General research interests: Mountains are a first-order expression of the forces associated with plate tectonics. As topography is created, it is simultaneously altered by interactions with Earth’s atmosphere. My research addresses the interactions between crustal exhumation, uplift and erosion in active orogens by drawing upon quantitative techniques including low-temperature thermochronology, detrital geochronology and cosmogenic radionuclides to quantify rates and timings of processes responsible for growth and decay in orogenic settings.

Active Projects

Provenance and structural history of the Plio-Pleistocene forearc basin sediments of the Prairie Creek and Wildcat Formations (top left photo of students Olivia Helprin and Travis Esquivel sampling the lower Prairie Creek Formation).

Exhumation, rock cooling and uplift history of the Klamath Mountain plutons in the southern Cascadia forearc (center and top right photos of: Ben Roberts and Desiree Otillio describing the Ironside Mountain Batholith, and Taylor Team and Ryan Levinson sampling the top of the Canyon Creek pluton).

Recent publications and conference abstracts

*denotes student first-author

*Curran, M.C., Hales, G. Michalak, M.J., 2017. Ground Based Application of Structure From Motion (SFM) to Quantify Gravel Storage in Response to Gravel Augmentation on a High Gradient, Mountainous Stream, with no Access to the Global Positioning System (GPS), 35th Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference Proceedings, pg 81.

*Gray III, S., Hall, S.R., Bailey, D.G., Michalak, M.J., 2017. New Geochemical and Geochronological Data from two granitic islands of Downeast Main: Mount Desert Rock and Great Duck Island, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 2 doi: 10.1130/abs/2017NE-291262

Michalak, M.J., Hall, S.R., Farber, D.L., Audin, L., Hourigan, J.K., 2016. Late Miocene-Pliocene Accelerated Exhumation in the Northern Peruvian Andes, Lithosphere, v. 8, no. 2, doi:10.1130/L485.1

*Crawford, B., *Vermeer, J. , Hemphill-Haley, M, Michalak, M.J., 2015, Analysis of Holocene Marine Terraces, Cape Mendocino to Mattole River, Northern California: Interpretations and Implications to Mendocino Triple Junction Tectonics. Eos Trans. AGU, Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract G11A-0473. Poster.

Michalak, M.J., Hall, S.R., Farber, D., Hourigan, J.K. 2014, Cooling and Exhumation of the Coastal Batholith in the Peruvian Andes (5-12°S), Eos Trans. AGU, Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract EP21A-3528. Poster.

Michalak, M.J., 2013. “Exhumation Of The Peruvian Andes; Insights From Mineral Chronometers” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California Santa Cruz, 166p., https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3qk7p936

*Hodson, K.R., Hall, S.R., Michalak, M.J., Farber, D., Hourigan, J.K., 2012, Holocene denudation and landscape deformation in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, Eos Trans. AGU, Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract T21E-2615.

Michalak, M.J., Hall, S.R., Farber, D., and Hourigan, J.K., 2011, Late Cenozoic exhumation in the northern Peruvian Andes, EOS Trans, AGU, Fall Meeting Suppl., T14C-01.

Michalak, M.J., Hall, S.R., Farber, D.L., Hourigan, J.K., and Rose, E.J., 2010. Evidencía para un Pulso Mioceno Tardio de Exhumación en los Andes Centrales Peruanos Usando Termochronolgía, Sociedad Geológica del Perú Publicación.

Michalak, M.J., 2009. “Reconstructing erosion distribution during the early Holocene Indian summer monsoon in the NW Himalaya” M.S. Thesis, University of California, Santa Cruz, 74p., OCLC# 464696658