LAURENT G. J. MONTESI
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002

Assistant Professor
Department of Geology
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
Tel: (301) 405-7534
Fax: (301) 314-7970
montesi AT umd.edu

Research Interests
My research focuses principally on understanding the patterns of deformation that we see at the surface of the planets of the solar system. I focus mainly on the formation of mountain belts, but rifting is fine too. I am interested in structures found on Earth, Mars, Venus, and the satellites of Jupiter, Ganymede and Europa.

More specifically, I study how these patterns are influenced by the formation of faults, by the localization of deformation on narrow shear zones. I have developed a model that produces regularly-spaced faults in the lithosphere of terrestrial planets and applied to different environments.

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