GSN Southern Nevada Chapter Meeting, Thursday, March 5, 2020 (1st Thursday)

Description

Contact: humphr1@unlv.nevada.edu

 

GSN SOUTHERN NEVADA CHAPTER MEETING

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2020

Location:  Las Vegas Natural History Museum, 900 Las Vegas Blvd. North

Time:  Pizza & Beer @ 5:30 p.m; Talk @ 6:15 p.m.

Speaker:  Dalton McCaffrey, Ph.D. Student – Geology, UNLV

Title:  Granitic Pegmatites: An Overview with Examples from Nevada and California

 Food & Drinks Sponsored by: The Geological Society of Nevada

In APPRECIATION OF OUR DEDICATED & GENEROUS SPONSORS!!

 

Abstract:

Granitic pegmatites have the unique ability amongst other geologic systems to concentrate rare and critical metals such as Li, Be, Cs, Ta, and REE, vital to modern technology into mineable deposits, but even with the plethora of available research on these systems, their petrogenesis remains enigmatic. There are two competing hypotheses for rare metal pegmatite petrogenesis: extensive fractional crystallization of a large (pluton-scale) volume of magma and low-degree direct anatexis involving a large volume of source rock. While barren pegmatites have been shown to be generated via either fractional crystallization or anatexis, only pluton-scale fractional crystallization has been adequately proven to produce rare metal pegmatites. This talk will briefly overview granitic pegmatite petrogenesis, and use examples from both Nevada and California to demonstrate that either type of petrogenesis may be possible.

Please contact Southern Nevada Chapter Officer, Rebecca Humphrey <humphr1@unlv.nevada.edu> for more information.