Department of Geology and Geophysics
Research Projects
ICDP SUSTAIN drilling project, Surtsey Volcano, Iceland
Time-lapse hydrothermal processes in a pristine basaltic oceanic island and UNESCO World Heritage site
Basaltic tephra and lava
Surtsey Volcano, Iceland (1963-1967)
Roman architectural concretes
We are investigating how long term crystallization of mineral cements in
imperial Roman mortar promotes chemical resilience, fracture toughness, and autogenous healing of fractures in the 2000-year-old monuments
Conglomeratic pyroclastic rock concrete
Great Hall, Markets of Trajan, Rome (~110 CE)
Roman seawater harbor concretes
Our recent American Mineralogist article describes Al-tobermorite and
phillipsite crystallization at low temperature, and compares processes in the seawater concrete with rock-water interactions in basaltic tephra deposits.
Pumiceous seawater mortar
Baianus Sinus breakwater, Bay of Pozzuoli (late 1st C BCE)
Al-tobermorite, bonding environments
Exploration of Al-tobermorite crystal structures, compositions, and bonding
environments provide a basis for evaluating potential cation-exchange properties
in Roman concretes and altered basaltic tephra.
Al-tobermorite, relict lime clast
Baianus Sinus breakwater, Bay of Pozzuoli (late 1st C BCE)
Experimental concrete prototypes, durability and testing
Our materials testing of reproductions of Roman architectural and seawater
harbor mortars provide a basis for implementing Roman technologies in
environmentally-friendly cementitious materials with specialty properties.
Markets of Trajan mortar reproduction
Philip Brune, Cornell University (2010)
Historic Stone Masonry, Flagstaff, Arizona
Stone masonry in downtown Flagstaff, Arizona and in Sinaguan ruins
(1100 CE) record geologic environments in northern Arizona, from
Triassic lagoons and flood plains to recent basaltic eruptions.
Basaltic fieldstone masonry
Guadalupe Chapel, Flagstaff, Arizona (1926)