RICHARD GASCHNIG
Ph.D. Washington State University, 2010

Research Associate
Department of Geology
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
Fax: (301) 314-9661
gaschnig AT umd.edu

Research Interests
I am interested in the formation and evolution of the Earth's continental crust, and my work at the University of Maryland with Dr. Roberta Rudnick consists of a geochemical investigation of fine-grained glacial sediments deposited by continental ice sheets in the Pleistocene, Paleozoic, and Proterozoic. These deposits represent the natural integration of vast areas of continental bedrock and should provide robust information on the average composition of the upper continental crust, relatively unbiased by the effects of chemical weathering and water or wind driven particle fractionation.

I am also interested in the interaction between magmatism and tectonism and the origin of granite, and I received my Ph.D. from Washington State University in 2010 for work on the Idaho batholith and Challis intrusive province in the northern U.S. Cordillera. I was able to construct a broad geochronological and geochemical portrait of these systems by using in situ analytical techniques such as LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating, LA-MC-ICP-MS Hf isotopic analysis, and SIMS oxygen isotopic analysis of zircon, along with traditional whole-rock Sr, Nd, Pb, and Hf isotopic analysis.