My current research focuses on the minerals of boron and beryllium and the role of these two elements in the changes rocks undergo at high temperatures and pressures in the earth’s crust, especially in the granulite facies. More recently, I have developed an interest in phosphate minerals, having discovered three new species in the Larsemann Hills, Prydz Bay , Antarctica (Figure 1), and one of these has turned up in a meteorite. Following the tradition of the late Charles Guidotti, formerly a professor in our department, I describe my research as “petrologic mineralogy” because I study minerals in their petrologic context. Work with light elements requires special techniques so an integral component of my research is analysis for Li, Be and B in minerals with the ion microprobe (secondary ion mass spectrometry). I do these analyses in collaboration with Charles Shearer at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque In August, 2009 I was awarded a research grant from the National Science Foundation to analyze borosilicate minerals for boron isotopes with the ion microprobe in collaboration with Simon Harley at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Articles
Holtite and Dumortierite from the Szklary Pegmatite, Lower Silesia, Poland (with A. Pieczka, L. A. Groat, and R. J. Evans), Mineralogical Magazine (2011)
The Szklary holtite is represented by three compositional varieties: (I) Ta-bearing (up to 14.66 wt.%...
The Crystal Chemistry of Holtite (with L. A. Groat, R. J. Evans, A. Pieczka, and T. S. Ercit), Mineralogical Magazine (2009)
Holtite, approximately (Al,Ta,square)Al(6)(BO(3))(Si,Sb(3+),As(3+))(Sigma 3)O(12)(O,OH,square)(Sigma 3), is a member of the dumortierite group that has been...
Chevkinite-Group Minerals from Granulite-Facies Metamorphic Rocks and Associated Pegmatites of East Antarctica and South India (with H. E. Belkin and R. Macdonald), Mineralogical Magazine (2009)
Electron microprobe data are presented for chevkinite-group minerals from granulite-facies rocks and associated pegmatities of...
Recommended Nomenclature for the Sapphirine and Surinamite Groups (Sapphirine Supergroup) (with U. Hålenius, M. Pasero, and J. Barbier), Mineralogical Magazine (2008)
Minerals isostructural with sapphirine-1A, sapphirine-2M, and surinamite are closely related chain silicates that pose nomenclature...