- New Additions: Granite Structures, Migmatites and Agmatites from Brazil, five new pages of photographs and amazing structures.
Research Interests
- Magma Segregation and Transport
Focus on understanding how granitic melt is transported across the crust, linking melt source to plutons. Field areas: Himalayan leucogranites of the Karakoram of the NWIndian Himalayas, granites of the Broken Hill Block in SE Australia. Collaboration with Mike Brown, Bill Collins, Mark Pawley, Klaus Regenauer-Lieb, Ed Sawyer and Ron Vernon.
- Magma Mingling/Mixing and Porphyry Copper Deposits
Mingling and mixing of magmas has long been an area of interest of mine. Currently, with Michiel van Dongen and Andy Tomkins, we are investigating the role of magma interaction in the production of porphyry copper deposits.
- Continental Extension: Heat Flow, Core Complexes and Continental Break-Up
Collaboration with Klaus Regenauer-Lieb, Uwe Ring, Gideon Rosenbaum and Chris Wijns merging numerical model predictions and field work in the Aegean and in the Yilgarn Craton, SW Australia, with the aim to better understand the process and the geological record. For more see Geology (Rosenbaum et al., 2005), and EPSL (WIjns et al. 2005). Future directions: linking geothermal evolution with basin and oil formation, and metalogeny.
- Orogenic Gold and Fluid Flow in the Crust
Understand the the controls on orogenic gold mineralization with focus on Archean deposits of the Eastern Goldfields in the Yilgarn Craton, through the structural/tectonic/lithologic controls on fluid flow in the crust. More than 100 gold deposits were investigated to provide the basis for numerical models of the elasto-plastic deformation of the crust in the presence of pore fluids using FLAC and coupling to the tectonic evolution of the terrain. Most of this work is confidential, for more see Geology (Weinberg et al. 2004), Economic Geology (Weinberg et al., in press). Collaboration with David Groves, Paul Hodkiewicz, Peter van der Borgh, Frank Bierlein and Anthony Morey.
- Structural and Tectonic Evolution of the Yilgarn Craton, SW Australia
Focus on the evolution of the 2.7-2.63Ga late Archean Eastern Goldfields in the Yilgarn and exploration of comparison to potential modern analogues such as Taiwan or the Aegean. Collaboration with Bryan Krapez and Mark Barley.
- Curnamona Block
Hosting the largest Pb-Zn-Ag deposit in the world, this high-grade terrane has been the focus of much research. I am interested in its tectono-thermal evolution, melt production and migration. For more see JMG (Forbes et al. 2005), and Precambrian Research (Ganne et al., in press).
Research Projects
The early stages of granite evolution: Extraction and transport through ductile crust
Dr R. Weinberg in collaboration with external researchers Dr K Regenauer-Lieb, Prof M Brown, Dr EW Sawyer, Prof RH Vernon, A/Prof WJ Collins
Funding for 2006: $72,828 (ARC Discovery Project)
This research is aimed at understanding how the continents develop through several stages of rock melting. Rock melts deep in the continents to form granite magmas which rise, transporting to the upper crust important metals, such as gold, copper and tin, and heat producing elements such as uranium, thorium and potassium. This research proposal seeks to understand how granite melts form and rise transporting these all important elements, which control not only our wealth but also the stability of the continents we live in.
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