Award Abstract # 0537892
Collaborative Research: Episodic Construction of Magma Chambers: Multidisciplinary Investigations at a Field Laboratory (Tuolumne Intrusion, Sierra Nevada)

NSF Org: EAR
Division Of Earth Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Initial Amendment Date: February 10, 2006
Latest Amendment Date: January 11, 2008
Award Number: 0537892
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: William P. Leeman
EAR
 Division Of Earth Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: February 1, 2006
End Date: January 31, 2010 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $220,736.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $225,736.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2006 = $75,516.00
FY 2007 = $78,617.00

FY 2008 = $71,603.00
History of Investigator:
  • Scott Paterson (Principal Investigator)
    paterson@usc.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Southern California
3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3
LOS ANGELES
CA  US  90033
(213)740-7762
Sponsor Congressional District: 34
Primary Place of Performance: University of Southern California
3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3
LOS ANGELES
CA  US  90033
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
34
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): G88KLJR3KYT5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Petrology and Geochemistry,
EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES
Primary Program Source: app-0106 
app-0107 

01000809DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 0000, 4444, 9178, 9251, OTHR, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 157300, 157500
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Intellectual Merit: With mounting evidence that most plutons and batholiths are constructed episodically over timescales of up to millions of years, it is important to reexamine existing methodologies for studying their formation. To understand magma emplacement and cooling histories, multiple ages using several minerals with different closure temperatures and crystal sizes are needed. Likewise, more complex 3D thermal and geochemical scenarios for the magma chamber evolution must be considered. From this perspective, collaborative research is proposed, consisting of field-based integrated high-resolution geochronology, and3D thermal modeling, to investigate a set of related problems - examples include: (1) testing the validity of different episodic growth models, (2) understanding the significance of internal contacts within plutonic bodies, (3) quantifying the extent of chemical mixing or physical mingling, (4) understanding the geometry of intrusion and controls on this, (5) understanding the relations between plutons and related volcanoes, and (6) understanding the sources of hydrothermal fluids and their flow patterns around putons at depth. Understanding of these and similar issues will provide insights into magma formation and evolution, development of associate mineralization, and thermal and tectonic processes that drive and accompany magmatism.

Broader Impacts: This project will support the involvement of graduate and undergraduate students from CSF and USC in the research. It involves close collaboration with Yosemite Park personnel in a variety of outreach programs in a Park with millions of visitors per year. In conjunction with the research, a variety of educational materials (particularly on the physics of heat flow and resulting thermal, rheological, and microstructural models of episodically constructed chambers) which will be made available to the public. A Tuolumne Intrusive Series (TIS) website regarding research and geology in the Park will be maintained. And the work will have broad scientific applicability.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 12)
Paterson, S.R. "Comment of "Relationships between melt-induced rheological transitions and finite strain: observations from host rock pendants of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, Sierra Nevada, California" Journal of Structural Geology , v.29 , 2007 , p.915 10.1016/j.jsg.2007.01.007
Paterson, S.R. "Magmatic tubes, troughs, pipes, and diapers: Late-stage convective instabilities resulting in complex permeable networks in crystal-rich magmas of the Tuolumne Batholith, Sierra Nevada, California" Geosphere , v.5 , 2009 , p.1 10.1130/GES00214.1
Paterson, S.R., and Farris, D.W. "Downward host rock transport and the formation of rim monoclines during the emplacement of Cordilleran batholiths" Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences , v.97 , 2008 , p.397
Paterson, S.R., and Farris, D.W. "Downward host rock transport and the formation of rim monoclines during the emplacement of Cordilleran batholiths" Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences , v.97 , 2008 , p.397
Paterson, S.R., Zak, J., and Janousek, V. "Growth of complex sheeted zones during recycling of older magmatic units into younger: Sawmill Canyon area, Tuolumne batholith, Sierra Nevada, California" Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research , v.177 , 2008 , p.457 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2008.06.024
Vernon, R.H., and Paterson, S.R "How extensive are intergranular microstructural changes in cooling granites?" Lithos , v.105 , 2008 , p.42
Vernon, R.H., Paterson, S.R. "How late are K-feldspar megacrysts in granites?" Lithos , 2008 10.1016/j.lithos.2008.01.001
Zak, J. and Paterson, S.R. "Roof and walls of the Red Mountain Creek pluton, eastern Sierra Nevada, California (USA): implications for process zones during pluton emplacement" Journal of Structural Geology , v.28 , 2006 , p.575
Zak, J., and Paterson, S.R. "Characteristics of internal contacts in the Tuolumne Batholith, central Sierra Nevada, California (USA): implications for episodic emplacement and physical processes in a continental arc magma chamber" GSA Bulletin , v.117 , 2005 , p.1242
Zak, J., and Paterson, S.R. "Magmatic erosion of the solidification front during reintrusion: the eastern margin of the Tuolumne batholith, Sierra Nevada, California" International Journal of Earth Sciences , 2009 DOI 10.1007/s00531-009-0423-7
Zak, J., Paterson, S.R., Janousek, V., and Kabele, P. "The Mammoth Peak sheeted complex, Tuolumne batholith, Sierra Nevada, California: a record of initial growth or late thermal contraction in a magma chamber?" Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology , v.158 , 2009 , p.447 10.1007/s00410-009-0391-8
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 12)

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