Rates of zircon transport in the modern Amazon River
The rates of zircon dispersal in a modern continental fluvial environment. I am actively exploring how far and how fast zircon is moved from the headwaters of the Amazon River in the Andes to the Amazon fan in collaboration with Afonso Noguiera (Universidade Federal do Pará), Rónadh Cox (Williams College) and Jeremy Hourigan (UC Santa Cruz). The Andes Mountains provide the headwaters of the Amazon with young zircons that can be traced downstream to the mouth. The development of laser ablation ICP techniques has caused an explosion in detrital zircon studies applied to paleogeography studies. However, almost nothing is known about how reliable modern river sediments are at recording the geology of their drainage basin.
Recent Publications
Cox, R., Coleman, D. S., Chokel, C. B., DeOreo, S. B., Wooden, J. L., Collins, A. S., De Waele, B. and Kröner, A., 2004, Proterozoic tectonostratigraphy and paleogeography of central Madagascar derived from detrital zircon U-Pb age populations: Journal of Geology, v. 112, no. 4, p. 379-399.
Mapes, R. W., Coleman, D. S., Cox, R. and Noguiera, A. C. R., 2009, Strengths and limitations of zircon as a provenance indicator: a basin-wide study of the Amazon River, Geological Society of America Bulletin, in review, 31 ms p., 5 figs., 3 tables.
Lawrence, R.L., Mapes, R. W., Cox, R., Coleman, D. S. and Noguiera, A. C. R., 2009, Hydrodynamic fractionation of zircon age populations, Geological Society of America Bulletin, accepted and under revision, 20 ms p., 7 figs., 1 table.
Drew Coleman
Subvolcanic magma accumulation rates and links between plutonic and volcanic rocks
Cretaceous time scale geochronology
Forensic geology and geoarchaeology
Creepy lava tube picture