Ontario, Canada

This project focuses on the geology of the Bancroft area of Ontario, which is thought to have been the margin of North America during the Mesoproterozoic. This part of the Grenville Province of Ontario is made up of two tectonic elements: (1) High-grade gneisses that were part of the 1.7-1.4 Ga continental margin and (2) a package of volcanic, plutonic, and sedimentary rocks that are thought to be a collage of arc components accreted at ca. 1.17 Ga. This Keck project focuses on this arc assemblage and its collision + suture with North America.

South-Central Alaska

A study of the tectonic evolution of the Campanian-Eocene Chugach-Prince William (CPW) terrane in southern Alaska. This project has several distinct objectives that include: 1) understanding the regional depositional setting and source for of the CPW flysch; 2) understanding the intrusive history of this belt; and 3) determining the age and origin of the Knight Island ophiolite.

Peruvian Andes

We will generate continuous records of mountain glaciation in Peru that span the Holocene (~12 ka to present) through an approach that combines the acquisition and analysis of lake sediment cores with moraine dating using both lichenometry and cosmogenic radionuclides (10Be and 26Al). The pairing of paleolimnology with moraine dating will enable determination of both the timing and magnitude of ice margin changes through the Holocene with sufficient precison to enable rigorous testing of hypotheses concerning the causes of abrupt climate change in the tropics.

Montana

This project will characterize, compare, and/or contrast the protoliths, the grade and time of metamorphism, and the intensity and age of tectonism of three rock suites found in the southern Gravelly Range and Raynolds Pass area of southwest Montana. Our goal is to integrate these findings into our developing understanding of the Big Sky orogeny, an arc-continent collision that occurred along the northern flank of the Wyoming province at 1.8-1.7 Ga.

Colorado – Front Range, Year 3

The Keck Colorado 10 project will work with a large interdisciplinary study (Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory: Weathered profile development in a rocky environment and its influence on watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry-NSF 0724960) directed by Suzanne Anderson, Institute for Arctic and Alpine Studies (INSTAAR), University of Colorado.

Mongolia

The 2010 Mongolia Keck project is designed to improve our understanding of the dynamics of crustal deformation associated with convergent to extensional transition zones by studying the coupling between atmospheric, Earth surface, and lithospheric processes across Quaternary time scales within the active Lake Hovsgol intracontinental rift zone of northern Mongolia. This project will integrate field studies of active faults, timing and extent of late Pleistocene glaciations, lake level history, and the paleoenvironmental ecology of the northern Hovsgol Rift zone.