Courses I teach:

GEOL 3027: Environmental Geology
GEOL 4012: Seminar
GEOL 4047: Introduction to Geochemistry
GEOL 4049: Undergraduate Research I
GEOL 4055: Undergraduate Research II
GEOL 6195: Petrologic Systems

Various special topics classes

Research interests:

• I like research projects that involve different aspects of petrology and geochemistry, including igneous petrology, high-temperature geochemistry, stable isotope geochemistry, zircon U-Pb geochronology, metamorphic petrology.

Ongoing research projects:

The Early Earth

• I have spent the last several years studying the origin of detrital zircons older than 4 billion years (>4 Ga) found in younger sediments in the Jack Hills, Western Australia. These zircons are the oldest geologic record of Earth processes, and provide important clues to the early evolution of the Earth.

 Petrogenesis of island arc granitoids in the Caribbean

• Over the last two years I have initiated a new research program aimed at furthering the understanding of the origin of Cretaceous to Eocene granitoids in the Caribbean region. My graduate student Rafael Perez Gonzalez is currently studying the oxygen isotope geochemistry of intrusive rocks in Puerto Rico to address source composition and magmatic processes, and we have recently begun a program that will provide the first high-precision zircon U-Pb ages to these rocks to understand the timing of events in what is now the northeast margin of the Caribbean plate.
  
  

Current students

Graduate
Rafael Perez Gonzalez (MS, 2007)
Thesis: Oxygen isotope geochemistry of island arc granitoids in the Caribbean

Publications

Cavosie, A.J., Valley, J.W., Wilde, S.A., E.I.M.F. (2006) Correlated microanalysis of zircon: Trace element, δ¹⁸O, and U-Th-Pb isotopic constraints on the igneous origin of complex >3900 Ma detrital grains. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 70(22), 5601-5616.

Utsunomiya, S., Palenik, C.S., Valley, J.W., Cavosie, A.J., Wilde, S.A., Ewing, R.C. (2007). Threshold radiation dose for significant elemental migration in zircon from Jack Hills, Western Australia. Chemical Geology, 236, 92-111.

Valley, J.W., Cavosie, A.J., Fu, B., Peck, W.H., Wilde, S.A. (2006) Technical comment on “Heterogeneous Hadean hafnium: Evidence of continental crust at 4.4. to 4.5 Ga” Science 319, 1139a.

Valley, J.W., Lackey, J.S., Cavosie, A.J., Clechenko, C.C., Spicuzza, M.J., Basei, M.A.S., Bindeman, I.N., Ferreira, V.P., Sial, A.N., King, E.M., Peck, W.H., Sinha, A.K., Wei, C.S. (2005) 4.4 billion years of crustal maturation: oxygen isotope ratios of magmatic zircon. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 150, 561-580.

Cavosie, A.J., Valley, J.W., Wilde, S.A., E.I.M.F (2005) Magmatic 18O in 4400-3900 Ma detrital zircons: a record of the alteration and recycling of crust in the early Archean. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., v. 235, 663-681. Link to the article.

Cavosie, A.J., Liu, D., Wilde, S.A., Weiblen, P.W., Valley, J.W. (2004) Internal structure and U-Th-Pb chemistry of Jack Hills detrital zircons: a mineral record of Early Archean to Mesoproterozoic (4348-1576 Ma) magmatism. Precambrian Research, v. 135, 251-279. Link to the article

Utsunomiya, S., Palenik, C.S., Valley, J.W., Cavosie, A.J., Wilde, S.A., Ewing, R.C. (2004). Nanoscale occurrence of Pb in an Archean zircon. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 68, 4679-4686. Link to the article

Cavosie, A.J. and Selverstone, J. (2003) Early Proterozoic oceanic crust in the northern Colorado Front Range: Implications for crustal growth and initiation of basement faults. Tectonics, 22(2), 1015, doi: 10.1029/2001TC001325, 23 pp. Link to the article

Cavosie, A.J., Sharp, Z.D., Selverstone, J. (2002) Co-existing aluminum silicates in quartz veins: A quantitative approach for determining andalusite-sillimanite equilibrium in natural samples using oxygen isotopes, American Mineralogist, 87, no. 4, 417-426. Link to the article