Contact Information Office:   Traphagen Hall #118 Phone:   (406) 994-3331 Email:   lageson@montana.edu Education B.A., Western State College of Colorado, 1973 M.S., University of Wyoming, 1977 Ph.D., University of Wyoming, 1980

Research Interests

My research program focuses on the structural geology and tectonic evolution of the Rocky Mountains, from Montana to Colorado. I am particularly interested in the structural development (geometry and kinematics) of the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt at all scales, as well as the Laramide foreland (basement-involved) province. A special interest involves pluton emplacement in fold-and-thrust belts and how magmatism may affect the dynamics and behavior of an orogenic wedge. Many years ago, I developed a model of ramp-top emplacement for syn-contractile, Late Cretaceous felsic plutons in western Montana and continue to work on this process. I am expanding my research in contractile deformation to the tectonically active eastern Andes of Argentina where we have established a research partnership with Dr. Carlos Costa at Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Argentina.

The Sevier fold-and-thrust belt of western Montana, western Wyoming and adjacent Idaho also overlaps the intermountain seismic belt (northeast margin of the Basin and Range extensional province and circum-Yellowstone), creating research opportunities in active tectonics, paleoseismology and fault reactivation. Specifically, I study the structural interaction/reactivation of preexisting Laramide/Sevier contractile structures by earthquake-generating Quaternary normal fault systems (such as Hebgen Lake, Red Canyon, Madison, Centennial, and Teton fault systems).

Current research projects (exclusive of my graduate students) include:

1. Structural analysis of carbon sequestration (CO2) habitats at basin-scale to outcrop- and core-scales (e.g., Idaho-Wyoming thrust belt; central Montana)
2. Restoration and balancing of cross-sections through the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt (Montana and Wyoming-Idaho) to address regional structural problems
3. Geometry of basin-margin back-thrusts and triangle zones associated with Laramide-style (basement) uplifts
4. Reactivation of Laramide structures by the Hebgen Lake and Red Canyon normal faults (M 7.3, 1959), SW Montana (on-going research stemming from the USGS-MSU Hebgen Lake Paleoseismology Working Group)
5. Structural style and active tectonics of the Precordillera fold-and-thrust belt and Sierras Pampeanas north of Mendoza, Argentina (with Dr. Carlos Costa, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Argentina)

Current Graduate Students

Selected Publications

O'Neill, J. Michael, Lonn, Jeff D., Lageson, David R., Kunk, Michael J., 2004, Early Tertiary Anaconda metamorphic core complex, southwestern Montana: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 41, issue 1, p.63, 10p.

Stickney, M.C., and Lageson, D.R., 2002, Seismotectonics of the 20 August 1999 Red Rock Valley, Montana earthquake: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 92, p. 2449-2464.

Lageson, D.R., Schmitt, J.G., Horton, B.K., Kalakay, T.J., and Burton, B.R., 2001, Influence of Late Cretaceous magmatism on the Sevier orogenic wedge, western Montana: Geology, v. 29, no. 8, p. 723-726.

Kalakay, T.J., John, B.E., and Lageson, D.R., 2001, Fault-controlled pluton emplacement in the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt of southwest Montana, USA: Journal of Structural Geology, vol. 23 (6-7), p. 1151-1165.

Lageson, D.R., Adams, D.C., Morgan, L., Pierce, K.L., and Smith, R.B., 1999, Neogene-Quaternary tectonics and volcanism of southern Jackson Hole, Wyoming and southeastern Idaho, in Hughes, S.S., and Thackray, G.D., eds., Guidebook to the geology of eastern Idaho: Idaho Museum of Natural History and the ISU Press, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID, p. 115-130.

Skipp, B., Lageson, D.R., and McMannis, W.J., 1999, Geologic map of the Sedan quadrangle, Gallatin and Park Counties, Montana: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map, I-2634, 1:48,000 [with tectonic history].

Burton, B.R., Lageson, D.R., Schmidt, C.J., Ballard, D.W., and Warne, J.R., 1998, Large magnitude shortening of the Lombard thrust system, Helena salient, Montana fold and thrust belt: Implications for reconstruction of the Belt Basin, in Berg, Richard B., ed., Belt Symposium III: Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication 112, p. 229-243 and Plate 3.

Lageson, D.R., and Schmitt, J.G., 1994, The Sevier orogenic belt of the western United States: New perspectives concerning its structural and sedimentologic framework, in Caputo, M.V., Peterson, J.A., and Franczyk, K.J., eds., Mesozoic systems of the Rocky Mountain region, USA: The Rocky Mountain Section SEPM (Society of Sedimentary Geology), Denver, p. 27-64.

Miller, E.W., and Lageson, D.R., 1993, Influence of basement foliation attitude on geometry of Laramide basement deformation, southern Bridger Range and northern Gallatin Range, Montana, in Schmidt, C.J., Chase, R.B., and Erslev, E.A., eds., Laramide basement deformation in the Rocky Mountain foreland of the western United States: The Geological Society of America Special Paper 280, ch. 3, p. 73-88.

Harlan, S.S., Geissman, J.W., Lageson, D.R., and Snee, L.W., 1988, Paleomagnetic and isotope dating of thrust belt deformation along the eastern edge of the Helena salient, Northern Crazy Mountains Basin, Montana: The Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 100, no. 4, p. 492 499.

Lageson, D.R., 1984, Structural geology of the Stewart Peak culmination, Idaho Wyoming thrust belt: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, vol. 68, no. 4, p. 401 416.

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 05/03/07