences at University of Texas[24]
2012-2013 - American Geoscience Institute President (AGI)[6]
2016 - Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana Liberal Arts College, her alma mater (University of Illinois).[25]
2020 - Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist.[26] Lifetime achievement awarded to Sharon Mosher for all her achievements in Earth Sciences.
Pannotia, also known as the Vendian supercontinent, Greater Gondwana, and the Pan-African supercontinent, was a relatively short-lived Neoproterozoic supercontinent that formed at the end of the Precambrian during the Pan-African orogeny, during the Cryogenian period and broke apart 560 Ma with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean, in the late Ediacaran and early Cambrian. Pannotia formed when Laurentia was located adjacent to the two major South American cratons, Amazonia and Río de la Plata. The opening of the Iapetus Ocean separated Laurentia from Baltica, Amazonia, and Río de la Plata. A 2022 paper argues that Pannotia never fully existed, reinterpreting the geochronological evidence: "the supposed landmass had begun to break up well before it was fully assembled". However, the assembly of the next supercontinent Pangaea is well established.
The Acadian orogeny is a long-lasting mountain building event which began in the Middle Devonian, reaching a climax in the Late Devonian. It was active for approximately 50 million years, beginning roughly around 375 million years ago (Ma), with deformational, plutonic, and metamorphic events extending into the early Mississippian. The Acadian orogeny is the third of the four orogenies that formed the Appalachian Mountains and subsequent basin. The preceding orogenies consisted of the Grenville and Taconic orogenies, which followed a rift/drift stage in the Neoproterozoic. The Acadian orogeny involved the collision of a series of Avalonian continental fragments with the Laurasian continent. Geographically, the Acadian orogeny extended from the Canadian Maritime provinces migrating in a southwesterly direction toward Alabama. However, the northern Appalachian region, from New England northeastward into Gaspé region of Canada, was the most greatly affected region by the collision.
The Taconic orogeny was a mountain building period that ended 440 million years ago (Ma) and affected most of modern-day New England. A great mountain chain formed from eastern Canada down through what is now the Piedmont of the east coast of the United States. As the mountain chain eroded in the Silurian and Devonian periods, sediment spread throughout the present-day Appalachians and midcontinental North America.
The Grenville orogeny was a long-lived Mesoproterozoic mountain-building event associated with the assembly of the supercontinent Rodinia. Its record is a prominent orogenic belt which spans a significant portion of the North American continent, from Labrador to Mexico, as well as to Scotland.
The Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin unites the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences with two research units, the Institute for Geophysics and the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Tanya Atwater is an American geophysicist and marine geologist who specializes in plate tectonics. She is particularly renowned for her early research on the plate tectonic history of western North America.
Gail Ashley, née Mowry, is an American sedimentologist. She is known for her studies of the Olduvai Gorge sediments, focused on the water supplies available to hominids and the paleoclimate of the region. She has participated in multi-disciplinary projects that include meteorology, oceanography, paleoanthropology, and archaeology. She has served in professional organizations in the fields of sedimentology and geology, including the presidency of the Geological Society of America, the second woman to hold that post.
The Precordillera terrane of western Argentina is a large mountain range located southeast of the main Andes mountain range. The evolution of the Precordillera is noted for its unique formation history compared to the region nearby. The Cambrian-Ordovian sedimentology in the Precordillera terrane has its source neither from old Andes nor nearby country rock, but shares similar characteristics with the Grenville orogeny of eastern North America. This indicates a rift-drift history of the Precordillera in the early Paleozoic. The Precordillera is a moving micro-continent which started from the southeast part of the ancient continent Laurentia. The separation of the Precordillera started around the early Cambrian. The mass collided with Gondwana around Late Ordovician period. Different models and thinking of rift-drift process and the time of occurrence have been proposed. This page focuses on the evidence of drifting found in the stratigraphical record of the Precordillera, as well as exhibiting models of how the Precordillera drifted to Gondwana.
