Department of GeologyResearch
Current research: reactive fluid flow, ore deposition, and biomineralogy in the southern Appalachians.
One of my main research projects uses multiple geochemical tracers to determine the fluid flow history and origin of Mn-oxide deposits in Cambrian rock units in the southern Appalachians.
This involves interdisciplinary geomicrobiology research with Dr. Suzanna Bräuer in the Department of Biology and Dr. Cara Santelli from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, characterizing the crystal structures of biologically mediated Mn-oxides in southern Appalachian caves. This photo shows Dr. Suzanna Bräuer and I in one of our most visited caves, in Carter Co., TN.
Related research includes reconstruction of paleo-groundwater/reservoir systems and culture experiments to determine what role bacteria play (if any) in hydrothermal Mn-oxide formation. This work is in collaboration with the USGS and Dr. Jeff Post at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
I am also involved in the Engare Sero Project with Dr. Cynthia Liutkus to help fingerprint the source of the volcanic ash that has preserved early hominid footprints in Tanzania. New research on the project includes an investigation of the evolution of mineral chemistry in Si-deficient and carbonatite ash layers from the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano.
Past research: modern hydrothermal vent systems at 9°50'N East Pacific Rise, and Triassic hydrothermal vent systems in the Latemar Dolomite, northern Italy
Prior to coming to Appalachian State, I spent much of my time at sea, on the R/V Atlantis,
studying hydrothermal vents located at spreading ridges on the seafloor.
My research explored fluid-rock interactions in
altered basalt at the 9°50'N East Pacific Rise (EPR) Integrated
Study Site (ISS).
These rocks are unique for several reasons:
they are the only samples to date that have been collected from a
stockwork beneath an active hydrothermal vent, they have 15 years of
hydrothermal vent fluid data associated with them, and they represent
an active hydrothermal upflow zone. The CL image on the right shows trace element zoning in anhydrite, from a stockwork sample at 9°50'N EPR.
My graduate work in the Latemar carbonate buildup, northern Italy explores the "Dolomite Problem," a classic sedimentology problem, from a metamorphic petrologist's point of view. It uses reactive transport theory to interpret the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogic effects of fluid-rock reactions in a (very) low-temperature metamorphic setting, one that is analogous to modern diffuse effluent systems in hydrothermal vent fields at mid-ocean ridges.