University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES
FACULTY
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Education | Contact Information
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Research Activities
| Death Valley
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Publications
Ph.D., University of California-Los Angeles, 1981.
B.A., Pomona College, 1976.
Department of Geological Sciences
311 Mitchell Hall, CB#3315
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3315
email: afg@unc.edu
telephone: 919-962-0689
fax: (919) 966-4519
I received a Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Spring 2000. Many thanks to the great students over the years who've made this possible, to the other faculty I've relied on for advice, to the UNC Center for Teaching and Learning, and to Kurt Frankel, who nominated me for the award.
Co-editor of the Geological Society of America Bulletin, 1999-2002
A few photos from the snowstorm of January 24-25, 2000 (video captures)
I spent the Fall 1999 semester teaching UNC undergraduates in a Burch Field Research Seminar at the White Mountain Research Station in eastern California
Other Stuff of Interest
Atlas
of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks, Minerals, and Textures
Geology Image Gallery
Draped
and shaded geologic maps of Yosemite and other areas
Pictures
from flight to Death Valley, January 1999
Pictures
from the Geology 184 Spring Break field trip to Death Valley and Owens Valley
- My principal research interests are igneous petrology, tectonics, and the geologic evolution of western North America. Tools employed in these studies include field work, whole-rock geochemistry, radiogenic isotope studies, U-Pb geochronology, and structural geology.
- Current research centers on magmatism in eastern
California. The continental margin of western North America has a complex
and magmatically diverse history, and we are using magmatism as a measure
of its evolution. Mafic magmas (basalts and their intrusive equivalents)
drive magmatic systems and provide a glimpse of mantle behavior.
- Current projects include:
- Significance of thin interpluton septa for pluton emplacement processes. This project, jointly funded by the National Science Foundation with John Bartley (University of Utah) and Drew Coleman (Boston University), is aimed at understanding how thin, continuous, pluton-separating screens of wall rock develop, and what they mean for the emplacement mechanisms of plutons. Field examples in Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks are under study by the three of us and students Scott Grasse (Utah), Ryan Taylor (UNC), and John Templeton (UNC). Photos and maps of the Split Mountain screen are useful ways to study the rocks.
- Petrologic and tectonic studies of the Coso and Eagle Crags volcanic fields. A study of mafic and felsic Late Cenozoic magmas in and around the Coso geothermal area, funded by the Navy. This work is in conjunction with Doug Walker (University of Kansas), with former postdocs Jonathan Miller and Curtis Manley, and with a consortium led by the Geothermal Program Office at the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center.
- Age, deformation, and significance of the Independence dike swarm, California. Structural and geochronologic studies of the huge Jurassic and Cretaceous Independence dike swarm, funded by the National Science Foundation. This study formed Brian Carl's Ph.D. thesis work.
- Continental Mountains in Extensional Environments: The Sierran Paradox. A Collaborative Research Proposal. A study of Late Cenozoic basalts and ultrapotassic rocks in the southern Sierra Nevada. This project, collaborative with Lang Farmer (University of Colorado), is part of the Southern Sierra Continental Dynamics project. Ours goals are to use the basalts as indices of mantle evolution under the range. Funded by the National Science Foundation.
- Time-space variability of mafic plutons in the Sierra-Mojave batholith. Kent Ratajeski's Ph.D. work. Funded by the National Science Foundation.
- Recent research publications are noted below.
- Current projects include:
Hear me pontificate about Death Valley in a very nice web article (with many pictures and audio clips) on the web site of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Thanks to Jim Spadaccini for the nice article.
Be sure to check out these books, coauthored with Bob Sharp:
- Both are available from Mountain Press.
- In a typical year I teach the following courses:
- Introductory Geology (Geology 11)
- Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology (Geology 53)
- Advanced Field Seminar in Geology (Geology 184)
- A seminar in tectonics or petrology (recent seminar topics include subduction zones, heat flow, and the tectonic evolution of the western United States)
- I have also taught courses in the following:
- Graduate igneous petrology
- Graduate igneous geochemistry
- Volcanology
- Graduate mineralogy and crystal chemistry
- Summer field course
- Web-based image collections include images for my introductory geology class and the Atlas of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks, Minerals, and Textures, which Kent Ratajeski and I are developing.
- When not doing geology, spending time with my
family, walking the dog, etc., I like to run, swim, bike, and fly. I am
a member of the Cardinal Track
Club, Godiva
Track Club, and the Chapel
Hill Flying Club.
- Running (and Triathlon) Resume
- Flying: instrument-rated, checked out in Cessna 152 and Piper Warrior aircraft. I typically fly out of Horace Williams Airport (IGX) in Chapel Hill, and Bishop Airport (BIH) while doing field work in California.
