Draft:Elizabeth Miller (geologist)

Elizabeth Miller is a structural geologist and emeritus professor at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the dynamics of tectonics and research of the crust and mantle, utilizing field mapping, petrography, and structural analysis. She is an expert on the tectonic evolution in the Arctic, ranging from Alaska and Canada to far east Russi

Elizabeth Miller
Alma mater	Rice University
Scientific career
Fields	structural geology, tectonics
Institutions	Stanford University

Academic career

Elizabeth Miller grew up in Brazil, and later came to the United States for college. She attended Franklin & Marshall College college in 1973 for her undergraduate degree in geology, and continued by completing her masters and Ph.D at Rice University for Geology and Geophysics from 1973 to 1978 focusing on Structural and Stratigraphic Relationships Between the Numidian Formation and the Mogod Mountains in Tunisia. She has worked at Stanford University for over 40 years and is currently an emeritus professor. At Stanford, she has taught a range of undergraduate and graduate courses that focus on various aspects of structural and field geology.

Awards

Miller has been a GSA fellow since 1985 and was also the first woman to lead the Stanford Geologic Survey, from 1979-1985 and 1987-1993. The geologic survey was a field camp for students and faculty at Stanford that lasted from 1895 to 1995 mapping across the American Southwest. It contains over 450 maps and 50 field notebooks within the California State Library. She has stated that it was one of the best aspects of her career and was crucial to her scientific development. She hopes that her opportunity to be in this leadership position will pave the way for future researchers and increase the number of women in geosciences and in leadership roles.

Miller was awarded the 2018 Structural Geology & Tectonics Career Contribution Award by the Geological Society of America. She was presented this award for her advances in understanding the tectonic process of the crust and mantle and her influences through both published papers but also the students she has mentored over the years. In 2021, she was also awarded the Annual Excellence in Teaching Award by the School of Earth, Energy and Environment at Stanford. This award was given to professors who worked to expand learning opportunities for students across campus, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research

Miller’s research focuses on the geology of several regions - the North American Cordillera, Russia, the Arctic, and Alaska. She utilizes geologic mapping, petrography, and structural analysis in her research, applying an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the nuances of lithospheric-scale deformation of these plates and boundaries. Miller employs the use of geochemical, geochronologic, thermochronologic, and geophysical investigations of metamorphic and igneous rocks within her research as well. Her work over the years has provided crucial links between surface process, shallow crustal brittle process, mid-crustal ductile process, and metamorphism.

Notable publications

The Snake Range Décollement: An exhumed Mid-Tertiary ductile-brittle transition: This paper examines how the Snake Range in Nevada was formed and explores the possible geologic mechanisms that led to some of its more interesting geologic features. The results suggest that the Snake Range Decollement developed as a ductile-brittle transition zone at 6-7 km depth in the crust, and that similar extensional detachment faults can be developed locally between brittley extended rocks and underlying ductile extension and intrusion.

Baltica in the Cordillera?: U-Pb zircon dating from Paleozoic strata in several study sites in the Arctic suggests an origin from Gondwana or Baltica, providing a more definitive answer to the geochronological origin of Baltica affinity terranes in the Cordillera. This paper proposes a much simpler history of Cordillera than that proposed in Colpron and Nelson (2009).

New insights into Arctic paleogeography and tectonics from U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology: Zircon dating in the Arctic Ocean helped piece together when and how the basin was formed. Mapping techniques are used to identify stratigraphic units and fold belts. While a previous plate tectonic model shows a counterclockwise rotation of the Arctic Alaska-Chukotka microplate away from the Canadian Arctic margin, zircon data suggests that the Chukotka part of the microplate originated closer to the Taimyr and Verkhoyansk (east of the Polar Urals) and not from the Canadian Arctic.

Extensional origin of ductile fabrics in the Schist Belt, Central Brooks Range, Alaska—I. Geologic and structural studies: High strain foliations and dip-down stretching libations observed in the rock units suggests that the tectonites were deformed during mid-Cretaceous crustal extension, not during the Brooks Range orogeny, as was previously thought. Examines the myolinites and schist fabrics within this schist belt to disprove a previous theory suggesting they were formed through contractional deformation within the Brook Range orogeny.