Graduate Student Opportunities and Positions
The Earth Sciences department at Simon Fraser University now has a PhD program to complement the existing MSc program. Most of the projects listed below can be carried out at the MSc or PhD level unless otherwise specified.
1. Hosted within and proximal to the Tertiary Zeballos stock, on Vancouver Island, are low-temperature structurally-controlled quartz-carbonate-gold veins. A detailed study of the mineralogy, petrology, alteration and geochemistry of these veins would include fluid inclusion , thermobarometric, stable and radiogenic isotope studies to determine the pressure-temperature-fluid and tectonic regime for vein formation.
2. Fluorite indicator mineral study: Trace element chemistry and isotopic studies on fluorite will be used as a test to determine the applicability of fluorite as: 1) an indicator mineral for a variety of ore deposit types concentrating on rare-metal deposits, but also skarn, mississippi-valley-type, pegmatite and greisen deposits; and 2) as a fertility indicator when comparing barren versus economic mineralization within the same ore deposit type. Fluorine is a much overlooked pathfinder mineral for some deposits and displays variable chemistry depending on depositional environment.
3. Additional fluid inclusion, thermobarometric and genesis studies of the historic silver veins at Cobalt, in Northern Ontario. This work entails unravelling the depositional mechanisms in the world's richest silver mining district, with special emphasis on using and developing geothermometers in greenschist grade rocks.
4. Contained within the highest grade metamorphic rocks in BC are cordierite-sapphirine migmatites. These migmatites exhibit decompression coronas in rocks containing the assemblage cordierite-sapphirine-spinel-corundum-garnet-sillimanite-anorthite-biotite. This assemblages can be used to place PT constraints on these high-grade metamorphic rocks and refine the tectonic model for this particular metamorphic core-complex.
5. Within the limestone and marble units on Vancouver Island are numerous caves. Stalagtites and stalagmites formed within the caves contain a record of paleoclimatic conditions spanning from modern times to thousands of years before present. A speleothem study utilizing stable isotopes and U-Th geochronology would yield paleoclimatic for Vancouver Island and could be correlated with ice and possibly human movements in the area.
