Team Catalina at their posters at the Fall AGU meeting in Washington DC.

Students started the project in Oberlin, learning about metamorphic geology, and collecting major element data using SEM/EDS. The then moved to the West Coast, visiting field sites on Catalina and collecting additional samples based on observations made in Oberlin. The final phase of the project took place at Pomona College where students collected trace element data on garnets, synthesized data, wrote abstracts, drafted figures, and made posters. Finally, most of the students came together to present on their posters at AGU. While at the meeting, the students had lunch with two prominent researchers of their field area and their graduate students and were able to discuss their results in a more relaxed environment.

Nine students collaborated on three posters. There were able to use rock textures observed by SEM, major and trace element analyses to show similar metamorphic histories preserved in garnet-hornblende of different textures and with and without plagioclase. A second team showed evidence of polymetamorphism in a garnet-blueschist block with late lawsonite. The their team was able to show different but overlapping metamorphic histories from garnets in a tectonic block and a texturally-late metasomatic rind.