One of my research interest is the evolution of granite-pegmatite systems and the crystal chemistry of rare-earth-element bearing Nb-Ta-Ti-oxide minerals. In plain English, that means I study really weird igneous rocks and really weird minerals (no reflection on me, of course).
By definition, pegmatites are very coarse-grained rocks. The picture to the left shows massive quartz and feldspar (above hammer) in the intermediate zone of the Tie Gulch pegmatite, Trout Creek Pegmatite District, Chaffee County, CO. In this pegmatite I found polycrase-(Y); one of those rare Nb-Ta-Ti oxide minerals that I am so fond of.
Pegmatites became a passion of mine when I was in graduate school at the University of New Orleans working with William 'Skip" Simmons. The photo to the left is me (a few years ago) in the Trout Creek Pass Pegmatite District, Chaffee Co., Colorado. It was here that I completed my Masters Degree research.
This is Skip. We have been working on pegmatites together since my graduate school days. Our most recent collaborative venture is in the Mojave County Pegmatite District, Mojave Co., Arizona. The photo on the left was taken from atop the elusive Rare Metals Pegmatite in the Aquarius Range, Arizona. Sadly, my analyses revealed that all of the heavy-rare-earth-element bearing minerals are polycrase-(Y) and aeschynite-(Y) rather than the previously reported, and extremely rare, yttrotantalite.
This is me at the Wagon Bow # 3 pegmatite in the Aquarius Range near Kingman, AZ. Although the Rare Metals Pegmatite lacked the unusual minerals I had hoped for, I discovered 3 minerals new to the state of Arizona as well as a world class deposit of a rare mineral called allanite-(Ce) in other pegmatites in the district.
The dark pod that Adrian College student Jake Denig is mining is the rare mineral allanite-(Ce) that locally has domains of the new mineral allanite-(Nd)
Research in this area is becoming an Adrian College tradition. TJ Brown (AC class of 2008) attended graduate school at the University of New Orleans (MS 2010) where he worked with Skip and I on this project.
Are there any other undergraduates out there interested? There is more work to do....
Are there any other undergraduates out there interested? There is more work to do....