Daniel García-castellanos

Biography

Educational Background: Post-doc at Free University of Amsterdam, 1999-2004. Ph.D., Geophysics, 2000, University of Barcelona. B.S., Physics, 1993, University of Barcelona.

Research Interest

I do research in the fields of geodynamics, surface processes, and Solid Earth geoscience, mainly from a process-modelling perspective supported either on multidisciplinary data compilations or on ad-hoc data acquisition. I develop physical-mathematical models coupling the physics of plate tectonics and processes occurring at the surface of the Earth. Solving these models with the aid of computers permits to decipher whether the complexity of the earth's surface and interior can be explained as the interaction between a small set of simple processes. It allows for example the study of the interplay between river transport and the dynamics of tectonic deformation during the formation of orogen/basin systems, incorporating also analogue experiments and existing multidisciplinary data (structural geology, gravity, GPS, thermochronology, cosmogenic nuclides, paleogeographic, paleoclimate, and geomorphological observations). The application of these techniques to geological scenarios (Andean Altiplano, Alps, Pyrenees-Ebro Basin, Moroccan Atlas, Rhenish Massif) where such data are available is helping to address fundamental questions on the geodynamics of topography and landscape evolution. More recently, I am mostly devoted to the processes that led to the isolation of the Mediterranean during the Messinian Salinity Crisis and the implications of this episode. An incipient line of research is the study of large flooding events and their relevance in long-term landscape evolution, aiming at filling the gap between the historical and the geological records.