About

Barbara Carrapa is a Professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, with a focus on the interactions between tectonic processes and climate in shaping Earth's surface and paleoenvironments. She specializes in sedimentary geology, basin analysis, tectonics, and thermochronology. Her extensive research has taken her to regions including the Andes, Pamir, Alps, Tibet, Nepal, and Western North America. Her fundamental questions involve understanding how climate influences erosion, deposition, and paleoecology over millions of years, how tectonics interacts with climate to form Earth's highest topography, and how deep Earth's processes affect crustal evolution. Carrapa is also engaged in technique development, including multi-dating and geochemistry of accessory minerals such as apatite. She has held various academic positions, including Full Professor at the University of Arizona since 2016, Department Head of Geosciences from 2018 to 2023, and has been involved in international research as a guest professor at ETH Zürich and a research fellow at the University of Potsdam and Vrije University. Her contributions to the field have been recognized with awards such as the W.R. Dickinson Medal from SEPM in 2022, a fellowship from the Geological Society of America, and the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Her research aims to elucidate the complex interactions between tectonics, surface erosion, and climate in shaping Earth's topography and crustal evolution.

Research topics

• Geology
• Paleontology
• Geography
• Oceanography
• Physical geography
• Climatology
• Geochemistry

Selected publications

• Data and results for "Crustal thickness and elevation of the North American Cordillera from the Late Cretaceous to Early Miocene"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-01-01 · 1 citations

  datasetOpen access

  Compiled geochemical data and Mohometry results for "Crustal thickness and elevation of the North American Cordillera from the Late Cretaceous to Early Miocene."

  PublisherDOI

• Timing and drivers of Cenozoic marine phosphogenesis along the southeastern Pacific margin

  Chemical Geology · 2026-04-16

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Data and results for "Crustal thickness and elevation of the North American Cordillera from the Late Cretaceous to Early Miocene"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  Compiled geochemical data and Mohometry results for "Crustal thickness and elevation of the North American Cordillera from the Late Cretaceous to Early Miocene."

  PublisherDOI

• The role of crustal magmatism in the formation and the evolution of orogenic plateaus

  Geological Society of America Bulletin · 2026-01-09 · 1 citations

  article

  Here we review regional geological, petrological, geochemical, and geophysical data from the Central Andean plateau (comprising two distinct areas, the Altiplano and Puna) and its defunct North American sibling, the Nevadaplano, as well as to a lesser extent Tibet, to show that magmatism in the middle crust of orogenic plateaus plays an important role in the development of relief and high elevation and drives the mechanical behavior of these features. We show that in situ, mostly S-type melting is an intrinsic feature of plateaus and that these melts can reside in the crust for millions to tens of millions of years without freezing just below a critical melt fraction. Some of these in situ partial melt masses escape their source regions and erupt at the surface. The chemical evolution of volcanic masses produced by partial escape from these migmatites can be predicted by simple forward petrologic calculations. Extensive migmatite in sub-plateau middle crust also contributes to the mechanical weakness of plateaus and their buoyancy. In addition, magmatism from the underlying mantle wedge can further sustain the life of these extensive partial melting zones. Additional, much deeper melt accumulation zones exist close to the bottom of these thick-crusted domains, but we have much less information about their evolution and chemistry; they are probably similar to the deepest crustal root zones of the frontal arcs. We also suggest that there is a link between the ability of Li, B, Cs, and other elements to be concentrated in S-type leucogranites of the extensive migmatite blanket of the middle crust and the concentration of Li (and other metals) in brines and ultimately in the salars of the Central Andean plateau. Hydrothermal activity directly related to the present day Altiplano-Puna magma body or the recent equivalents on South America’s plateau may have leaked these incompatible elements into the former lakes that are now hosting the largest concentrations of Li on the planet.

  PublisherDOI

• Tectono-thermal evolution of the Northern Apennines-Alpine knot: a case study from the Bobbio Tectonic Window

  2026-03-13

  articleOpen access

  The structural and tectonic interactions between the S-verging Southern Alps and the NE-verging Northern Apennines fold-and-thrust belt, and their shared Po Plain foreland basin, represents a classic and long-debated issue in Alpine–Apennine geodynamics. We here investigate a cross section from the Bobbio Tectonic Window (BTW) in the Emilian Northern Apennines, to the central Po Plain subsurface, which records these important relationships. Previous studies focused on fault slip-rate measurements of the buried Northern Apennine thrust fronts, but a comprehensive tectono-thermal study of the Lower Miocene turbiditic sequence outcropping in the BTW is still lacking. In this work, we investigate the relationship between BTW development and the interaction of the Northern Apennines and Southern Alps thrust fronts buried below Pliocene-Pleistocene sediments in the central Po Plain. We analysed the cooling/exhumation history of rocks exposed at the core of the BTW by means of low-T thermochronology (apatite fission-track and U-Th/He) on samples from the Lower Miocene (Burdigalian) Bobbio Fm. and compared them with the slip-rate history of the Northern Apennines buried thrust front along the Emilian Arc. Our thermochronological results from the BTW show a maximum temperature of ca. 85-90°C (apatite fission-tracks partial annealing zone) reached soon after depositional age, followed first by a relatively slow cooling in the Early Miocene- Early Pliocene time window (17-6 Ma), and then by a fast cooling starting between ca. 6 and 4 Ma. By comparing these results with the slip-rate trend of the buried Apennines thrust front, we interpret them as the signal of an out-of-sequence thrusting reactivation within the inner Northern Apennine fold-and-thrust belt due to the interaction between the Northern Apennines outermost fronts and the Southern Alps. This study shows how far-field geological structures can influence the general kinematics of the thrust-fold belt, promoting out-of-sequence reactivation of internal tectonic structures and the exposure of deep tectonic units within the BTW.

