Project

The Torres del Paine is a beautifully exposed granite and gabbro intrusion. The current project looks at the contact metamorphism, which resulted from the intrusion of the hot granitic and mafic magmas, 12.45-12.6 Ma years ago. We are establishing the contact geometry. A detailed map of the extend of the contact aureole is being established, along with sampling the vertical cliffs above the intrusion, and we are completing some sampling from below the intrusion. The rocks are extremely fine grained, reminding the researcher of porcelain. This in turn suggests that the reactions occurred extremely fast - a perfect environment to determine reaction kinetics. We are currently developing thermal and kinetic models to exploit grain size distributions from this aureole.  Phase petrology calculations for the cordierite bearing rocks will be performed, to obtains maximum temperatures. Previous work has already yielded an intrusion pressure of ca. 750 bar.

Research is done by the PhD student Robert Bodner, who who started his PhD at the beginning of the project.