Research Areas in High-Temperature and -Pressure Processes in the Department of Geological & Environmental Sciences:
The research of faculty involved in high-T and -P processes is focused on the following areas. We encourage graduate students to flow across these areas and the related programs in Geophysics.
Mineralogy and Properties of Earth Materials
Igneous Petrology and Petrogenesis
Volcanology
Metamorphic Petrology
Hydrothermal Geochemistry
Geochronology and Thermochronology
Related Programs:
Field-based petrology studies are an integral part of the research in the Structural Geology and Tectonics research group in G&ES. Multiple collaborations exist between G&ES and Geophysics. Profs. Simon Klemperer and George Thompson (Emeritus) collaborate with GES faculty and students on studies of regional tectonics of the western U.S. The group in volcanology calls on Prof. Norm Sleep for his expertise on heat flow and mass transfer as it relates to magmatism and metamorphism. Prof. Paul Segall's group studies the deformation of Kilaeua volcano and Long Valley caldera, and Prof. Howard Zebker uses InSAR and other remote sensing data to understand volcano deformation in places like the Galapagos Islands. The U.S. Geological Survey, whose western regional headquarters are located about two miles from the campus, has prominent volcanologists, igneous petrologists, seismologists, and tectonicists who collaborate with faculty and students in our group.
