Daniel Laó-Dávila

Dr. Daniel A. Laó-Dávila is a Professor and Associate Head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology. He is a structural geologist interested in the formation of mountains, valleys, and overall deformation of the crust by Plate Tectonics. He studies fractures to help us understand earthquakes, how fluids move through rocks, and the geological history of the Earth.

Research Interests:

Dr. Laó-Dávila's research focuses on understanding the kinematics and strain along plate boundaries. Using structural geological techniques to analyze strain at all scales, he investigates the tectonic evolution of collisional plate boundaries and associated transpressional deformation zones.

The Caribbean-North America plate boundary has had a complex tectonic evolution since its formation in the Pacific Basin. It has evolved from an orthogonal subduction zone into a transpressional oblique subduction zone, with the accretion of terranes into the North American Plate and formation of pull-apart basins in left-stepping transform boundaries. I have conducted research in the Puerto Rico region to determine the different tectonic events from the Cretaceous to the present on the Northeastern margin of the Caribbean Plate.

Also, he is interested in the effects of pre-existing fabrics on the initial stages of continental rifting. The East African Rift is an exceptional place to study the processes that form continental rifts. He has teamed up with geophysical collaborators to investigate the role of pre-existing structures in the formation of new faults in the rift.

The study of strain and stress in a plate boundary zone is of great importance to the discipline of geology because of its implications for a better understanding of plate interactions, strain localization, crustal strength, and tectonic evolution. These variables have a fundamental impact on the fields of seismic hazards and economic geology. He is also interested in research in the North American Mid-Continent region because it contains unexpected seismicity, and ancient rifts, subduction complexes, and intracratonic shear zones.