Stacia M. Gordon

TS Tectonics and Structural Geology

The 2014 Division Outstanding Young Scientist Award is awarded to Stacia M. Gordon for important contributions on the integration of microstructural data with geochronology, metamorphic petrology and geochemistry.

Stacia M. Gordon provided important contributions to tectonics and structural geology, specifically the integration of microstructural data with geochronology, metamorphic petrology, and geochemistry (for example, in situ oxygen isotope analysis) to track the timing and conditions of partial melting and crystallisation. Using this approach, which included depth-profiling of zircon rims, she showed that a wide region of the north-western US and south-western Canada consisted of partially molten crust until the Eocene, from the continental arc to the core-complex belt. Approximately 50 million years ago, a thick layer of partially molten crust collapsed and cooled rapidly during extension facilitated in part by flow of the weak crust. In recent years, Gordon has investigated the tectonic processes recorded in exhumed deep crust of the Pamir Mountains and Papua New Guinea (migmatite domes). She was also invited to participate in field-based research in Oman to study crustal evolution, and is now working in Bhutan and Norway to understand timescales and mechanisms of crustal flow in collisional orogens, including those that experienced continental subduction.

Gordon is leading the new generation of tectonicists by combining careful sampling of key sites (many in remote and difficult field areas) with use of geochemical and microstructural methods to understand first-order processes of heat and mass transfer in orogens. She is a rising star in the international tectonics community.