You are here: School of Geosciences / People / Academic Staff

Dr. Maria Seton (nee Sdrolias), PhD

Maria Seton in Death Valley

Australian Postdoctoral Fellow/Lecturer

Madsen Building (F09), Rm 400
Phone: +61 2 9351 4255
Fax: +61 2 9351 2442
Email:
Web: Personal Pages

Research Interests

Maria is a Australian Postdoctoral Fellow in the EarthByte Group, School of Geosciences. Her currently funded research aims to develop a "Subduction Reference Framework" in order to better constrain the position and motion of tectonic plates from the Mesozoic to the present day. Maria's research interests are in the field of marine geophysics and geodynamics, in particular examining the links between plate tectonic and mantle processes. She is also interested in the kinematic controls on subduction and back-arc basin formation and the relationship between tectonics and palaeo-climate and tectonics and ore-deposit formation. Maria completed her PhD at the University of Sydney in 2005 on the mechanisms behind back-arc basin formation.

Back to top

Selected Publications

  • Chandler, M., Wessel, P., Seton, M., Taylor, B., Hyeong, K., Kim, S., Reconstructing Ontong Java Nui: Implications for Pacific absolute plate motion, hotspot drift and true polar wander, EPSL, In press
  • Greenwood, D., Herold, N., Huber, M., Muller, R.D, Seton, M., Early to middle Miocene monsoon climate in Australia. Reply to Travouillon et al. (2012), Geology, in press
  • Zahirovic, S., Müller, R. D., Seton, M., Flament, N., Gurnis, M. and Whittaker, J., 2012, Insights on the kinematics of the India-Eurasia collision from global geodynamic models, G3, VOL. 13, Q04W11, 25 PP., 2012 doi:10.1029/2011GC003883
  • Herold, N., Huber, M., Müller, R.D. and Seton, M., 2012, Modelling the Miocene climatic optimum, Part 2: ocean circulation, Paleoceanography, VOL. 27, PA1209, doi:10.1029/2010PA002041
  • Seton, M., R.D., M., Zahirovic, S., Gaina, C., Torsvik, T., G., S., Talsma, A., Gurnis, M., and Turner, M., in press, Global continental and ocean basin reconstructions since 200 Ma, Earth Science Reviews
  • Gurnis, M., Turner, M., Zahirovic, S., DiCaprio, L., Spasojevic, S., Muller, R., Boyden, J., Seton, M., Manea, V., and Bower, D., 2012, Plate Tectonic Reconstructions with Continuously Closing Plates, Computers and Geosciences, 38, 35-42, doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2011.04.014
  • Goes, S., Capitanio, F.A., Morra, G., Seton, M., Giardini, D., 2011, Signatures of downgoing plate buoyancy driven subduction in Cenozoic plate motions, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 184: 1-13
  • Herold, N., Huber, M., Greenwood, D.R., Müller , R.D., Seton, M., 2011, Early to Middle Miocene monsoon climate in Australia, Geology, 39, 3-6, DOI: 10.1130/G31208.1
  • Herold, N., Müller , R.D., Seton, M., 2010, Comparing early to middle Miocene terrestrial climate simulations with geological data, Geosphere 6, 952­961, doi: 10.1130/GES00544.1
  • Herold, N., You, Y., Müller, R.D. and Seton, M., 2010, Climate model sensitivity to changes in Miocene paleotopography, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 57, 377-379, DOI: 10.1080/08120091003619258
  • Liu, L., Gurnis, M., Seton, M., Saleeby, J., Müller, R.D., & Jackson, J.M., 2010, The role of oceanic plateau subduction in the Laramide orogeny, Nature Geoscience 3, 353 - 357, doi:10.1038/ngeo829
  • Seton, M., Gaina, C., Müller, R.D. and Heine, C., 2009, Mid-Cretaceous seafloor spreading pulse: Fact or fiction?, Geology, 37, 687-690
  • Tong, J.A., You, Y., Müller, R.D., and Seton, M. 2009, Climate Model Sensitivity to Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations for the Middle Miocene, Global and Planetary Change, 67, 129-140
  • Herold, N., Seton, M., Müller, R.D., You, Y. and Huber, M., 2008, Middle Miocene tectonic boundary conditions for use in climate models, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Vol 9, 10, Q10009, doi:10.1029/2008GC002046.
  • Müller, R.D., Sdrolias, M., Gaina, C. and Roest, W., 2008, Age, spreading rates and spreading asymmetry of the world's ocean crust, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 9, Q04006, doi:10.1029/2007GC001743.
  • Müller, R.D., Sdrolias, M., Gaina, C., Steinberger, B. and Heine, C., 2008, Long-Term Sea-Level Fluctuations Driven by Ocean Basin Dynamics, Science, 319, 1357-1362, DOI: 10.1126/science.115154.
  • Seton, M. and Müller, R.D., 2008, Reconstructing the junction between Panthalassa and Tethys since the Early Cretaceous, Eastern Australasian Basins III, Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, Special Publ., 263-266.
  • Whittaker, J., Müller, R.D., Leitchenkov, G., Stagg, H., Sdrolias, M., Gaina, C. and Goncharov, A., 2008, Response to Comment on: Major Australian-Antarctica Plate Reorganization at Hawaiian-Emperor Bend Time, Science, 321, DOI: 10.1126/science.1157501
  • Whittaker, J., Müller, R.D., Leitchenkov, G., Stagg, H., Sdrolias, M., Gaina, C. and Goncharov, A., 2007, Major Australian-Antarctica Plate Reorganization at Hawaiian-Emperor Bend Time, Science, 318, 83-86, doi:10.1126/science.1143769.
  • Whittaker, J.M., Müller, R.D., Sdrolias, M. and Heine, C. 2007, Java-Sunda Trench Kinematics, Slab Window Formation and Overriding Plate Deformation Since the Cretaceous, Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 255, 445-457, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2006.12.031.
  • Sdrolias, M. and Müller, R.D., 2006, Controls on Back-arc Basin Formation, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. Vol. 7, Q04016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005GC001090
  • Sdrolias, M., Roest, W.R. and Müller, R.D., 2004, An Expression of Philippine Sea Plate Rotation: the Parece Vela and Shikoku Basins, Tectonophysics, 394, 69-86
  • Sdrolias, M., Müller, R.D., Mauffret, A. and Bernardel G. 2004, The Enigmatic Formation of the Norfolk Basin, SW Pacific: A Plume Influence on Back-arc Extension, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Vol. 5, No. 6, 28pp
  • Sdrolias, M., Müller R.D. and Gaina, C., 2003, Tectonic Evolution of the Southwest Pacific Using Constraints from Back-arc Basins, In: Hillis R.R. & Müller R.D. eds. Evolution and Dynamics of the Australian Plate. Geological Society of Australia Special Publication 22 and Geological Society of America Special Paper 372, 343-359.
  • Hall, C.E., Gurnis, M., Sdrolias, M., Lavier, L.L. and Müller, R.D., 2003, Catastrophic initiation of subduction following forced convergence at transform boundaries, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 212, 15-30.
  • Sdrolias, M., Müller, R. D. and Gaina, C., 2001, Tectonic Evolution of Eastern Australian Marginal Basins, Eastern Australasian Basins, ed. by K. Hill and T. Bernecker, Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, Special Publ., The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Carlton, VIC, 227-238.

Units Taught

  • GEOS2115/2915 - Oceans, Coasts and Climate Change
  • SUCOGG Honours Course - Data Processing & Plotting using the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT)
  • SUCOGG Honours Course - Advanced GMT Methods
Back to top