Brian K. Horton is an American geologist, currently the Alexander Deussen Professor of Energy Resources at the Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin. He studies sedimentary geology and tectonics, with emphasis on foreland basins and fold and thrust belts. His research addresses nonmarine depositional systems, sediment provenance, river catchment evolution, and mountain building along convergent plate margins, with a focus on the evolution of the Andes Mountains and Amazon Basin. Horton received the Geological Society of America Donath Medal in 2004, an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship in 2005-2006, and the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) William R. Dickinson Medal in 2018. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Robbie Rice Gries is an American petroleum geologist who was the first female president (2001–02) of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), president of the Geological Society of America (2018–19), and founder of Priority Oil & Gas LLC. Gries is noted to have made some influential progress for women in this field. In 2017, Gries published the book titled Anomalies—Pioneering Women in Petroleum Geology: 1917-2017. Gries is recognized as an unconventional thinker when approaching geological concepts and applications.
Christopher Aiden-Lee Jackson is a British geoscientist, science communicator and Director of Sustainable Geoscience at Jacobs Engineering Group. He was previously Professor of Sustainable Geoscience at the University of Manchester, and before that held the Equinor Chair of Basin Analysis at Imperial College, London. He is known for his work in geoscience, especially in the use of 3D seismic data to understand dynamic processes in sedimentary basins.
The Mazatzal orogeny was an orogenic event in what is now the Southwestern United States from 1650 to 1600 Mya in the Statherian Period of the Paleoproterozoic. Preserved in the rocks of New Mexico and Arizona, it is interpreted as the collision of the 1700-1600 Mya age Mazatzal island arc terrane with the proto-North American continent. This was the second in a series of orogenies within a long-lived convergent boundary along southern Laurentia that ended with the ca. 1200–1000 Mya Grenville orogeny during the final assembly of the supercontinent Rodinia, which ended an 800-million-year episode of convergent boundary tectonism.
The Picuris orogeny was an orogenic event in what is now the Southwestern United States from 1.43 to 1.3 billion years ago in the Calymmian Period of the Mesoproterozoic. The event is named for the Picuris Mountains in northern New Mexico and interpreted either as the suturing of the Granite-Rhyolite crustal province to the southern margin of the proto-North American continent Laurentia or as the final suturing of the Mazatzal crustal province onto Laurentia. According to the former hypothesis, this was the second in a series of orogenies within a long-lived convergent boundary along southern Laurentia that ended with the ca. 1200–1000 Mya Grenville orogeny during the final assembly of the supercontinent Rodinia, which ended an 800-million-year episode of convergent boundary tectonism.
Whitney Maria Behr is an American earth scientist known for her contributions to understanding mechanics and kinematics of deformation in Earth's lithosphere. She was educated in the United States following which she held academic positions there. Since 2018, she has been the chair of the Structural Geology & Tectonics Group in the Geological Institute at ETH Zürich.
Cynthia Ebinger is an American geoscientist at Tulane University known for her research on continental rifts and the movement of continental plate boundaries.
Kim Anne Kastens is an American geophysicist who is a professor at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. She was awarded the American Geophysical Union Excellence in Earth and Space Science Education Award in 2009 and elected Fellow in 2021.
Claudia Mora is the dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin and the John A. and Katherine G. Jackson Decanal Chair in the Geosciences.
The Tumbledown Formation is a Precambrian geologic formation found in the vicinity of Van Horn, Texas. The formation consists of volcaniclastic rock interbedded with basalt lava flows. It is notable as part of an almost undeformed sequence of ancient rock beds in the otherwise highly deformed orogenic belt of the Grenville orogeny, which gives geologists a window on conditions on Earth around 1200 to 1100 million years ago.
Robert Dean Hatcher Jr. is an American structural geologist, known as one of the world's leading experts on the geology of the southern and central Appalachians.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
