Research

Ongoing and past projects

Research Projects

I am a geologist focused on tectonic systems and the feedbacks between tectonic processes, surface processes, and depositional processes. I strive to combine numerical and conceptual models with quantitative data on geologic processes to test hypotheses. I have particular expertise in:

1) The application and modeling of low-temperature thermochronology in active tectonic environments, both extensional and compressional.

2) The use of basin records (seismic and well data) to reconstruct basin histories.

3) Numerical modeling of isostatic, exhumational, and erosional processes.

If you are a prospective student, check out some of my ongoing and past research projects below as well as my research methods page and get in touch with me if you are interested in joining my team.

Ongoing projects

Critical minerals in North Carolina: Source to sink analysis of the NC Coastal Plain

Supported by NSF CAREER grant and NC Collaboratory funds.

The Southeast Atlantic Coastal Plain is the largest "placer" system in the U.S., meaning it contains natural concentrations of these heavy minerals. While North Carolina has the potential to be a vital domestic producer, we still lack a clear understanding of exactly where these deposits are located and how they formed.

Our project addresses this gap by analyzing the "geological fingerprint" of these minerals. By studying the age and chemical makeup of deposits in the NC Coastal Plain, we are determining where these minerals originally came from and how they were deposited over millions of years. This research provides the essential data needed to make mineral exploration more efficient and predictable.

Unraveling subsidence and heat flow in poly-phase tectonic basins

With Ph.D. student Sarah Gelman

Supported by NSF-EAR Tectonics grant (awarded 2024)

Evaluating vertical movements and heat flow in poly-phase basins is challenging due to multiple mechanisms driving subsidence and potentially influencing lithospheric strength. The Arctic Alaska basin is a classic example of a poly-phase basin with overprinting tectonic events: Jurassic extension evolved to and overlapped with Cretaceous shortening. This proposal develops numerical models to investigate vertical movements and heat flow related to multiple subsidence events within tectonically-driven basins.

Reevaluating the timing and driver of escarpment retreat in SE Australia

Supported by NSF-EAR Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics grant, awarded 2024 in collaboration with co-PI Marissa Tremblay

This research aims to place new constraints on the timing of escarpment retreat in southeast Australia, with the broader goal of reevaluating the cause of escarpment formation and retreat. We will use apatite 4He/3He thermochonology to place constraints on the timing and magnitude of cooling, which will inform new, paired landscape evolution and thermo-kinematic models of escarpment retreat.

Paleozoic foreland basins

Supported by a grant from ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF# 66426-DNI8)

Open access publication: Symanski et al., 2026, Basin Research, doi: 10.1111/bre.70131

North America hosted numerous orogenies throughout the Paleozoic. The timing and extent of these orogenic events are often determined by investigations of the ancient hinterlands, which can be heavily eroded, vegetated, and/or overprinted thus often present incomplete chronicles. Basins preserve evolutionary records of tectonics, erosion, deposition, subsidence, and temperature that are incomplete in exposed hinterlands. Ongoing work utilizes the basin history of Paleozoic foreland basins to investigate the paleotopography, timing, and extent of ancient orogenic hinterlands.

Figure from Symanski et al., 2026

Photo of the Country Line Complex - a mylonitic gneiss in the core of the shear zone with ductile kinematic indicators

NC Piedmont geologic mapping, geochronology, and geochemistry

With MS students Trevor Gunn and Katie Pelt.

Supported by USGS EDMAP grants.

In coordination with colleagues at the North Carolina Geological Survey, we mapped several regions of the NC Piedmont, with accompanying geochronology and geochemistry.

Check out our maps!

1. Gunn, T.*, Curry, M.E., 2024, Geologic map of the Greensboro portion of the Hyco shear zone, North Carolina. 1:50,000 Scale. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_118403.htm

2. Gunn, T.*, & Curry, M., 2023, Geologic map of the Southwest portion of the Hyco shear zone, North Carolina. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19408099

3. Pelt, K.*, & Curry, M., 2026, Evaluating the Geology and Geochronology of the McLeansville Quadrangle: Bedrock Mapping, Geochemical Analyses, and U/Pb Age-Dating in the Greensboro 100K. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19408395

Past projects

U.S. Basin and Range

With MS student Cam Siegel

How has the Colorado River drainage interacted with the southern Great Basin? How do fault-driven landscapes record the evolution of fault slip? How has the Basin and Range interacted with the surrounding tectonomorphic regions?

