Dates, Rates, and States

Integrated Solid Earth Sciences announces the 2008 topic of Dates, Rates, and States for the annual graduate summer school in Colorado. The interdisciplinary course will focus on the rates at which tectonic processes occur, the dates that constrain those rates, and the implications for deformation, erosion, magmatism, material properties, etc. (states).

ISES Summer School

Dates: July 24-July 31, 2008 Location: Colorado College

Summer School Contributors

Professor Pete Reiners	Professor Pete Reiners (University of Arizona) works on the development and use of thermochronology and geochemistry in understanding a wide range of Earth and planetary processes. These include orogenesis, landscape evolution, links between climate, tectonics, and erosion, paleowildfire, thermal histories of meteorites, and shallow magmatic and hydrothermal processes. Much of his work uses multiple dating techniques such as (U-Th)/He, U/Pb, and fission-track dating to understand thermal and exhumation histories of rocks and minerals. A primary focus is the use of low-temperature thermochronology (e.g., http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/RIM/Rim58.html) to understand erosional or tectonic exhumation of rocks through the crust, and the insights this provides into orogenic systems and their coupling with surface processes. Some of his current regions of focus include the central and southern Andes, Wyoming foreland ranges and basins, Antarctica, and the Washington Cascades.
Professor Michele Cooke	Michele Cooke is on the faculty at University of Massachusetts - Amherst. Her research centers on the mechanics of fracture and fault system evolution using field data, numerical and analog modeling. The combination of filed, lab and numerical techniques illuminates the mechanical processes of fracturing and faulting in the brittle crust. Her current research includes 3D numerical modeling of active faulting within Southern California, numerical investigations of the evolving mechanical efficiency of fault systems, fracture development associated with 3D fold growth and analog claybox experiments of fault system evolution. Michele's energies in research carry over as well to innovative teaching. For example, she has developed ways to link fault evolution research with earth system learning at high schools for the deaf. More info is on her website! http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/cooke/
Professor Bodo Bookhagen	Bodo Bookhagen (University of California - Santa Barbara) is interested in understanding late Quaternary and recent climate changes and their imprint on a variety of geomorphic processes. In order to understand and quantify landscape evolution on long (>105 y) and short (< 10y) timescales, he uses integrated studies involving cosmogenic radionuclides (He, Ne, Be, Al) and a variety of remote sensing and numerical modeling techniques. A main focus is to identify relation between past climatic conditions that lead to increased erosion events. He is also involved in deciphering potential links between climate, tectonics, and erosion on a variety of timescales. Some of his research areas are in the south-central Andes, coastal Chile and California, the Himalaya, and the Tien Shan.
Professor Mike Williams	Mike Williams' (University of Massachusetts) research lies at the intersection of ductile structural geology, metamorphic petrology, igneous petrology, and tectonics. Mike makes exceptional contributions in developing approaches that allow us to "read" the P-T-t-D (i.e. Pressure-Temperature- time-Deformation) paths from deformed and metamorphosed rocks, and interpreting the paths in terms of the tectonic history that produced them. Precambrian rocks of southwestern U.S.A. or northern Canada have received a good deal of Mike's attention, but he has been increasingly involved with 'younger' associations of western New England.
Professor Jean Braun	Jean Braun (University of Rennes [France])
Professor John C. Weber	John C. Weber (Grand Valley State University)

