Veleda Muller
Assistant Professor of Geology and Neotectonics,
University of Alaska Fairbanks, CNSM/Geophysical Institute
I am a geologist focusing on Cordilleran tectonics and the interactions between the deep Earth and surface processes. I am interested in lithospheric processes forming fold-and-thrust belts, metamorphic complexes, and magmatic arcs, and in the surface response to these processes shaping the Earth's topography. As those interactions are very dynamic and overlap different Earth sciences, I integrate field work, laboratory techniques focused on geo-thermochronology, and numerical modeling of geodynamic, thermodynamic, and surface processes.
I am passionated by both low- and high- temperature processes happening at the Earth's lithosphere. While low-temperature thermochronology gives us information about upper crust deformation, erosion, and topography development, high-temperature geo-thermochronology informs about ductile deformation, shear zones, and magmatism, key elements of subduction and collisional systems. One of my current goals is to bridge low and high temperature thermochronology and understand mountain building in the big picture.
My current research projects comprise the tectono-thermal evolution of the Central Andes, the Brooks Range in Arctic Alaska, the Coast Mountains in Southeast Alaska, and geodynamic mechanisms driving crustal deformation in subduction-related orogens. In the University of Alaska Fairbanks I teach Structural Geology, Tectonics, and Field Camp.
Oct 2026 - I am recruiting a Master’s or PhD student to work on the Mesozoic–Cenozoic tectonic evolution of Alaska using low-temperature thermochronology.
I am seeking a motivated student with a background in geology and interests in structural geology, tectonics, and mountain-building processes. The project will combine fieldwork in remote regions of Alaska, laboratory-based thermochronology, and interpretation of geologic and thermochronologic datasets. Previous experience in structural geology, geochronology, geochemistry, petrology, or quantitative data analysis is an advantage but not required.
The position is TA-funded, and the student will be highly encouraged to apply for external funding opportunities. Please contact me at vpaivamuller [at] alaska.edu with your CV and a brief statement describing your research interests and motivation.
I will be at GSA Connects from October 10–14, 2026, so please come chat with me if you are interested!
Sep 2026 - Our technical session "From mantle to mountains: understanding interactions between deep Earth and surface processes from geologic data and modeling" is happening Sunday on Oct 11 at GSA Connects 2026 in Denver, CO. The Posters will be presented at 9 AM, and the talks will happen from 1:30 to 5:30. Find here the talk's and poster's schedules.
May 2026 - Started my Assistant Professor position at UAF!
April 2026 - Resumed my postdoc activitites in the Arizona LaserChron Center and the TANGO Project at the University of Arizona. Great times in the Sonoran Desert, I will miss it.
Jan 2026 - Integrated the Arizona LaserChron Center
Jan 2026 - University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) EPSS Colloquium Talk “Tectonic and climate controls on the growth of the Andes: linking data and models”
Sep 2025 - University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences Colloquium Talk "Tectonics, erosion, and the making of mountains: insights from Patagonia”
Oct 2025 - Chaired the technical session "Exploring Feedbacks Between Tectonics and Climate on Lithospheric Evolution" at GSA Connects 2025 in San Antonio, TX.
Oct 2025 - Presented an invited talk “Exhumation of the Eastern Cordillera, NW Argentina: a record of competing fold-and-thrust belt propagation and river incision” at Session T36, and an oral talk: "Slab-mantle interactions and erosional controls on crustal thickening of the Central and Southern Andes: coupling numerical modeling with geophysical and geological observations" at GSA Connects 2026 in San Antonio, TX
Jan-May 2025: Co-taught "Hands-on Geochronology" with Prof. Mauricio Ibanez-Mejia at the University of Arizona
Dec 2024 - Chaired the oral and poster sessions "From the Surface to the Mantle: Integrating Geophysical, Seismological, and Tectonics Perspectives Along the South American Margin" at AGU 2024 in Washington D.C.
Muller et al. (2024), Tectonics
My last first-author research article is published in Tectonics!
I am so glad to publish the first dataset of low-temperature thermochronology from the Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine plutonic complexes in southern Patagonia! In these iconic granite towers we quantify the effects of mantle dynamics and glacial erosion along the southern Patagonian Andes.
This article highlight that both asthenospheric and surface processes drive the formation of the topography and landscape of alpine valleys, but sometimes one force predominate over each other, and in few cases we are capable to differentiate them.
Torres del Paine, Chilean Patagonia
(photo by Veleda Muller)
doi.org/10.5194/se-15-387-2024
Grey Glacier, Southern Patagonian Icefields, Chile
(photo by Veleda Muller)
My research article about the effect of the slab window on glacial isostatic adjustment in southern Patagonia is published in Solid Earth!
Using forward numerical modeling, we show that the thermal anomaly generated by the slab window in southern Patagonia is necessary to generate the present-day outstanding uplift rates of 10-40 mm/yr measured by GPS around the Southern Patagonian Icefields.
We also show that this high magnitude of uplift is generated by both the Little Ice Age (400 years ago) and the Last Glacial Maximum (20000 years ago).
Muller et al. (2024),
Solid Earth
Muller et al. (2022), Scientific Reports
My article "Climatic control on the location of volcanic arcs" is published on Nature portfolio!
I used thermomechanical numerical modeling and a compilation of geochronology and thermochronology data to show that volcanic arcs can migrate in function of surface erosion. I used the Southern Andes and the North Cascade volcanic arcs as case studies, where the volcanism migrated towards the more eroded side of the orogenic belt. We propose this migration is entailed by the intensified orography associated with the westerlies winds.
This article shows for the first time that orography can force volanic arc migration, revealing one more link between climate and tectonics.
Muller et al. (2021), Tectonophysics
My first research article about the closure of the Rocas Verdes Basin is published in Tectonophysics!
This articles presents an integrated field-work, geochronology, petrology, and thermodynamic modeling study of the metamorphic rocks of the Magallanes fold-and-thrust belt, which were once the rocks of the backarc ocean-floored Rocas Verdes Basin in southern Patagonia.
We show that this metavolcanic and sedimentary rocks experienced at least 20 km of tectonic burial in an accretionary wedge, and started to be exhumed in the Late Cretaceous. We show that this rocks record the passage from an extensional to a compressive tectonic setting in southern South America, when the Andes start to form and the southern tip of the continent start being bended.
Field pictures and photomicrographs of the mylonitic rocks of Tobífera Fm. at Estero Wickham, southern Patagonia, Chile
(photo by Veleda Muller)
About Veleda Muller
Welcome to my research website!
I am Veleda Muller, a geologist committed to perform new and interdisciplinary research in Geosciences, using field-work, laboratory, and modeling techniques. I am driven by a passion by mountains, nature, exploration, and curiosity about the dynamics of the Earth.