Mihai Ducea

Mihai Ducea

Mihai N Ducea
Professor of Geology
PhD, Caltech
Tectonics and petrology

 

I am a petrologist interested in tectonic problems. I address geologic problems concerning the evolution of orogenic regions primarily using petrologic and geochemical data. I am also interested in radiogenic isotope geology and oversee several geochemcial laboratories. 

Columnar basalts in central Mongolia
Columnar basalts in central Mongolia, Sept 2015.

 

Research Interests
  • Chemical composition of arc rocks and crustal thickness; a global perspective
  • Mineral diversity and tectonic settings
  • Lower crustal evolution of sub arc regions
  • Processes in the continental mantle lithosphere
  • Tracking delamination using magmatic rocks
  • Thermal evolution of plateaus – metamorphism and magmatism under plateaux
  • Basaltic magmatism and continental extension
  • Quantifying magmatic fluxes
  • Regional geology of the Western N American Cordillera, Andes, Pamirs, Carpathians, Tibet
  • Phosphate and carbonate geochronology

 

Google scholar profile:
h=33, i10= 69, citations - 4100

 

Research Gate profile (I don’t particularly like this service, they fill my email with spam, but seems like everybody else is using it):
 

 

Fagaras Mountains
My beloved Fagaras Mountains In Romania, where I discovered my passion for geology.

 

Courses
  • Geos 251: Physical Geology (on rotation with several other faculty)
  • Geos 356: Undergraduate Petrology
  • Geos 414; Field Camp (alternating years)
  • Geos 408/508 Tectonic petrology
  • Geos 424/525 Regional Tectonics (alternating years)
  • Geos 474/574 Geochron/Thermochron (with Pete Reiners, Spring 2016)

 

Laboratory Facilities
 
I oversee the following laboratory facilities: a rock preparation lab that includes rock crushing, mineral separation facilities, a micro-sampling facility where we can spatially control the sampling of materials at tens of micron scales, a clean laboratory where we dissolve samples, and perform chemical separations for various elements, an ICP-MS laboratory equipped with a Thermo X-Series 2 instrument where we measure trace elemental compositions of various materials in solution and a TIMS laboratory equipped with two multicollector VG instruments where we measure a variety of radiogenic isotopes. If you are interested in having work done in any one of these labs please contact me or laboratory technician Derek Hoffman (mantis@email.arizona.edu).
Clean LabMas Spec
Clean lab and mass spec.
 
 
 

Short chronology of professional development:

 

Professional Preparation

University of Bucharest                                  Geology                                 B.S.,   1992
Caltech                                                           Geology                                 M.S.,  1995
Caltech                                                           Geology                                 Ph.D., 1999
Florida International University                       Geology                                 Postdoc 99-00

 

Appointments

2011-2015 Visiting research (courtesy appointment), University of Bucharest
2013-2014 Visiting Professor, University of Bucharest (on sabbatical leave)
2009- Present, Professor of Geology, University of Arizona
2004-2009 Associate Professor of Geology, University of Arizona
2001-2004 Assistant Professor of Geology, University of Arizona

 

2015 papers

Rosel P., Oliveros, V, Ducea, MN, Hernandez, L, 2015, Across and along arc geochemical variations in altered volcanic rocks: Evidence for calc-alkaline, alkaline and adakitic signatures from mineral chemistry of Jurassic lavas in northern Chile, and tectonic implications, Lithos, in press.
 
Stoica AM, Ducea, MN, Roban R, JIanu, D, 2015, Origin and Evolution of the South Carpathians Basement (Romania): A Zircon and Monazite Geochronologic Study of Its Alpine Sedimentary Cover, International Geology Review, doi.org/10.1080/00206814.2015.1092097.
 
Walker  BJ, Bergantz, G, Otamendi, J, Ducea MN, Cristofolini, E, 2015, A MASH Zone Revealed: The Mafic Complex of the Sierra Valle Fértil, Journal of Petrology, in press.
 
