Prof Mark Allen, Bsc (Durham) 1987; PhD (Leicester (1991)

Researcher ID profile

Contact Prof Mark Allen (email at m.b.allen@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

2016 - present — Deputy Head of Science Faculty (Postgraduate)

2015 - present — Academic Director, NERC IAPETUS Doctoral Training Partnership

2014 - present — Professor, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Durham

2013 – 2015  — Deputy Director, Natural Sciences, University of Durham

2005 – 2014  — Reader, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Durham

2003 – 2004  — Deputy Chief Geologist, CASP. Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

1993 – 2004  — Geologist, CASP, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

1990 – 1993  — Computer Officer, Leicester University

1991  — PhD, Leicester

1987  — BSc Hons 1st class: Durham

Career Research Highlights

My research has focused on interdisciplinary studies of Eurasian orogenic belts and sedimentary basins, notably the interactions of deformation, climate and sedimentation in tectonically active regions such as the Caspian, and the Zagros mountains of Iran. I also study aspects of petroleum systems at all scales from the regional, to the effects of fault systems and sedimentary architecture on fluid migration. My PhD involved a lot of igneous geochemistry, and I have recently returned to this subject by looking at the young volcanic rocks of the Iranian plateau. This includes being the PI of a NERC funded project on Orogenic Plateau Magmatism. I use many techniques and disciplines within Earth Sciences, including field-based structural geology and clastic sedimentology, remote sensing, geomorphology, basin modelling, regional synthesis, igneous geochemistry and seismic interpretation. I work closely with specialists in many other fields, including seismology, microstructures, fluid inclusions, heavy mineral provenance studies, isotopic geochemistry/geochronology and gravity/magnetics.

Committee and Society Service

2005 – 2010— Secretary, Northern Regional Group of the Geological Society

2001 – 2006 — Geological Society Petroleum Group committee member

Conferences and Workshops

2012, 2013 —Organiser of Convergent Margin session theme - EGU General Assembly

2011 — Geological Society of London Coupling of Tectonics and Surface Processes, Convenor.

2010 — Orogenic Plateaux session, Convenor - EGU General Assembly

2009 — Arctic and Russia session, Co-convenor. Petroleum Geology Conference #VII

Editorial Roles

2003 – present — Editor-in-chief of Geological Magazine

2005 – present — Editorial board member, Tectonophysics

2006 – 2012 — Editorial Board Member, Petroleum Geoscience

2006 — UK national correspondent for ICGP Project 480 “Tectonics of Central Asia”

Keynotes

2011 – "Interactions of Tectonics and Climate in Eurasia" - University of Michigan Smith Lecture Series

2008 – International Union of Geological Sciences 33rd International Geological Congress

2004 – AAPG Hedberg meeting on lacustrine sedimentation, Baku

Prizes & Awards

2004 — AAPG Jules Braunstein Award

Recent and Current Grants

2011 – 2014 — ‘Orogenic Plateau Magmatism’ NERC Standard Grant NE/H021620/1 PI, Co-Is: Davidson, J.P., and Van Hunen, J.

Research Groups

Department of Earth Sciences

• Climate and Environmental Change
• Geoenergy, Resources and Waste
• Geohazards
• The Solid Earth

Research Interests

• Eurasian orogenic belts and sedimentary basins, notably the interactions of deformation, climate and sedimentation in tectonically active regions such as the Caspian and the Zagros mountains.
• Petroleum systems at all scales from the regional, to the effects of fault systems and sedimentary architecture on fluid migration.

Selected Publications

Chapter in book

• Allen, M.B. (2010). Roles of strike-slip faults during continental deformation: examples from the active Arabia–Eurasia collision. In The Evolving Continents: Understanding Processes of Continental Growth. Kusky, T. M., Zhai, M.-G. & Xiao, W. London: Geological Society, London. 338: 329-344.

