Dr. Kotowski's research group uses the rock record to investigate how solid earth materials deform. We apply structural and chemical techniques, and bridge observations from the atomic to the field scale to gain predictive understanding of tectonic processes. Some questions that drive us are:
How does Earth generate and sustain plate tectonics?
Why and how does steady-state deformation give rise to slip transients?
What rheological laws describe bulk flow and strain localization in the lithosphere and crysophere?