Structural Geology at New Mexico Tech


Table of Contents


Introduction

New Mexico Tech has a large and diverse group of people involved in structural research, located in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, the Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, and the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources. Interests of this group range from structures developed in metamorphic tectonites to faulting of unconsolidated sediments. Studies are conducted from detailed field work at all scales, modeling, and timing of deformation (fission track analysis and Ar/Ar geochronology). A recent thrust of members of this group has been to look at relationships between faulting and fluid flow in unconsolidated sediments.

New Mexico is, geologically speaking, a very diverse state, and many structural studies are possible within 1-2 hours of New Mexico Tech. Facilities for structural research include: a Starkey X-ray texture camera for complete crystallographic preferred orientations, a structural lab with image analysis facilities for the texture camera, petrographic microscopes, and U-stage, a state of the art automated lab for Ar/Ar geochronology, and a lab for fission track analysis . We recently got a Cameca SX100 Microprobe. Information about specific research interests in structural geology can be found on the appropriate faculty home pages.

We usually have 2 or 3 structurally related seminars per semester in our departmental seminar series. The structure group also meets weekly; in these meetings we discuss such things as our current research, any particular problems we are having in our research (a collective brain-storming session, interesting papers we have read recently, etc.


The Structurions

Geology/Geochemistry Program

Hydrology Program

New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources

 


Areas of Research Interest

Penrose Conference

A Penrose Conference "Faults and Subsurface Fluid Flow: Fundamentals and Applications to Hydrogeology and Petroleum Geology" was organised by members of the Structural Group. This meeting was held in New Mexico during September, 1997.


WWW Structural Resources

The Structural Geology Page by Smith College's Department of Geology)

Structural Geology and Metamorphic Petrology on the WWW

Structure and Tectonics Division of the Geological Society of America


Photos


Field Trips


EES Departmental Links

Department of Earth and Environmental Science Home Page

Geology/Geochemistry Program Home Page

Geophysics Program Home Page

 Hydrology Program Home Page

Updated: 19 Jun 2006