Chance B. Ronemus, Ph.D.
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow
Office: Room 207C
Specialties:
- Cordilleran tectonics
- Tectonic sedimentology
- Basin analysis
- Zircon geo/petrochronology
- Stable isotope paleoaltimetry
Research Interests:
Chance's research uses the sedimentary basin record to study interactions between sedimentation, tectonics, climate, and other geodynamic processes. His work is rooted in field-based sedimentology but integrates diverse analytical methods—including geochemical and isotopic techniques applied to detrital minerals—to better understand both the depositional processes operating in sedimentary basins and the geodynamic processes controlling when and where these basins form.
He works primarily in Cordilleran systems, where subduction of an oceanic plate leads to mountain building in the overriding continent. His current research explores how sedimentary basins formed in these settings both respond to and record mountain building, with active projects in both the South and North American Cordilleras (Argentina, Chile, and U.S.).
Chance's analytical toolkit includes zircon petrochronology and provenance analysis, unconventional U-Pb geochronology (calcite and opal), carbonate and volcanic glass stable isotope analysis for paleoaltimetry, and low-temperature thermochronology. He is actively involved in developing zircon geochemical "mohometers" to reconstruct crustal thickness evolution of ancient mountain belts. His NSF-funded postdoctoral research is focused on testing models for Mesozoic terrane accretion in Chile using the sedimentary record.
Education and Appointments:
- Present, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Idaho State University
- 2025, Ph.D., Geosciences, University of Arizona
- 2024, Fulbright Scholar, IANIGLA CONICET, Mendoza, Argentina
- 2021, M.S., Earth Sciences, Montana State University
- 2019, B.S., Earth Sciences, Montana State University
Selected Publications:
- Ronemus, C., Howlett, C., DeCelles, P., Carrapa, B., & George, S. (2024). The Manantiales Basin, southern Central Andes (~32°S), preserves a record of Late Eocene–Miocene episodic growth of an east-vergent orogenic wedge. Tectonics, 43(3). [https://doi.org/10.1029/
- Ronemus, C., Orme, D., Guenthner, W., Cox, S., & Kussmaul, C. (2023). Orogens of Big Sky country: Reconstructing the deep-time tectonothermal history of the Beartooth Mountains, Montana and Wyoming, U.S.A. Tectonics, 42(1). [https://doi.org/10.1029/
- Ronemus, C., Orme, D., Campbell, S., Black, S., & Cook, J. (2021). Mesoproterozoic–Early Cretaceous provenance and paleogeographic evolution of the northern Rocky Mountains: Insights from the detrital zircon record of the Bridger Range, Montana, U.S.A. GSA Bulletin, 133(3–4), 777–801. [https://doi.org/10.1130/
- Howlett, C., Ronemus, C., Carrapa, B., & DeCelles, P. (2025). Miocene construction of the High Andes recorded by exhumation of the Frontal Cordillera, La Ramada Massif of western Argentina (32°S). Tectonics, 44(1), e2024TC008433. [https://doi.org/10.1029/
- George, S., Carrapa, B., DeCelles, P., Jepson, G., Nadoya, H., Tabor, C., Howlett, C., Ronemus, C., Clementz, M., & Schoenbohm, L. (2025). Increased moisture availability in the Central Andes during the Miocene Climatic Optimum. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 663, 112732. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
- Romero, M., Orme, D., Surpless, K., Ronemus, C., & Morrow, Z. (2024). Age and provenance relationships between the basal Great Valley Group and its underlying basement: Implications for initiation of the Great Valley forearc basin, California, U.S.A. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 94(5), 641–662. [https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.