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Dr. Rebecca Kühn

Profile Picture: Dr. Rebecca Kühn RK

Dr. Rebecca Kühn Fellow

Research assistant Geodynamics

Mail: rebecca.kuehn@geo.uni-halle.de Tel: +49 (0)345 55 26115 Room: H3 1.26 Consultation hours: by arrangement(during the semester break only by appointment)

Research

Contact: Rebecca Kühn

In the Hikurangi subduction zone (northeastern New Zealand), the Pacific Plate is subducted obliquely beneath the Australian Plate, with the sheared sediments of the Pacific Plate forming a broad accretionary wedge against the Australian Plate. During IODP Expedition 375, sediments from a major splay fault were cored and characterized using measurements of anisotropic magnetic susceptibility (AMS). To better contextualize these results, we are measuring the textures of the minerals in the samples and using them to model the AMS and compare it with the measured results. This contributes to a better understanding of the AMS signal in sediments as well as the tectonics in accretionary prisms. The project is a collaboration with Dr. Annika Greve of Utrecht University.

Contact: Michael Stipp, Rebecca Kühn

The construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT) presents a unique opportunity to re-examine the tectonic evolution of this part of the Eastern Alps along the BBT transects.
Using samples from the associated exploratory boreholes, we can directly correlate the exposed rocks and their properties with seismic data from nearby profiles. In cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Geophysics in Hanover and the University of Hanover, new tectonic profiles are being created in 2D and 3D. The project is part of the SSP 4DMountainbuilding.

Contact: Rebecca Kühn

On slowly spreading mid-ocean ridges, the supply of magma may be insufficient to compensate for the spreading rate. In this case, spreading is tectonically compensated by detachment faults, resulting in the formation of oceanic core complexes at the inner corners adjacent to transform faults. At the “Atlantis Massif” of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (30° N), detachment brings a largely serpentinized overlying layer to the seafloor and rotates it. IODP Expedition 399 drilled the world’s longest section of the oceanic mantle into this underlie, the 1.2 km-deep borehole U1601C. In addition to gabbro, the exposed rocks consist predominantly of serpentinites formed by the hydration of mantle peridotites. Despite the tectonic setting and the rheological weakness of the serpentinite, macroscopically observable deformation features are predominantly localized in the deformed gabbros. We aim to investigate the deformations recorded in the microstructure of the serpentinites using various analytical methods (optical microscopy, BSE, EBSD, tomography). By integrating these data with core-scale data, we aim to shed light on the role of serpentinite deformation in the tectonic evolution of slowly spreading mid-ocean ridges.

Biography

2019 – today
PostDoc, Martin Luther University, Halle/Saale

2017 – 2019
Research Associate, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel

2014 – 2019
PhD, Georg-August-University, Göttingen

2010 – 2013
Master of Science in Geosciences, Georg-August-University, Göttingen

2007 – 2010
Bachelor of Science in Geosciences, University of Bremen

Publications

  • Lang, D., Kuehn, R., Kilian, R., Pomella, H., & Stipp, M. (2026). Probing the elastic anisotropy of schistose rocks west of the Tauern Window (Eastern Alps, Austria): The largest homogeneous volume. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 131(9), e2025JB033743. Doi: 10.1029/2025JB033743
  • Brazelton, W. J., Cavazos, O., Robare, J. A., Southam, G., Suhonen, J., Wang, F., Lang, S. Q., McCaig, A., Blum, P., Abe, N., Coltat, R., Deans, J. R., Dickerson, K. L., Godard, M., John, B. E., Klein, F., Kuehn, R., Lin, K.-Y., Lissenberg, C. J., Liu, H., Lopes, E. L., Nozaka, T., Parsons, A. J., Pathak, V., Reagan, M. K., and Wheat, C. G.: An interdisciplinary approach to sampling hard rock cores of the oceanic crust for microbiological and biogeochemical research, Sci. Dril., 35, 159–169, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-35-159-2026, 2026.
  • Kuehn, R., Behrmann, J.H., Kossak-Glowczewski, J., Leiss, B., Stipp, M. (2026) The Seismic Signature of the Atlantis Massif Detachment Fault Determined from Crystallographic Preferred Orientation and Microstructure. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 131 (6), e2025JB032124. Doi: 10.1029/2025JB032124
  • Lang, S.Q., Wheat, C.G., Dickerson, K.L., Reagan, M.K., Savov, I.P., Robare, J.A., Brazelton, W.J., Suhonen, J., McCaig, A., Blum, P., Abe, N., Coltat, R., Deans, J.R., Godard, M., John, B., Klein, F., Kuehn, R., Lin, K-Y., Lissenberg, J., Liu, H., Lopes, E., Nozaka, T., Osborne, W., Parsons, A.J., Pathak, V., Rodgers, J., Seewald, J.S., Sims, K.W., Southam, G., Sean, S. & Wang, F. (2025). Hydrogen, single-carbon compounds, and thermal regime in the oceanic ultramafic-dominated lithosphere: insights from a deep borehole on the Atlantis Massif. Geochimica et cosmochimica acta. Doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2025.09.024
  • Kuehn., R., Kilian, R., Lang, D., Morales, L.G., Grendal, O.G., Stipp, M. (2024) Clay alignment takes place during early stages of sedimentation. Nature Communications Earth and Environment 4, 696. Doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01866-x.
  • Lissenberg, J., McCaig, A., Lang, S.Q., Blum, P., Abe, N., Brazelton. W.J., Coltat, R., Deans, J.R., Dickerson, K.L., Godard, M., John, B.E., Klein, F., Kuehn, R., Lin, K-Y., Liu, H., Lopes, E.L., Nozaka, T., Parsons, A.J., Pathak, V., Reagan, M.K., Robare, J.A., Savov, I.P., Schwarzenbach, E.M., Sissmann, O.J., Southam, G., Wang, F., Wheat, C.G., Anderson, L., Treadwell, S. (2024). A long section of serpentinized depleted mantle peridotite. Science, 385(6709), 623-629. doi: 10.1126/science.adp1058.
  • M. Hueck, K. Wemmer, A. K. Ksienzyk, R. Kuehn, & N. Vogel  (2022). Potential, premises, and pitfalls of interpreting illite argon dates-A case study from the German Variscides. Earth-Science Reviews, 232, 1041232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104133.
  • R. Kuehn, J.H. Behrmann, M. Stipp, R. Kilian, B. Leiss (2021) Deformation, CPO and Elastic Anisotropy in Low-Grade Metamorphic Serpentinites, Atlantis Massif Oceanic Core Complex. Geophysical Research Letters 48, e2021GL092986. doi: 10.1029/2021GL092986.
  • R. Kuehn, M. Stipp, B. Leiss (2019) Texture development of clay-rich sediments across the Costa Rica subduction zone. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth,  doi: 10.1029/2018JB016838.
  • R. Kuehn, A.M. Hirt, A.R. Biedermann, B. Leiss (2019) Quantitative comparison of microfabric and magnetic fabric in black shales from the Appalachian plateau (western Pennsylvania, U.S.A.), Tectonophysics 765, 161-171, doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2014.08.005.
  • J. Schlüter, S. Estrada, F. Lisker, A. Läufer, R. Kühn, K.N. Nitzsche, C. Spiegel (2011) First petrographical description of rock occurences in the Steingarden Area, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, Polarforschung 80, 161-170.