My research is focused on the origin and tectonic evolution of the continents. Continental orogens and arcs are zones of dramatic strain partitioning, mass-redistribution, crust-mantle interaction, and locally dynamic feedback between tectonics and climate:
(1) One aim of my research is understanding the roles of strain partitioning, crustal flow, and partial melting in continental lower crust (at >20 km to Moho depths) as recorded in a large exhumed exposure of lower crust in the Canadian Shield of northern Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories,
(2) Constraining links between deformation and metamorphism,
(3) Exploring monazite as a tool for directly dating syn-kinematic deformation, garnet growth, melting, and dissolution/re-precipitation events during metamorphism and metasomatism,
Projects commonly involve detailed outcrop- to regional-scale field mapping and cross-section construction (in beautiful country!), microstructural analysis, geochemistry and phase equilibria modeling, scanning electron microscope and electron probe microanalysis (in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts), and geochronology (in collaboration with the Isotope Geology Laboratory at Boise State University and the TRAIL facility at the University of Arkansas).