Ongoing work utilizes low-temperature thermochronology, numerical modeling, and subsurface records to investigate the feedbacks between faulting, geomorphology, and basin deposition in the Basin and Range.

Curry, M.A.E., Barnes, J.B., Colgan, J.P., 2016, Testing fault growth models with low-temperature thermochronology in the northwest Basin and Range, USA. Tectonics, v. 35, p. 2467-2492. doi:10.1002/2016TC004211.
Ellis, M.A. and Barnes, J.B. 2015. A global perspective on the topographic response to fault growth. Geosphere, v. 11, p. 1008-1023. doi: 10.1130/GES01156.1
Ellis, M.A., Barnes, J.B., Colgan, J.P. 2014. Geomorphic evidence for renewed Plio-Quaternary faulting in the northwest Basin and Range. Lithosphere, v. 7, p. 59-72, doi: 10.1130/L401.1.

The Pyrenees

How do landscapes, deformation, and foreland deposition coevolve in a convergent orogen?

I have ongoing work on the relationships between lithospheric deformation, basin development, and surface processes in the Pyrenees Mountains. Initial research constrained the first-order topographic evolution of the orogen using flexural modeling, basin analysis, and structural restorations. Combining the topographic history with extensive thermochronologic data, I am using thermo-kinematic modeling (Pecube) and surface processes modeling (Fastscape) to understand the spatio-temporal evolution of exhumation, erosion, and deformation within the Pyrenees. This remains an area of active research.

Curry, M. E., van der Beek, P., Huismans, R. S., Wolf, S. G., Fillon, C., & Muñoz, J. A., 2021, Spatio-temporal patterns of exhumation of the Pyrenees revealed by inverse thermo-kinematic modeling of a large thermochronologic dataset. Geology, V 49(6), 738-742, doi: 10.1130/G48687.1Open access article here!
Curry, M.E., van der Beek, P., Huismans, R.S., Wolf, S.G., and Muñoz, J.-A., 2019, Evolving paleotopography and lithospheric flexure of the Pyrenean Orogen from 3D flexural modeling and basin analysis: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 515, p. 26–37, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2019.03.009.
Wolf, S. G., Huismans, R. S., Muñoz, J., Curry, M. E., & van der Beek, P., 2021, Growth of Collisional Orogens From Small and Cold to Large and Hot—Inferences From Geodynamic Models. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 126(2). doi: 10.1029/2020JB021168Open access article here!
In prep:Curry, M.A.E., van der Beek, P., Peak- to post-orogenic landscape evolution of the Pyrenees Mountains from numerical modeling

The Gulf of Mexico salt tectonics

Despite decades of intense research in one of the most prolific hydrocarbon producing areas of the world, the early tectonic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico is still a matter of debate. How did the margin proceed from rift to drift? How did salt deposition and tectonics influence the basin evolution? What was the paleogeography of the GoM prior and during salt deposition?

Curry, M. E., Hudec, M. R., Peel, F. J., Fernandez, N., Apps, G., & Snedden, J. W. (2024). Structural Restorations of the Complete Conjugate US‐Mexico Eastern Gulf of Mexico Margin. Tectonics, 43(1). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023TC007897Find open access article here.

Curry, M.A.E., Peel, F., Hudec, M., Norton, I., 2018, Extensional models for the development of passive-margin salt basins, with application to the Gulf of Mexico, Basin Research, doi: 10.1111/bre.12299.Find article here

The Highlands of Scotland

What controls the fracture attributes in different rock types? How can fractures influence landscapes? For my Master's research, I examined fault related fractures and diagenesis in the Torridonian Applecross Formation of the NW Highlands of Scotland. I found that the detrital composition and diagenesis of a rock influence the mechanical properties, which in turn produce distinctive fracture populations. The glacially influenced landscapes in the Scottish Highlands reveal a strong control of bedrock structure on the geomorphology.

Ellis, M.A.; S. E. Laubach; P. Eichhubl; J. E. Olson; P. Hargrove. 2012. Fracture development and diagenesis of Torridon Group Applecross Formation, near An Teallach, NW Scotland: millennia of brittle deformation resilience? Journal of the Geological Society, v. 169, 297-310. doi: 10.1144/0016-76492011-086.
Laubach, S.; P. Eichhubl; P. Hargrove; Ellis, M.A.; Hooker, J. 2014. Fault core and damage zone fracture attributes vary along strike owing to interaction of fracture growth, quartz accumulation, and differing sandstone composition. Journal of Structural Geology, v. 68, Part A, 207-226. doi: 10.1016/j.jsg.2014.08.007.

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