Journal Article

• Jotheri, J., Allen, M.B. & Wilkinson, T.J. (2016). Holocene avulsions of the Euphrates River in the Najaf area of western Mesopotamia: Impacts on human settlement patterns. Geoarchaeology 31(3): 175-193.
• Neill, I., Meliksetian, K., Allen, M.B., Navasardyan, G. & Kuiper, K. (2015). Petrogenesis of mafic collision zone magmatism: the Armenian sector of the Turkish-Iranian Plateau. Chemical Geology 403: 24-41.
• Kheirkhah, M., Neill, I. & Allen, M.B. (2015). Petrogenesis of OIB-like basaltic volcanic rocks in a continental collision zone: Late Cenozoic magmatism of Eastern Iran. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 106: 19-33.
• Wang, H.L., van Hunen, J., Pearson, D.G. & Allen, M.B. (2014). Craton stability and longevity: The roles of composition-dependent rheology and buoyancy. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 391: 224-233.
• Jones, S.J., Arzani, N. & Allen, M.B. (2014). Tectonic and climatic controls on fan systems: The Kohrud mountain belt, Central Iran. Sedimentary Geology 302: 29-42.
• Allen, M.B., Kheirkhah, M., Neill, I., Emami, M.H. & Mcleod, C.L. (2013). Generation of arc and within-plate chemical signatures in collision zone magmatism: Quaternary lavas from Kurdistan province, Iran. Journal of Petrology 54(5): 887-911.
• Allen, M.B., Saville, C., Blanc, E.J-P., Talebian, M. & Nissen, E. (2013). Orogenic plateau growth: expansion of the Turkish-Iranian Plateau across the Zagros fold-and-thrust belt. Tectonics 32(2): 171–190.
• Xiao, W.J., Windley, B.F., Allen, M.B. & Han, C.M. (2013). Paleozoic multiple accretionary and collisional tectonics of the Chinese Tianshan orogenic collage. Gondwana Research 23(4): 1316-1341.
• Kheirkhah, M., Neill, I., Allen, M.B. & Ajdari, K. (2013). Small-volume melts of lithospheric mantle during continental collision: late Cenozoic lavas of Mahabad, NW Iran. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 74: 37-49.
• Rezaeian, M., Carter, A., Hovius, N. & Allen, M.B. (2012). Cenozoic exhumation history of the Alborz Mountains, Iran: New constraints from low-temperature chronometry. Tectonics 31(2): TC2004.
• Bottrill, Andrew D., van Hunen, Jeroen & Allen, Mark B. (2012). Insight into collision zone dynamics from topography: numerical modelling results and observations. Solid Earth 3(2): 387-399.
• Walker, F. & Allen, M.B. (2012). Offset rivers, drainage spacing and the record of strike-slip faulting: The Kuh Banan Fault, Iran. Tectonophysics 530-531: 251-263.
• Allen, M.B. & Armstrong, H.A. (2012). Reconciling the Intertropical Convergence Zone, Himalayan/Tibetan tectonics, and the onset of the Asian monsoon system. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 44: 36-47.
• Holt, P.J., van Hunen, J. & Allen, M.B. (2012). Subsidence of the West Siberian Basin: Effects of a mantle plume impact. Geology 40(8): 703-706.
• Allen, M.B., Mark, D.F., Kheirkhah, M., Barfod, D., Emami, M.H. & Saville, C. (2011). 40Ar/39Ar dating of Quaternary lavas in northwest Iran: constraints on the landscape evolution and incision rates of the Turkish-Iranian plateau. Geophysical Journal International 185(3): 1173-1185.
• van Hunen, J. & Allen, M.B. (2011). Continental collision and slab break-off: a comparison of 3-D numerical models with observations. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 302(1-2): 27-37.
• Nissen, E., Tatar, M., Jackson, J.A. & Allen, M.B. (2011). New views on earthquake faulting in the Zagros fold-and-thrust belt of Iran. Geophysical Journal International 186(3): 928-944.
• Allen, M.B., Kheirkhah, M., Emami, M.H. & Jones, S.J. (2011). Right-lateral shear across Iran and kinematic change in the Arabia–Eurasia collision zone. Geophysical Journal International 184(2): 555-574.
• Armstrong, H.A & Allen, M.B. (2011). Shifts in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, Himalayan exhumation, and late Cenozoic climate. Geology 39(1): 11–14.
• Allen, M.B. & Talebian, M. (2011). Structural variation along the Zagros and the nature of the Dezful Embayment. Geological Magazine 148(5-6): 911-924.