Profeta, L, Ducea, MN, Chapman, JB, Paterson, S, Henriquez Gonzales, S, Kirsch, M, Petrescu, L, DeCelles, PG, 2015, Quantifying crustal thickness over time in magmatic arcs, Scientific Reports, in press.
van Gelder, I. E., L. Matenco, E. Willingshofer, B. Tomljenović, P. A. M. Andriessen, M. N. Ducea, A. Beniest, and A. Gruić, 2015, The tectonic evolution of a critical segment of the Dinarides-Alps connection: Kinematic and geochronological inferences from the Medvednica Mountains, NE Croatia, Tectonics, 34, doi:10.1002/2015TC003937
 
Chapman, J. B., Ducea, M. N., DeCelles, P. G., and Profeta, L., 2015, Tracking changes in crustal thickness during orogenic evolution with Sr/Y: An example from the North American Cordillera: Geology, v. 43, no. 10, p. 919-922.
 
Ducea, M. N., Paterson, S. R., and DeCelles, P. G., 2015, High-Volume Magmatic Events in Subduction Systems: Elements, v. 11, no. 2, p. 99-104.
 
Ducea, M. N., Saleeby, J. B., and Bergantz, G., 2015, The Architecture, Chemistry, and Evolution of Continental Magmatic Arcs, in Jeanloz, R., and Freeman, K. H., eds., Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Vol 43, Volume 43, p. 299-331.
 
Ibanez-Mejia, M., Pullen, A., Arenstein, J., Gehrels, G. E., Valley, J., Ducea, M. N., Mora, A. R., Pecha, M., and Ruiz, J., 2015, Unraveling crustal growth and reworking processes in complex zircons from orogenic lower-crust: The Proterozoic Putumayo Orogen of Amazonia: Precambrian Research, v. 267, p. 285-310.
 
Paterson, S. R., and Ducea, M. N., 2015, Arc Magmatic Tempos: Gathering the Evidence: Elements, v. 11, no. 2, p. 91-97.
 
Chapman, AD, Ducea, MD,  McQuarrie, N, Coble, M, Petrescu L, Hoffman, D, Constraints on plateau architecture and assembly from deep crustal xenoliths, northern Altiplano (SE Peru), Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 127, doi:10.1130/B31206.1 (2015).
 
Currie, C., Ducea, M.N., and DeCelles, P.G., Geodynamic models of Cordilleran orogens: Gravitational instability of magmatic arc roots, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa B., and Kapp, P. (editors), “Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System:  The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile”, Geological Society of America Memoir, 212, p. 1-22; 2015.
 
DeCelles, P.G., Zandt, G., Beck, SL, Currie, C., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa, B., Reiners, P.W., Quade, J., Kapp, P., and Gehrels,  G.E., Cyclical Orogenic Processes in the Central Andes, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa B., and Kapp, P. (editors), “Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile”, Geological Society of America Memoir, v. 212, p. 459-490,  2015.
 
Murray, K.E., Ducea, M.N., Schoenbohm, L., Mafic lavas on the Puna plateau sample the diverse lithospheric architecture of the long-lived central Andean orogeny, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa B., and Kapp, P., (editors), “Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile”, Geological Society of America Memoir, v. 212, p. 139-166, 2015.
 
Ducea, M.N., Otamendi, J., Bergantz G.W., Jianu. D., Petrescu, L., Constraints on the origin of
the Ordovician Fa matinian-Puna Arc, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa B., and Kapp, P., (editors), “Geodynamics of a Cordilleran  Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile”, Geological Society of America Memoir, vol. 212, p. 125-139, 2015.
 
Becker, T., Summa, L., and Ducea, M.N., Temporal growth of the Puna plateau and its bearing on the formation 1 of the Metan foreland basin, northwest Argentina, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa B., and Kapp, P., (editors), “Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile”, Geological Society of America Memoir, v. 212, p. 407-434, 2015. 

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Contact
Office: Gould-Simpson Bldg. 360
Phone: 520-621-5171
Mobile: 520-665-1254
Fax: 520-621-2672