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Calvin
Miller Ph.D.
UCLA, 1977
Igneous
Petrology and Tectonics email: millercf@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu General
Interests
Calvin Miller’s interests are in the processes that build and modify continents. His emphasis is on granitic magmatism and related processes and what they tell us about how the crust works. He and his students have worked on an array of problems in the fields of metamorphic petrology, structural geology, and especially igneous petrology. Current
Research
Miller and his students are focusing on two regions: southernmost Nevada and adjacent California and Arizona, and the southern Appalachians. In southern Nevada they are investigating the record Mesozoic and Tertiary magmatism and how it reflects the 2.5 billion year history of the southwestern crust. They are also especially interested in deciphering the physical and chemical evolution of magma chambers. Steep structural tilting that reveals top-to-bottom cross sections of plutons and overlying volcanic sequences provides windows into history and processes in magma systems. The southern Appalachians experienced a protracted history of accretion of tectonic terrains while they became one of the world’s greatest mountain belts. Studying plutonic and metamorphic rocks is providing new insights into this complex evolution. Current research takes Miller and students into the mountains of North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Deciphering the long-term, multi-stage history recorded in accessory
minerals is a major topic of investigation in both the southwest and the
Appalachians. Zircons in particular
survive through many cycles of crustal events, often spanning
What
Students Do Miller’s students have studied mafic complexes, mylonite zones, lower crustal xenoliths, accessory minerals and new applications of geochronology and volcanic sequences, as which is well as granite petrology. Their work has a field basis combined with analytical and petrographic work to address a well-focused problem. The aim is both to produce fundamental research and to gain an understanding of research methods and problem-solving in general. Selected
Publications
*Townsend,
K.T., Miller, C.F., *D’Andrea, J.L., Ayers, J.C., Harrison, T.M., and Coath,
C.D. (2000). Low temperature
replacement of monazite in the Ireteba granite, southern Nevada.
Geochronological implications. Chemical
Geology (in press). *Robinson, D. M., and Miller, C. F. (1999). Record of magma chamber processes preserved in accessory mineral assemblages. Amer. Mineralogist, 84:1346-1353. *Patrick, D.W., and Miller, C.F. (1997). Processes in a composite, recharging magma chamber: evidence from magmatic structures in the Aztec Wash pluton, Nevada. Proc. 30th Int’l. Geol. Cong. (Research Vol.), p. 121-135. *Falkner, C.M., Miller, C.F., Wooden, J. L., and Heizler, M.T. (1995). Petrogenesis and tectonic significance of the calc-alkaline, bimodal Aztec Wash pluton, Eldorado Mountains, Colorado River extensional corridor. Jour. Geophys. Res., 100:10,453-10,476. *Gerber, M.E., Miller, C.F., and Wooden, J.L. (1995). Plutonism at the eastern edge of the Cordilleran Jurassic magmatic belt, Mojave Desert, California: Chapter 17 in D. M. Miller, and K. Busby (Eds.). Jurassic magmatism and tectonism in the Cordillera, Geol. Soc. Amer. Special Paper 299, p. 351-374. *Hanchar, J.M., Miller, C.F., Wooden, J.L., Bennett, V.C., and Staude, J.-M. (1994). Evidence from xenoliths for a dynamic lower crust, eastern Mojave Desert, California. Jour. Petrol., 35:1377-1415. _______ *student
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