• Richardson, S. Davies R.J., Allen M.B. & Grant S.F. (2011). Structure and Evolution of Mass Transport Deposits in the South Caspian Basin, Azerbaijan, Basin Research. Basin Research 23(6): 702–719.
• Davies, C,, Allen, M.B., Buslov, M.M. & Safonova, I. (2010). Deposition in the Kuznetsk Basin, Siberia: Insights into the Permian–Triassic transition and the Mesozoic evolution of Central Asia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 295(1-2): 307-322.
• Holt, P.J., Allen, M.B., van Hunen, J. & Bjørnseth, H.M. (2010). Lithospheric cooling and thickening as a basin forming mechanism. Tectonophysics 495(3-4): 184-194.
• Allen, M.B. (2009). Discussion on the Eocene bimodal Piranshahr massif of the Sanadaj-Sirjan Zone, West Iran: a marker of the end of collision in the Zagros orogen. Journal of the Geological Society 166: 981-982.
• Walker, R.T., Gans, P., Allen, M.B., Jackson, J., Khatib, M., Marsh, N. & Zarrinkoub, M. (2009). Late Cenozoic volcanism and rates of active faulting in eastern Iran. Geophysical Journal International 177(2): 783-805.
• Kheirkhah, M., Allen, M.B. & Emami, M. (2009). Quaternary syn-collision magmatism from the Iran/Turkey borderlands. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 182(1-2): 1-12.
• Reichow, M.K., Pringle, M.S., Al'Mukhamedov, A.I. Allen, M.B., Andreichev, V.L., Buslov, M.M., Davies, C.E., Fedoseev, G.S., Fitton, J.G., Inger, S., Medvedev, A.Ya., Mitchell, C., Puchkov, V.N., Safonova, I.Yu., Scott, R.A. & Saunders, A.D. (2009). The timing and extent of the eruption of the Siberian Traps large igneous province: Implications for the end-Permian environmental crisis. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 277: 9-20.
• Allen, M. B. & Armstrong, H. A. (2008). Arabia-Eurasia collision and the forcing of mid-Cenozoic global cooling. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 265(1-2): 52-58.
• Whitehouse, P.L., Allen, M.B. & Milne, G.A. (2007). Glacial isostatic adjustment as a control on coastal processes: An example from the Siberian Arctic. Geology 35(8): 747-750.
• Allen, Mark B. & Davies, Clare E. (2007). Unstable Asia: active deformation of Siberia revealed by drainage shifts. Basin Research 19(3): 379-392.
• Allen, M.B., Anderson, L., Searle, R.C. & Buslov, M. (2006). Oblique rift geometry of the West Siberian Basin: tectonic setting for the Siberian flood basalts. Journal of the Geological Society 163(6): 901-904.
• Allen, M.B, Jackson, J & Walker, R (2004). Late Cenozoic reorganization of the Arabia-Eurasia collision and the comparison of short-term and long-term deformation rates. Tectonics 23(2): TC2008.
• Allen, M.B, Ghassemi, M.R, Shahrabi, M & Qorashi, M (2003). Accommodation of late Cenozoic oblique shortening in the Alborz range, northern Iran. Journal of Structural Geology 25(5): 659-672.
• Morton, A, Allen, M.B, Simmons, M.D, Spathopoulos, F, Still, J, Hinds, D, Ismail-Zadeh, A & Kroonenberg, S (2003). Provenance patterns in a neotectonic basin: Pliocene and Quaternary sediment supply to the South Caspian. Basin Research 15: 321-337.
• Blanc, E.J-P, Allen, M.B, Inger, S & Hassani, H (2003). Structural styles in the Zagros Simple Folded Zone, Iran. Journal of the Geological Society 160(3): 401-412.
• Allen, M.B, Jones, S, Ismail-Zadeh, A, Simmons, M.D & Anderson, L (2002). Onset of subduction as the cause of rapid Pliocene-Quaternary subsidence in the South Caspian Basin. Geology 30(9): 775-778.

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Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

• Earth Sciences: Causes of earthquakes in Eurasia
• Tectonics: Causes of earthquakes in Eurasia
• Earth Sciences: Oil and gas resources in Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa
• Oil and gas: Oil and gas resources in Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa

Supervises

• Mr Ahmed Obaid
• Mrs Rebecca Freeburn
• Miss Erin M. Scott
• Miss Catherine Goddard
• Mr George Lodwick
• Mr Nico Schliffke