2007 Summer School Contributors

Background Statements

Professor Art Snoke	Professor Art Snoke heads up the Dept of Geology & Geophysics at the University of Wyoming, and he carries out diverse investigations into the geology of Wyoming that span Precambrian to Tertiary tectonics. He has a lifelong fascination with the structural and petrologic evolution of oceanic-arc volcanic-plutonic complexes and processes of tectonic accretion of the complexes along continental margins. Art's interest in fault rocks from all levels of the lithosphere (and even the mantle) is expressed not only in the superb book, Fault-related Rocks: A Photographic Atlas edited by Snoke, Tullis, and Todd (1998, Princeton University Press) but in current research focused on extensional and contractional brittle-to-plastic fault systems; the role of basement in the deformational history of the foreland, thrust belt, and hinterland of the North American Cordillera; and the structural and petrologic evolution of middle and lower crustal rocks. Structural complexities of field areas in the western North America Cordillera, southern Appalachians, Tobago (West Indies), Southern Alps (Italy), and Tunisian foreland have been embraced by Art Snoke and his students.
Professor Peter Koons	Peter Koons applies continuum mechanics to investigation of earth-atmosphere interactions at many different time scales, from short term climatic variation to mantle:crust interaction. His collaborative research explores the influence of atmospheric processes on the development of mountain ranges over a range of spatial scales. An integrated image of a developing mountain system incorporates geodetic, seismic, and geomorphic information, together with petrological and structural information regarding deeper crustal levels. The synthesis of information from the varied disciplines provides the framework for construction of comprehensive numerical models that allow examination of the dynamics of the mountain building processes across many scales. Study sites include the Southern Alps of New Zealand, the western and eastern Himalaya, southeastern Alaska, the Appalachians and the Norwegian Caledonides. Professor Peter Koons, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5790 USA Email: peter.koons@maine.edu
Professor Donna Whitney	Donna Whitney is an innovator in the use of metamorphic rocks to learn about tectonic processes in the deep crust during the construction and unroofing of mountain belts. A primary focus is metamorphic terrains in collisional mountain belts and magmatic arcs, where it is possible to document pressure-temperature-time paths; determine rates and mechanisms of metamorphic mineral growth and associated tectonic processes; evaluate the mechanism and consequence of partial melting; and interpret the physical conditions and chemical effects of deformation at different crustal levels. This work occurs at the scale of mountain belts and at the microscopic scale. Mountain belts under study include the North American Cordillera (Washington, British Columbia), eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Turkey), Appalachians (North Carolina, New York, Vermont), and Central America (Guatemala). To glimpse the other end of the scale, have a look at on-line resources http://www.geo.umn.edu/orgs/whitney/DLW.html arising from studies of garnet microstructures, deformation textures in Al2SiO5 phases, and symplectite crystallization.
Dr. Barbara Carrapa	Barbara Carrapa carries out multidisciplinary studies of sedimentary sequences in order to unravel the inter-relationships between tectonics, erosion and sedimentation in mountain belts and continental plateaus. She applies sedimentology, clastic petrography, detrital thermochronology (40Ar/39Ar, AFT thermochronology) to sedimentary rocks in order to determine provenance, timing and rate of exhumation, sediment dispersal as well as paleo-depositional environment in different tectonic settings. Application of structural geology and basin modeling helps to unravel the kinematics of basin formation through time. Barbara recently joined the faculty of University of Wyoming, following postdoctoral research at University of Potsdam.
Dr. Shari Kelley	Shari Kelley is a field geologist who applies apatite-fission track thermochronology to tectonic and landscape evolution problems in the High Plains-Rio Grande rift-Rocky Mountain-Colorado Plateau region. She gets at denudational history through investigation of such diverse materials as Tertiary basin fill accessed through drillholes to Proterozoic crystalline basement acquired at the height of Laramide uplifts.

Coordinators

Christine Siddoway is a structural and metamorphic geologist enamored with migmatites, as a record of the influence of partial melts upon deformation in the middle crust during tectonism. Her current investigations of high temperature rocks focus on the exhumation history of a Cretaceous gneiss dome in West Antarctica and on the kinematic history of Proterozoic gneiss terranes of Colorado, for understanding of the behavior and role of partial melts in the middle crust during tectonism. A sideline is brittle kinematic analysis of mesoscopic faults associated with Laramide foreland structures in Colorado. During the summer school, Christine's contribution will be to a field trip that highlights aspects of Proterozoic orogenesis and Laramide tectonism in Colorado. Christine teaches structural geology and metamorphic petrology at Colorado College under the one-course-at-a-time schedule (Block Plan) implemented at CC, and conducts research in West Antarctica.

Basil Tikoff is a quantitative field geologist who combines field geology, geophysical methods, physical (analog) models, and numerical models to understand three-dimensional deformation. Ongoing projects are on a range of scales and crustal levels in order to consider deformation of the entire lithosphere. Tools that he uses routinely are strain modeling, physical modeling, EBSD and universal stage analysis for LPO, geomagnetism (paleomagnetism and AMS) and gravity inversion. (University of Wisconsin).