I. Camilo Higuera-Diaz

Camilo Higuera-Diaz is a Doctoral student who loves traveling and knowing places. The more places he can visit, the better. And, when he can combine his travel with his love of geology, everything is perfect. The summer of 2008 was perfect for Camilo because he traveled, learned some new techniques of geological analysis, met new scientific colleagues, and studied geology around the world.

Camilo’s adventure began with a two-month, paid internship at the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) in San Antonio, Texas. There he created detailed maps of fracture and fault networks exposed in pavement surfaces of carbonates revealed by a recent flood. In his spare time he visited the Alamo, the River Walk and the Spanish Missions. At the conclusion of his internship he spent a week in Colorado Springs, Colorado, attending the Integrated Solid Earth Sciences (ISES) Summer School on Dates, Rates and States. This NSF-sponsored school focused on integrated, modern techniques for analyzing the evolution of orogenic belts, and included fieldwork around the Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak. At the conclusion of the course Camilo traveled to his home country of Colombia. There he used funds from his recently awarded AAPG grant to conduct fieldwork in his dissertation area in the northern Andes. As if that wasn’t enough for one summer, Camilo capped it off with a two-week trip to southern Italy, where he participated in an NSF course on the geology of the Calabrian Arc. In between field trips, discussion and lectures on this subduction zone, Camilo enjoyed the Italian countryside and the small cappuccinos and cornetti (croissants) for breakfast. All in all, it was an interesting summer.

View Camilo's slideshow

Dissertation Research

The coupled tectonic and geomorphic evolution of an asymmetric orogen: Eastern Cordillera of the northern Andes.

Abstracts and Publications

• Higuera-Díaz, I. C. and Fischer, M. P., 2007, Positive Feedback Controls In The Uplift of the Northern Andes: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts With Programs, v. 39, no. 6, p. 250.
• Higuera-Díaz, I. C., Fischer, M. P., 2005, Geometry and kinematics of the Nuncios detachment fold complex, implications for lithotectonics in northeastern Mexico, Tectonics 24, No. 4(200508). DOI:10.1029/2003TC001615.
• Restrepo-Pace, P. A., Colmenares, F., Higuera, C., Mayorga, M., and Leal, J., 2004, A fold-and- thrust belt along the western flank of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, style, kinematics, and timing constraints derived from seismic data and detailed surface mapping: Thrust Tectonics and Hydrocarbon Systems, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 82, p. 598- 613.