Selected Research Publications
- Reverse chronological order.
Glazner, A. F., Bartley, J. M., and Carl, B. S., 1999, Oblique opening and noncoaxial emplacement of the Independence dike swarm, California: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 21, p. 1275-1283.
Glazner, A. F., 1999, Exposure of deep, dense rocks: interplay between erosion and sinking: in Ring, U., Brandon, M. T., Lister, G. S., and Willett, S. D., eds., Exhumation Processes: Normal Faulting, Ductile Flow and Erosion, Geological Society of London Special Publication 154, p. 233-239.
Beard, B.L., and Glazner, A.F., 1998, Petrogenesis of Pliocene high-K basanites from Deep Springs Valley, California: Evidence for recycling crust back into the mantle: Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 133, p. 402-417.
- Glazner,
A.F., and Miller, D. M., 1997, Late-stage sinking of plutons: Geology,
v. 25, p. 1099-1102.
- Coleman, D. S., and Glazner, A.F., 1997, The Sierra crest magmatic event: rapid formation of juvenile crust during the Late Cretaceous in California: International Geology Review, v. 39, p. 768-787.
- Coleman, D. S., Glazner, A.F., Miller, J. S., Bradford, K. J., Frost, T. P., Joye, J. L., and Bachl, C. A., 1995, Exposure of a Late Cretaceous layered mafic-felsic magma system in the central Sierra Nevada batholith, California: Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 120, p. 129-136.
- Hanson, R. B., and Glazner, A.F., 1995, Thermal requirements for extensional emplacement of granitoids: Geology, v. 23, p. 213-216.
- Beard, B. L., and Glazner, A.F., 1995, Trace element and Sr and Nd isotopic composition of mantle xenoliths from the Big Pine volcanic field, California: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 100, p. 4169-4179.
- Miller, J. S., and Glazner, A.F., 1995, Jurassic plutonism and crustal evolution in the central Mojave Desert, California: Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 118, p. 379-395.
- Farmer, G. L., Glazner, A.F., Wilshire, H. G., Wooden, J. L., Pickthorn, W. J., and Katz, M., 1995, Origin of late Cenozoic basalts at the Cima volcanic field, Mojave Desert, California: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 100, p. 8399-8415.
- Glazner, A.F., 1994, Foundering of mafic plutons and density stratification of continental crust: Geology, v. 22, p. 435-438.
- Glazner, A.F., and Bartley, J. M., 1994, Eruption of alkali basalts during crustal shortening in southern California: Tectonics, v. 13, p. 493-498.
- Glazner, A.F., and Farmer, G. L., 1992, Production of isotopic variability in basalts by cryptic crustal contamination: Science, v. 255, p. 72-74.
- Ussler, W. III, and Glazner, A.F., 1992, Enthalpy-composition relationships in mixed magmas: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 51, p. 23-40.
- Coleman, D. S., Frost, T. P., and Glazner, A.F., 1992, Evidence from the Lamarck Granodiorite for rapid Late Cretaceous crust formation in California: Science, v. 258, p. 1924-1926.
- Glazner, A.F., Farmer, G. L., Hughes, W. T., Wooden, J. L., and Pickthorn, W., 1991, Contamination of basaltic magma by mafic crust at Amboy and Pisgah craters, Mojave Desert, California: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 96, p. 13,673-13,691.
- Glazner, A.F., 1991, Plutonism, oblique subduction, and continental growth: An example from the Mesozoic of California: Geology, v. 19, p. 784-786.
- Bartley, J. M., Glazner, A.F., and Schermer, E. R., 1990, North-south contraction of the Mojave block and strike-slip tectonics in southern California: Science, v. 248, p. 1398-1401.
- Glazner, A.F., 1990, Recycling of continental crust in Miocene volcanic rocks from the Mojave block, southern California: Geological Society of America Memoir 174, "The Nature and Origin of Cordilleran Magmatism", edited by J. L. Anderson, v. 174, p. 147-168.
- Glazner, A.F., Bartley, J. M., and Walker, J. D., 1989, Magnitude and significance of Miocene crustal extension in the central Mojave Desert, California: Geology, v. 17, p. 50-53.
- Ussler, W., III, and Glazner, A.F., 1989, Phase equilibria along a basalt-rhyolite mixing line: implications for the origin of calc- alkaline intermediate magmas: Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 101, p. 232-244.
- Glazner, A.F., and Ussler, W., III, 1989, Crustal extension, crustal density, and the evolution of Cenozoic magmatism in the Basin and Range: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 94, p. 7952-7960.
- Glazner, A.F., and Ussler, W., III, 1988, Trapping of magma at midcrustal density discontinuities: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 15, p. 673- 675.
