Christian Teyssier

About

Christian Teyssier is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on tectonic processes, including subduction, collision, crustal thickening, partial melting of crust, orogenic collapse, and the development of continental and oceanic core complexes. His group combines structural geology, metamorphic geology, geochemical and geochronological techniques, numerical simulations, microstructural and microfabric analyses using electron backscatter diffraction, and rock and mineral experiments. His current research topics include the hydration of oceanic lithosphere in relation to oceanic core complexes and transform shear zones, the flow of partially molten crust in orogenic plateaux and metamorphic core complexes, the exhumation mechanisms of high-pressure rocks in subduction complexes, the exhumation of subducted continental crust and ultrahigh-pressure rocks, and the coupling between subducted slab dynamics and crustal-surface processes in active tectonic regions. His field areas include the North American Cordillera, the Alpine belt in the Aegean and Anatolian domains, the Norwegian Caledonides, and the Variscan belt of western Europe.

Research topics

• Geology
• Paleontology
• Petrology
• Geochemistry
• Mineralogy
• Materials science
• Metallurgy
• Seismology

Selected publications

• Deformation-enhanced recrystallization of titanite drives decoupling between U-Pb and trace elements

  Earth and Planetary Science Letters · 2021 · 50 citations

  DOI

• Breaking plates: Creation of the East Anatolian fault, the Anatolian plate, and a tectonic escape system

  Geology · 2023 · 40 citations

  Abstract Lateral movement of lithospheric fragments along strike-slip faults in response to collision (escape tectonics) has characterized convergent settings since the onset of plate tectonics and is a mechanism for the formation of new plates. The Anatolian plate was created by the sequential connection of strike-slip faults following ≥10 m.y. of distributed deformation that ultimately localized into plate-bounding faults. Thermochronology data and seismic images of lithosphere structure near…

  DOI

• Deep crustal source of gneiss dome revealed by eclogite in migmatite (Montagne Noire, French Massif Central)

  Journal of Metamorphic Geology · 2020 · 35 citations

  Abstract In orogens worldwide and throughout geologic time, large volumes of deep continental crust have been exhumed in domal structures. Extension‐driven ascent of bodies of deep, hot crust is a very efficient mechanism for rapid heat and mass transfer from deep to shallow crustal levels and is therefore an important mechanism in the evolution of continents. The dominant rock type in exhumed domes is quartzofeldspathic gneiss (typically migmatitic) that does not record its former high‐pressure…

  DOI

• Deep Lithospheric Controls on Surface Deformation and Seismicity around the East Anatolian Fault Zone and A3 Triple Junction

  GSA Today · 2024-06-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  The East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) is a plate-bounding strike-slip fault capable of hosting large earthquakes, as demonstrated by the extremely damaging February 2023 Mw 7.8 and Mw 7.7 mainshocks of the Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence. Deformation related to this boundary, part of the Anatolia-Arabia-Africa (A3) Triple Junction, is diffuse, as was shown by part of this earthquake sequence occurring on a northern splay of the EAFZ (the Sürgü-Çardak Fault Zone; SCFZ). Controls on surface defor…

  PublisherDOI

• From dome to duplex: Convergent gravitational collapse explains coeval intracratonic doming and nappe tectonics, central Australia

  Geology · 2024-01-16 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract In central Australia, an apparently coeval gneiss dome (Entia Dome) developed adjacent to a thrust belt (Arltunga Nappe Complex) within an intracratonic setting. Here we employ a combination of fieldwork, geochronology, and numerical modeling to investigate the structure and tectonic evolution of these features. We present a structural model linking an extensional domain comprising the Entia Dome, across a transitional zone containing the Bruna décollement zone and the Illogwa shear zon…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• A Combined Structural-Petrological Analysis of the Origin and Role of Partial Melting in Orogens

  NSF · $221k · 1999–2003

• Colliding Channels and Double Domes in Metamorphic Core Complexes

  NSF · $349k · 2011–2016

• Gneiss Dome architecture: Investigation of Form and Process in the Fosdick Mountains, W. Antarctica

  NSF · $185k · 2004–2008

Frequent coauthors

• Donna L. Whitney

  University of Minnesota

  170 shared

• Andreas Mulch

  Goethe University Frankfurt

  61 shared

• Patrice Rey

  45 shared

• Michael A. Cosca

  United States Geological Survey

  44 shared

• Gilles Brocard

  Anthropologie et Histoire des Mondes Antiques

  37 shared

• Matthew T. Heizler

  28 shared

• Françoise Roger

  26 shared

• Clémentine Hamelin

  22 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Earth Sciences

  Monash University

  1985

Awards & honors

• 2003 University of Minnesota Distinguished Teaching Award fo…
• 2001 Best Paper Award, Geological Society of America (Struct…
• Fellow, Geological Society of America (elected 1997)
• McKnight Land-Grant Professor, University of Minnesota, 1989…

Similar researchers at University of Minnesota

• R. Lawrence Edwardsh-120
• Marc Hirschmannh-75
• William Seyfriedh-63