Zircons are — more often than not — the reason why I travel. Zircon is a zirconium (number 40 on the periodic table) bearing silicate mineral (ZrSiO4). Zircon is an extremely important mineral for geologists because although Zr is the dominant cation, zircon also contains several other large cations such as uranium, hafnium, and rare […]
My trip to coastal Maine started in the Deer Isle granite complex. This Devonian granite complex exhibits a complex and highly diverse set of igneous textures that are the result of new magma injection and mixing. The base of the plutonic complex is dominated by cumulates of large alkali feldspars and abundant mafic enclaves. Many of […]
Kellen Gunderson on Death Valley. Kellen (website) is a PhD Candidate at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, United States. He is a tectonic geomorphologist currently working on spatial and temporal scales of fault slip rate variability in the Northern Apennines, Italy. Death Valley (part 1) To most people Death valley seems desolate. […]
Battle Island is a small island off the east coast of Labrador. Although this island is only 16 square kilometers, Battle Island one of the few places that preserves the youngest pre-Grenvillian sediments. Why does this matter you ask? I am trying to understand the changes in the chemistry of the continental crust due to […]
Socorro Island is a large volcano but small island approximately 370 miles (~600 km) off the coast of central Mexico in the Pacific Ocean. The island stands 1050 m above sea level but close to 4000 m above the ocean floor. The volcano most recently erupted in 1993 in a submarine flank eruption, where large […]
