The fascinating stories rocks can tell: from nanoscale processes in Earth’s most complex material to the collision of continents

The fascinating stories rocks can tell: from nanoscale processes in Earth’s most complex material to the collision of continents

Categories: Lectures and Seminars | Intended for

Wednesday, February 08, 2017

6:30 PM - 7:30 PM | Add to calendar

Location Details

Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library, 1049 Bank Street in Old Ottawa South

Contact Information

Andrea Lawrance, 6135202600 2616, andrea.lawrance@carleton.ca

Registration

No registration required.

Cost

Free

About this Event

Host Organization: Faculty of Science
More Information: Please click here for additional details.

Explore Science through Carleton’s popular Science Cafe series! All are welcome at these entertaining and informative public presentations. The next cafe features Professor Fred Gaidies discussing the information contained in rocks.

Abstract: Some of the most elemental properties of our planet’s crust include its behaviour during plastic deformation, the way it transmits seismic waves, or the rate with which thermal anomalies form and dissipate in response to tectonic processes.

I will use this talk to introduce you to modern metamorphic petrology - that branch of geology that is concerned with the mineralogical and microstructural changes that occur when rocks of our planet’s crust get buried and heated inside the Earth. Unmetamorphosed rocks like granite or mudstone turn into metamorphic rocks when involved in the collision of continents. One of the most spectacular examples of metamorphism that is currently ongoing can be studied in the Himalayas where India collides with Asia. Rocks get heated and deformed during burial and recrystallize into metamorphic rocks such as gneisses or schists forming the roots of the mountain chain. Erosion of the mountains exposes metamorphic rocks at the surface where we can study their mineral content and microstructure to infer the tectonic processes responsible for their formation.

Considering that tectonic processes have been documented over most of our planet’s history, the correct deciphering of the mineralogical and microstructural information contained in metamorphic rocks helps us to understand how Earth’s crust has behaved since its birth.