Current Research

My research derives from an interest the processes operating in orogenic belts and other tectonically active settings (be they past or present), with an emphasis on metamorphic and related structural processes.  By various twists of fate, my research has predominantly focussed on the behaviour of dateable accessory minerals (zircon, monazite, xenotime) during metamorphism.

This research aims to gain a better understanding of:

• textural and chemical links between major and dateable accessory minerals to enable us to date specific metamorphic reactions, therefore placing greater constraints on the rates of metamorphic and orogenic events;

• effects of accessory minerals on trace element budgets during metamorphism, in particular during crustal melting and melt transport;

• stability of dateable accessory minerals during metamorphic and fluid events over a wide range of temperatures, and the possible effects these processes have on the ages we derive from such minerals.

The research stems from the fact that advances in high precision analytical techniques such as SHRIMP, TIMS and LA-ICPMS have outstripped our knowledge of the minerals we actually date. In particular, the relative timing of "metamorphic" growth or modification of metamorphic zircon with respect to prograde, peak and retrograde metamorphism is commonly ambiguous. The correct interpretation of mineral U-Pb ages, especially in complex metamorphic terrains, requires that the timing of growth or modification of the dated mineral be placed in its assemblage, reaction and P-T context. Understanding the textural and trace element relationships between datable accessory minerals such as zircon, monazite, xenotime and apatite, and the major minerals in a rock or local reaction environment are key to unlocking out ability to date metamorphic reactions and therefore processes.

Specific projects currently underway include:

• Distribution of trace elements between zircon, garnet and melt: a key to understanding crustal events and processes (supported by a NERC Standard Grant to Prof. Simon Harley & Dr Richard Hinton). Work is in conjunction with a NERC Tied Studentship project being carried out by Richard Taylor at Edinburgh, who is carrying out direct experimental investigation of REE partitioning behaviour at high-P-T.

• Dating metamorphism: behaviour of dateable accessory minerals during metamorphism (supported by Royal Society of Edinburgh, NSS funded access to the NERC Ion Microprobe facility, University of Edinburgh, and Royal Society grants to Prof. Simon Harley).

• Recrystallisation and alteration of zircon during high-grade metamorphism (ongoing research, previously funded by a NERC New Investigators Grant).

• Terrane amalgamation within the Lewisian Gneiss Complex, NW Scotland (In collaboration with Prof Simon Harley and Dr Richard Hinton, and supported by UoE Small Grants Trust, JIF-funding access to NERC Ion Microprobe facility through Prof. Simon Harley).

• Terrane evolution¹ and the tectonic setting for gold mineralisation² in Nuuk region, southern West Greenland (funded through direct collaboration with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland; 1- associated with Edinburgh PhD student Natasha Lee; 2- funded by Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, Greenland).