Collaborative Research: REU: An Integrated Field-laboratory Experience for Undergraduates: Constraints on the Tectonic Evolution of Ultramafic Massifs in the Southern Blue Ridge

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9619932 Ryan This REU project will provide undergraduate students with an integrated field and laboratory research experience. Students will tackle questions about the origins and evolution of mafic and ultramafic rock units of the Buck Creek and Lake Chatuge complexes, in the high-grade metamorphic belt of the Southern Appalachians of western North Carolina and northern Georgia. The origins of Appalachian mafic and ultramafic rocks and their tectonic implications are actively debated. Using detailed field observations, structural analysis and compositional information, the students will provide some new constraints on the origin of these rocks and their tectonic evolution. The first half of the project will involve four weeks of field mapping, sampling and structural analysis using facilities at Western Carolina University. In the second half of the project, students will use the analytical facilities of the University of South Florida to chemically analyze rock samples collected in the field. The faculty will participate fully in research activities as guides, providing students with a detailed overview of the relevant geologic issues, and helping them identify and formulate the research questions; and as instructors, providing them with direction and training in field techniques, laboratory protocols, and the use of analytical instrumentation.