Research Projects

On this page we are providing an overview of the variety of projects we are currently working on. Below that we also give a summary of the larger projects we carried about with our students and post-docs over the last 30 years.

Current Projects

  • Integrated Ocean Drilling Program cores from the Louisville seamount trail, IODP Expedition 330 on the D/V JOIDES Resolution
  • Integrated Ocean Drilling Program cores from the Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau, IODP Expedition 324 on the D/V JOIDES Resolution
  • Dredged rocks from the Walvis Ridge seamounts, Expedition MV1203 on the R/V Melville
  • Dredged rocks from the Rurutu hotspot in the Tuvalu seamounts, Expedition scheduled for the Summer of 2013 on the R/V Revelle
  • Dredged rocks and land samples from the Marquesas Islands
  • Land samples from the Caribbean large igneous province at Curacao Island, Lesser Antilles
  • Acid-leaching effects on 40Ar/39Ar groundmass age dating

Geochronology of Volcanic Rocks from
the World’s Ocean Basins

  • Dredged rocks from the Rano Rahi seamounts near the super-fast spreading East Pacific Rise
  • Ocean Drilling Program cores from the Emperor Seamounts, ODP Leg 197
  • Dredged rocks from the Line Islands and Easter-Salas y Gomez seamount chains
  • Dredged rocks from the Gilbert Ridge and Tokelau Seamounts, Expedition AVON02 on the R/V Melville
  • Dredged rocks from the Samoan Seamounts, Expedition AVON03 on the R/V Melville and Expedition ALIA on the R/V Kilo Moana
  • Dredged rocks from the Louisville seamount trail, IODP Site Survey Expedition AMAT02 on the R/V Revelle
  • Submersible-collected rocks from the Gorda Escarpment and Mendocino Fracture Zone

Geochronology of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs)

  • North Atlantic Igneous Province (East and West Greenland, Faeroe Islands)
  • Kerguelen Plateau, ODP Leg 183
  • Caribbean Plateau (Costa Rica, Haiti, Curacao, Colombia, Beata Ridge)
  • Karoo Igneous Province (South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Antarctica)
  • Chronology of basin formation on the Moon, through radiometric dating of lunar impact glasses returned by the Apollo 16 mission

Geochronology of Ash Layers in Marine Sediments

  • Eocene-Oligocene boundary and Pacific NW flora assemblages
  • Pliocene-Miocene sections from ODP Legs 185 and 191

Geochronology of Terrestrial Sediments

  • Total fusion ages for feldspar grains from glacial tills
  • Clay formation ages to identify river drainages contributing to Pacific NW margin sediments on glacial-interglacial timescales

Geochronology of Mineralization and Ore Formation
in Economic Ore Deposits

  • Vein adularia in the Hishikari gold deposit, Japan
  • Timing and duration of mineralization at the Yanacocha district, Peru