Petrology Research at UH-Downtown

03/03/2025

Congratulations to Kelly McNair, who successfully defended her Honors Thesis, titled "Pressure and temperature conditions of garnet amphibolite metamorphism in the Clearwater Metamorphic Complex in northern Idaho." Using a combination of whole rock and mineral chemistry with pseudosection modeling, she was able to show that these garnet amphibolites (originally tholeiitic basalt) preserve a record of prograde metamorphism to a maximum depth of over 35 km. Nice job, Kelly!

11/17/2023

Analyzing the samples we collected this summer.

11/17/2023

Field work (Summer 2023) in Oregon and northern Idaho.

02/18/2022

Big week in the PlasmaLab. Analyzed most of the samples we collected last summer (Oregon and Idaho), plus several from years past. A total of 87 samples (major and trace elements). I'm really happy with the ICP's performance so far.

07/14/2021

06/08/2021

New signage.

04/20/2021

Water purification system installed and working properly!

04/08/2021

The PlasmaLab is moving to two new labs! One is the sample preparation lab, which houses the mineral separation facilities (including a dedicated heavy liquid fume hood). The other is the instrument lab, which is where the new Thermo iCAP 7400 ICP-OES will be installed. Shouldn't be long now.

08/27/2020

08/21/2020

RESEARCH PROJECT
We are looking for an undergraduate student to conduct petrological and geochemical research on drill cores from southern Oregon, in conjunction with Drs. Gary Gray (Rice University) and Kenneth Johnson (UHD). The successful candidate must:
• be a UHD geology major, preferably in the geochemistry concentration,
• be willing to commit to two or more full semesters of research beginning Fall 2020,
• have credit for, or at least be enrolled in, GEOL 3310/3110 (Mineralogy). Additional courses such as Petrology (GEOL 3305/3105) and Inorganic Geochemistry (GEOL 3340) would be beneficial.
For more information, contact Dr. Kenneth Johnson at [email protected].