U.S.-Switzerland Cooperative Research on Fluid Inclusion- Deformation Microstructure Interactions from Naturally- Deformed Quartz

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This award supports Professor Eric L. Johnson of Central Michigan University to collaborate in geological research with Professor Neil Mancktelow of the Geological Institute of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. The objective of their research is to gain a better understanding of the relationships between the microstructural development of a quartz-rich rock and the fluid contained in that rock. They will carry out a systematic study of the interaction of grain boundary fluids and fluid inclusions during the progressive deformation of quartz-dominated rocks and veins from the Simplon Fault Zone (SFZ) in southwestern Switzerland and northern Italy. Their research objective requires an interdisciplinary approach which is well served by their complementary expertise in structural geology (Mancktelow) and metamorphic petrology (Johnson.) The SFZ is an ideal natural laboratory for the proposed research since it contains an unusually wide range of rock deformation types that have already been quantitatively studied by Mancktelow. The use of fluid inclusion data from naturally deformed rocks is complicated by the unknown effects of deformation on the compositions and densities of fluid inclusions. During deformation, the modification, genesis, and annihilation of fluid inclusions is intimately tied to the formation and migration of grain boundaries and the distribution, composition and physical properties of the grain boundary fluid(s). The observations and models to be obtained in this international collaborative project will provide a basis for the meaningful use of fluid inclusion data from deformed rocks.