Marieke Dechesne
I am a geologist in the Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center at the USGS. I am trained in stratigraphy and sedimentology and my current research focuses on basin analysis, paleogeography and the interaction between tectonic signals, sedimentation and climate.
n the past several years I have worked on the Laramide synorogenic basin fill of the Denver Basin with both the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the Colorado Geological Survey, before moving focus to the 'back-side' of the Front Range where I now study the axial Colorado Headwaters Basin (North Park-Middle Park), the Hanna Basin and South Park for the USGS Cenozoic Evolution of the Southern Rocky Mountains project. From these basin fill sequences I am trying to reconstruct uplift history and the overall paleogeographic evolution in this region. I am incorporating as many parameters as possible, like outcrop observations, subsurface data (well-logs and seismic), fossil information, paleobotany, palynology, radiometric dating, etc. to develop a rigid 3D- (4D?) stratigraphic framework that reveals clues about timing of uplift, sediment accumulation rates, paleo-environments and paleogeography.
