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• Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
• Frank Dawson Adams Building
• 3450 University Street
• Montreal, QC H3A 2A7
• Canada

• Telephone: 514-398-6767
• Fax: 514-398-4680
• Email: gradinquiry [at] eps.mcgill.ca
• Website:

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences offers both M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree programs. Graduate programs are based on research, although some courses are required to build the backgrounds of students. Research in the Department is wide-ranging. It includes studies of the geochemistry of the mantle, the nature of processes concentrating metals in hydrothermal mineral deposits, experimental studies of the controls of viscosity in magmas and the mechanisms of volcanic eruption, the fixation of mercury in marine sediments, the nature of changes in atmospheric chemistry in the early and late Precambrian, mechanisms of faulting, the evolution of topography during orogenesis, wetland hydrogeology, and planetary-scale ocean biogeochemistry and its relationship to global warming. There is a very substantial interdisciplinary basis to much of the research.

Facilities in the Department include low-temperature and pressure to high-temperature and pressure experimental laboratories, a stable-isotope mass spectrometer, XRF, laser-ablation ICP-MS, and electron microprobe, as well as atomic absorption spectrometers. Our students also make substantial use of other facilities at º£½ÇÉçÇø and at nearby Université du Québec à Montréal.

Financial assistance is available in the form of teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and scholarships.

Areas of Research

Aquatic Geochemistry

Application of chemical thermodynamics, kinetics, and surface chemistry to the characterization of mineral-solution interactions in aquatic environments, carbonate geochemistry, early diagenesis of marine and coastal sediments, trace metal and environmental geochemistry in freshwater and marine systems.

Biomineralization

Investigation of process occurring at the interface between inorganic and organic phases leading to the nucleation and growth of crystals in both natural and synthetic systems. Pathogenic mineralization and calcification in mammalian cells and tissues. Investigating biomarkers as signatures of ancient biological activity in terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials.

Economic Geology

Studies of the genesis of hydrothermal mineral deposits through a combination of field-based, experimental, and theoretical methods. Research focuses on the understanding of physico-chemical controls of mineralization, through geological mapping of deposits, experimental studies of metal solubility and speciation in hydrothermal systems, simulations of hydrothermal alteration, and theoretical studies designed to estimate conditions of alteration and ore formation. Trace-element chemistry of minerals as quantitative probes of the compositions of ore-forming fluids.

Hydrogeology

Studies of pore-water flow in northern peatlands, heat transport, heat as a tracer of natural systems, groundwater modeling, coupled numerical models of pore water flow and heat transport with freeze/thaw processes, and the impact of melting tropical glaciers on water resources.

Igneous Petrology

Experimental studies of the structure, thermodynamics, and transport properties (diffusion and viscosity) of silicate melts and applications to igneous petrogenesis. The nature of the Earth's upper mantle and the processes within it which give rise to basaltic volcanism on both the Earth and the other terrestrial planets. Applications of laser ablation ICPMS; Petrology, geochemistry, and tectonics of the Appalachian lithosphere.

Mineralogy

Chemistry and crystallography of carbonate minerals. Experimental investigations of the effect of environmental factors (e.g., solution composition and temperature) on the morphology and composition of calcite.

Oceanic Biogeochemistry

Links between the marine ecosystem and climate through observations of the modern ocean, simulations of ocean biogeochemistry with computer models, and sedimentary records of past climate change.

Seismology

Subduction earthquake nucleation and rupture propagation processes. Physical mechanism of aseismic deformation transients, deep non-volcanic tremors, dynamic and static stress triggering of low-frequency earthquakes and transients. Pore-fluid pressure coupling with frictional strength and slip.

Tectonics

The interactions of climate and tectonics, especially in regard to the formation and degradation of orogens. Understanding the paleoclimatic and neotectonic history of Plio-Pleistocene landscape development using cosmogenic-dating techniques. Archean orogenic processes. Fluid flow in faults, granular flow in faults, and catastrophic structural/geochemical events in faults.

Isotopic Geochemistry and Sedimentary Geology

Sedimentology, stratigraphy, and isotope geochemistry as guides to reconstructing ancient environments. Reconstruction of paleoenvironmental change during the Neoproterozoic to early Phanerozoic. Relationships between tectonics (i.e. supercontinental break-up and assembly), seawater chemistry and ocean redox, severe climatic fluctuations (including snowball Earth), and the origin and diversification of animals. Recovery of the geochemical memory of large-scale Earth system processes (e.g., microbial control of the global S cycle; anthropogenic manipulation of atmospheric OH abundances). Investigations of microbial biogeochemistry under an anoxic Archean atmosphere, to constrain mass fluxes in the Phanerozoic geologic sulfur cycle, and to track processes that control the pollution-cleansing oxidants (OH, O3) in the modern atmosphere.

Volcanology

Petrology and geochemistry of intermediate and felsic magmas. Understanding physical processes and forecasting eruptions at active subduction-zone volcanoes. Geochemistry of volcanic gases, their use for eruption prediction, and their impact on the atmosphere.