UMaine team’s findings in Journal of Metamorphic Geology

Former University of Maine graduate students Steven Spreitzer (M.S. 2017) and Jesse Walters (Ph.D. 2020) have published their research findings on the Larsemann Hills, done in collaboration with UMaine professor Edward Grew. Grew has had a long interest in supercontinent reconstructions involving India and Antarctica, and has collaborated with Australian Antarctic geologists since 1977. Grew also discovered three new borosilicate and phosphate minerals in the Larsemann Hills (boralsilite, tassieite and chopinite).

In their new paper in the Journal of Metamorphic Geology, Spreitzer dated monazite crystals and Walters calculated phase diagrams in order to discern the pressure-temperature-time histories of the rocks caught up in the amalgamation of the two supercontinents of Gondwana and Rodinia. Their work also has revealed the histories of exhumation and cooling of the rocks over time following the peak of metamorphism and partial melting.

A story about the geology team’s work is online.