Big stories from tiny minerals

“Big stories from tiny minerals: Using mineral age to answer tectonic questions in the Western Gneiss region, Norway,” presented by Emily Walsh, associate professor of Geology, Thursday, Nov. 14. The Western Gneiss Region of Norway is one of the largest and best-studied ultrahigh-pressure terranes in the world. Within the Western Gneiss Region are rocks that were subducted to mantle depths (>150 km beneath Earth’s surface) and that were subsequently returned to Earth’s surface. The tectonic mechanisms at work during this subduction and exhumation process have significant implications for understanding the fundamental characteristics of crust and mantle worldwide. In this talk, Walsh will present recent mineral age data from across the Western Gneiss Region and our interpretations for exhumation processes based on those data.