  PublisherDOI

• Supporting Information for: Miocene surface uplift and moisture-source evolution resolved by stable isotope proxies in the Manantiales Basin, southern Central Andes (~32°S), Ronemus et al., Submission to EPSL, 2026

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-13

  datasetOpen access

  Stable-isotope data and paleoelevation analysis code for "Miocene surface uplift and moisture-source evolution resolved by stable isotope proxies in the Manantiales Basin, southern Central Andes (~32°S)" Description: This repository contains the data and analysis code supporting Ronemus et al. (submitted to Earth and Planetary Science Letters). Text S1 (Text_S1.pdf) contains supporting text for the manuscript and a description of additional supplemental files. Dataset S1 (Dataset_S1_Glass_Isotopes.xlsx) contains the volcanic glass hydrogen isotope data. Each row corresponds to one sample and includes the sample identifier, stratigraphic level, age assignment (Ma), mean δD_vg (VSMOW), H₂O weight percent, number of replicates, and replicate standard deviation. Dataset S2 (Dataset_S2_Carbonate_Isotopes.xlsx) contains the carbonate oxygen and carbon isotope data. Each row corresponds to one sample and includes the sample identifier, morphological type, stratigraphic level, age assignment (Ma), δ¹⁸O_carb (VPDB), δ¹³C_carb (VPDB), data source (this study or Hoke et al. 2014), and replicate statistics where applicable. Script S1 (Script_S1.py) implements the full analysis pipeline for computing environmental water δ¹⁸O values from volcanic glass δD and carbonate δ¹⁸O measurements, and for estimating paleoelevations via Monte Carlo intersection with the isotope–elevation models described in the supplementary text. The script reads raw isotope data, applies the fractionation equations and meteoric water line conversions described in the manuscript, defines sample groups by age and proxy type, and produces the δ¹⁸Oenv estimates, paleoelevation matrix, and pairwise uplift differences reported in the paper. It uses the lapse curves (lapse_curves.csv) digitized from Hoke et al. (2013, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems) to calculate paleoelevation for three isotope-elevation models. Written in Python 3; requires NumPy, pandas, and openpyxl dependencies.

  PublisherDOI

• Andean volcanism, ocean fertilization, marine ecosystem turnover, and global cooling in the Late Miocene

  Communications Earth & Environment · 2026-04-13 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  As the world’s longest active volcanic arc, the Andes deliver nutrient-rich volcanic ash directly to the ocean via atmospheric transport. This ash supplies key limiting nutrients to the Humboldt Current and the Southern Ocean, both critical for biological productivity, nutrient cycling, and atmospheric carbon dioxide drawdown. During the Late Miocene, massive explosive eruptions generated large ash fluxes that were deposited in the surrounding oceans. However, the biogeochemical and climatic consequences of this process remain unresolved. Here, we present a new compilation of paleontological and geochemical data combined with global ash dispersion modeling and Earth system simulations, to quantify the impact of Andean volcanism on seasonal to millennial time scales ocean productivity and carbon cycling, with potential impact on longer time scales. Our results indicate that enhanced nutrient supply from episodic Andean volcanic ash to the Southern Ocean enhanced primary productivity and carbon sequestration in the deep ocean. Integrated with paleo-records, these findings suggest that sustained Andean volcanism could have played a previously underappreciated role in reshaping marine ecosystems, regulating global nutrient distributions, and contributing to the Late Miocene cooling. Andean episodic volcanic ash inputs during the Late Miocene enhanced iron, phosphorus, and silicon delivery to the Southern Ocean, stimulating primary productivity and carbon export, according to combined ash dispersion modeling, Earth system simulations, paleontological, and geochemical data.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Roles of Climate and Tectonics in the Tectonomorphic Evolution of the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) Region, Eastern Nepal Himalaya

  Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems · 2026-05-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract To understand the interplay of climate and tectonics in driving long‐term erosion and landscape evolution in the Himalayan orogen, this study examines the tectono‐thermal evolution of the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest)‐Rolwaling‐Okhaldhunga region in eastern Nepal. We present new low‐temperature thermochronological data and thermal history models focused on two transects along the Tama Kosi and Dudh Kosi Rivers up to the Sagarmatha/Mt. Everest region in eastern Nepal. New zircon (U‐Th)/He cooling dates for 10 samples and apatite fission track cooling dates for 16 samples were combined with published muscovite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar and zircon fission track data to investigate regional cooling patterns. We leverage thermochronometric constraints to create sample‐specific inverse thermal history models, which show a northward‐younging trend of Middle‐Late Miocene rapid cooling independent of structural position. In contrast, the kinematic history of the thrust belt in this region shows a southward propagation of thrusting. Thus, tectonic processes alone do not account for the observed cooling and exhumation patterns. Instead, we propose that northward propagating incision and subsequent isostatic uplift, likely triggered by the late Miocene development of the Lesser Himalayan duplex ca. 8–5 Ma, have driven spatially variable exhumation. Preservation of Middle‐Late Miocene dates in the northern High Himalaya and on the Numbur high‐elevation low‐relief surface in the Sagarmatha region indicate that the incisional wave has not extended to the northernmost eastern Nepal Himalaya.

  PublisherDOI

• Enhanced erosion of the Laramide ranges during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming

  Earth and Planetary Science Letters · 2026-02-28

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Supporting Information for: Miocene surface uplift and moisture-source evolution resolved by stable isotope proxies in the Manantiales Basin, southern Central Andes (~32°S), Ronemus et al., Submission to EPSL, 2026

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-13

  datasetOpen access

  Stable-isotope data and paleoelevation analysis code for "Miocene surface uplift and moisture-source evolution resolved by stable isotope proxies in the Manantiales Basin, southern Central Andes (~32°S)" Description: This repository contains the data and analysis code supporting Ronemus et al. (submitted to Earth and Planetary Science Letters). Text S1 (Text_S1.pdf) contains supporting text for the manuscript and a description of additional supplemental files. Dataset S1 (Dataset_S1_Glass_Isotopes.xlsx) contains the volcanic glass hydrogen isotope data. Each row corresponds to one sample and includes the sample identifier, stratigraphic level, age assignment (Ma), mean δD_vg (VSMOW), H₂O weight percent, number of replicates, and replicate standard deviation. Dataset S2 (Dataset_S2_Carbonate_Isotopes.xlsx) contains the carbonate oxygen and carbon isotope data. Each row corresponds to one sample and includes the sample identifier, morphological type, stratigraphic level, age assignment (Ma), δ¹⁸O_carb (VPDB), δ¹³C_carb (VPDB), data source (this study or Hoke et al. 2014), and replicate statistics where applicable. Script S1 (Script_S1.py) implements the full analysis pipeline for computing environmental water δ¹⁸O values from volcanic glass δD and carbonate δ¹⁸O measurements, and for estimating paleoelevations via Monte Carlo intersection with the isotope–elevation models described in the supplementary text. The script reads raw isotope data, applies the fractionation equations and meteoric water line conversions described in the manuscript, defines sample groups by age and proxy type, and produces the δ¹⁸Oenv estimates, paleoelevation matrix, and pairwise uplift differences reported in the paper. It uses the lapse curves (lapse_curves.csv) digitized from Hoke et al. (2013, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems) to calculate paleoelevation for three isotope-elevation models. Written in Python 3; requires NumPy, pandas, and openpyxl dependencies.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• TIMING OF COOLING AND EXHUMATION OF LARAMIDE UPLIFTS INFORMS MODELS OF FLAT-SLAB SUBDUCTION

  NSF · $427k · 2019–2024

• Collaborative Research: Investigating Mesozoic Deformation in the Pamir: Implications for Crustal Thickening in the Pamir and the Evolution of the Tibetan Orogen

  NSF · $332k · 2015–2020

• Collaborative Research: Climatic and Tectonic Controls on Sedimentation and Incision in the Marginal Basins of the Southern Puna Plateau

  NSF · $138k · 2007–2010

• Collaborative Research: In Pursuit of Missing Andean Lithosphere: Constraining Late Cenozoic Crust-mantle Processes in the Puna Plateau, Central Andes

  NSF · $326k · 2009–2013

• Collaborative Research: Stratigraphic Signatures of Orogeny: Assessing the Timing of Initial Andean Crustal Shortening

  NSF · $134k · 2007–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Peter G. DeCelles

  University of Arizona

  104 shared

• Paul Kapp

  University of Arizona

  36 shared

• George E. Gehrels

  33 shared

• L. M. Schoenbohm

  University of Toronto

  31 shared

• Gilby Jepson

  University of Oklahoma

  30 shared

• Mihai N. Ducea

  University of Bucharest

  26 shared

• Andrea Stevens Goddard

  18 shared

• Mark T. Clementz

  University of Wyoming

  17 shared

Education

• PhD, Earth Sciences

  Vrije University Amsterdam Onderzoeksgroep Organische Chemie

  2002

Awards & honors

• W.R. Dickinson Medal from the Society for Sedimentary Geolog…
• Arizona Leadership Institute graduate and fellow (2022)
• Geological Society of America (GSA) Fellow (2017)
• Outstanding faculty award, University of Arizona, Dept. of G…
• Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation,…