Global backstripping: dynamic topography, basin subsidence, and sea level

Last updated: August 2026

About

Backstripping removes the effects of sediment and water loading from basin records to reconstruct the history of tectonic subsidence and uplift. Recent continent-scale work across Australia has used roughly 60,000 boreholes with formation-top data to reconstruct palaeo-dynamic topography. A central uncertainty is the correction for past sea level: different curves can substantially alter, and sometimes reverse, the inferred dynamic-topography signal.

This project will extend quantitative backstripping to additional continents and shelf regions. It will use independent records of subsidence, sedimentation, and inundation to test mantle-convection predictions and to develop observational constraints on the history of global sea level.

Research questions

• Which continents and datasets provide the strongest constraints on subsidence and palaeo-dynamic topography?
• Can synchronous inundation and sedimentation events constrain global sea level independently across continents?
• How do inferred histories compare with predictions from mantle-convection models?

Methods and data

Projects will compile formation-top and stratigraphic data, construct time-dependent sediment-thickness maps, quantitatively backstrip them, and compare the resulting uplift and subsidence histories across regions. North America, including the Western Interior Seaway, and Europe are initial candidate regions.

Possible projects

Possible directions include auditing accessible stratigraphic databases, constructing a regional backstripping workflow, reconstructing a continent-scale subsidence history, or quantifying how alternative sea-level curves affect dynamic-topography inference.

Essential background

Useful preparation includes geology, sedimentology, geophysics, mathematics, programming, GIS, or quantitative data analysis.