This was done through the study of modern day high pressure metamorphism, subduction and collision of different crustal levels in the southern margin of the Laurentia and comparing them to current knowledge of tectonic evolution in the mesoproterozoic era.
Through this research Dr. Mosher has discovered that the active tectonic environment is primarily made of breccia, sandstone and siltstone turbidity-current generated debris fans and that faulting, sedimentation and volcanism are merely a small part of plate boundaries.
[9] Another of her research projects focused on the partitioning of different types of strain during formation of ductile non-coaxial shear zones in both extensional and contractional environments, including the development of corrugations in metamorphic core complexes and the formation of rods and mullions in thrust nappes.
[11] As a child in Illinois, Sharon Mosher was fascinated by geology, conducting mineral tests on rocks in the chemistry lab her dad set up for her in their basement.
[13] Mosher is also known worldwide for her research on mountain formation millions of years ago when continents collided.
She brought new life to two major geological associations, and helped spearhead a national initiative to evaluate what undergraduate students in geosciences across the country need to know.
[15] “Ridge reorientation mechanisms: Macquarie Ridge Complex, Australia-Pacific plate boundary”[16] “Paleoenvironmental and tectonic controls of sedimentation in coal-forming basins of southeastern New England”[17] “Structural and tectonic evolution of Mesozoic basement-involved fold nappes and thrust faults in the Dome Rock Mountains, Arizona”[18] “Tectonic evolution of the eastern Llano uplift, central Texas: A record of Grenville orogenesis along the southern Laurentian margin”[19] “Tectonic evolution of the southern Laurentian Grenville orogenic belt”[20] “Laurentia‐Kalahari Collision and the Assembly of Rodinia”[21] “Kinematic history of the Narragansett Basin, Massachusetts and Rhode Island: Constraints on Late Paleozoic plate reconstructions”[22] Mosher has made several accomplishments within her academic career and has received multiple awards for her contributions to geology.
Mosher received this award for her educational contributions and high-quality research in geoscience as a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas.