My research and that of my students, postdocs, and collaborators, covers a wide range, including experimental development of (U-Th)/He thermo- and geochronology, applications of thermochronology in tectonic geomorphology, and igneous geochemistry. Lab manager Stefan Nicolescu and I have set up several laser (Nd:YAG and CO2) extraction, processing, and measurement lines for 4He that I moved here to the UofA. These instruments will complement extant sector gas-source mass specs (MAP 215-50 and VG5400) that perform a variety of other noble gas measurements including 40Ar/39Ar dating. We also have a state-of-the-art microscopy lab for sample preparation, and a ThermoFisher Element2 high-resolution ICP-MS for measuring U-Th-Sm in He dating, as well as a wide range of other trace metals in many different types of samples.
Below are some of my ongoing projects.
Tectonic Geomorphology of the Washington Cascades
Below: Apatite (U-Th)/He cooling ages overlain on bedrock geology, faults and seismicity, slope, and precipitation maps, in the central Washington Cascades. These data include some from a collaborative project from several years ago with Todd Ehlers, Sara Gran Mitchell, and Dave Montgomery, and also some from Peter Isaacson's 2005 Yale Senior Thesis.
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Glacial erosion and climate-erosion-tectonic coupling in the Patagonian Andes
a collaborative project with Mark Brandon, Jon Tomkin, Stuart Thomson, and Christien Vasquez
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Wildfire in geomorphology and paleowildfire in the geologic record
a collaborative project with Stuart Thomson, Devin McPhillips, Ray Donelick, and Josh Roering
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Combined (U-Th)/He and U/Pb dating of single detrital zircon grains
a collaborative project with Charlotte Allen and Ian Campbell, at the ANU.
Right: He-Pb double-dates of detrital zircons from modern (and a couple of Eocene) North American Rivers. |
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Geochronology of clinker and geomorphic evolution of the Powder River Basin, Wyoming
a collaborative project with Ed Heffern and Catherine Riihimaki.
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After Porter (1981), as shown in Broeker and Denton (1990).
