Daniel R. Lux  Professor of Geological Sciences Ph.D., Ohio State University Telephone: 207-581-4494 Fax: 207-581-2202

It is an extremely exciting time for me personally as well. In the last few years I have made a shift away from 40Ar-39Ar dating, back to my roots in igneous petrology. I currently have two graduate students, Ben Johnston and Mary Good, working on petrology master’s theses. Ben is working on the Deer Isle Igneous Complex and Mary is studying schlieren in the Mt. Waldo Granite. This work will be supported by my new NSF grant, Locating the Mantle Component in Granites (collaborative with John Hogan, University of Missouri-Rolla and David Gibson, University of Maine-Farmington).

My current research is aimed at understanding the processes that occur within crustal magma chambers and lead to the vast diversity igneous rocks in continental settings. My work is based on sound field and lab work, the focus of which is granites of the coastal Maine magmatic province. These plutons are well exposed in spectacular coastal outcrops and inland in abundant quarries and natural outcrops. We are using a variety of chemical and isotopic techniques for whole-rock samples and integrated textural, chemical and isotopic studies of individual mineral grains. I envision that magma chamber processes will continue to be my main research for the foreseeable future and plan additional studies in southern California and Colorado. We have excellent microscope, electron microprobe analyzer, x-ray diffractions, and sample preparation facilities here at the University of Maine and working relationships with other labs that enable us to collect other sorts of data as needed.

I welcome new graduate students at the PhD or MS level and have a research assistant to offer for the up coming year. Interested student should feel free to contact me.
 

Magma Chamber Processes