Research Overview
UW-Madison Rare Gas Geochronology Laboratory Current NSF-Supported Research Projects:

• EAR-pending: Paleomagnetic and geochronologic study of dynamo instabilities since the mid-Cenozoic: A volcanic perspective. (3 years).

• EAR-0738007: Lying in wait? Evolution of dacite beneath Santa Maria Volcano, Guatemala. (3 years beginning in 2008).

• EAR-0538159: Collaborative research: Spatiotemporal evolution of the Neogene ignimbrite flare-up in  the Altiplano-Puna Volcanic Complex, Central Andes: Insights into the development of large silicic magmatic systems. (3 years).

• EAR-0337684: A geomagnetic instability timescale for the Pleistocene. (5 years).

Igneous Petrology-Volcanology

We are seeking graduate students to participate in this and similar projects on volcanoes in the Aleutian Island Arc, Chilean Andes, and Canary Islands. If interested, email: bsinger@geology.wisc.edu

Lying in Wait? Evolution of Dacite Beneath Santa María Volcano, Guatemala
The origin of silica- and volatile-rich andesitic and dacitic magma is a question fundamental to understanding how continental crust evolves, how many of the world’s active volcanoes grow, and fully appreciating the hazards posed by these potentially dangerous volcanoes. The main aim of this project is to improve our understanding of the physical and chemical processes by which this kind of magma originates and evolves.
Full text with figures >>

We are seeking graduate students to participate in this research. If interested, email:  bsinger@geology.wisc.edu           

Lava flows are excellent recorders of past configurations of the geomagnetic field which is generated by fluid flow within the outer core. Changes in the geometry and intensity of the geomagnetic field over time provide some of the best clues as to how the geodynamo—and hence the Earth’s deep interior—operates. By studying records of many magnetic polarity reversals and excursions, we aim to illuminate patterns in past geodynamo behavior.
Full text with figures >>

Crustal Evolution and Tectonics

As plutonic or metamorphic rocks cool through temperatures of 500 to 200 degrees, radiogenic daughter product ⁴⁰Ar begins to accumulate in minerals and can be used to guage the timing and rate of cooling, exhumation, uplift, and erosion of the crust. We also have dated psuedotachylites to directly date the timing of mid-crustal faulting. Moreover, lava or ash flows may provide “piercing points” or stratigraphic horizons that when dated precisely constrain rates of slip on faults or incision by rivers.
Full text >>

Evolution and Chronostratigraphy of Lacustrine and Marine Basins

We are seeking graduate students to participate in geochronology research on Cretaceous strata. If interested, email: bsinger@geology.wisc.edu

Dating of volcanic ash beds deposited in lakes or oceans using the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronometer is revolutionizing our ability to determine rates of sediment accumulation, biological evolution, and environmental change. A major focus of this research has been undertaken in collaboration with Professor Alan Carroll on the Eocene Green River Formation in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. An array of more than two dozen precisely dated ash beds has allowed for the first time to track the evolution of lakes that occupied the Green River, Piceance Creek, and Uinta basins over eight million years of time.
Full text with figures >>