This is the second travel blog post (the first blog is here) for the Howard Street Robinson Lecture Tour sponsored by the Geological Association of Canada. In February, I undertook the Atlantic leg of the tour where I gave four lectures in Halifax, Wolfville, and Antigonish. I gave lectures on: 1) Semi-permeable interface model for subseafloor replacement-style volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits, which was based on my recent paper in Economic Geology (replacement talk); and 2) Zn-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits, which is based on another recent paper of mine in an Irish Association of Economic Geology Special Publication (Zn-rich VMS talk).
Stop 1 – Halifax. My first stop of the Atlantic leg was at St. Mary’s University on February 1, where I gave the replacement talk. There were some great discussions afterwards about fluid advection, replacement processes, and VMS deposits, and thanks to those that took the time to come. Special thanks to Jacob Hanley for organizing things in St. Mary’s and to my hosts Kevin Neyedley and Mitch Kerr for showing me around, touring the facilities, spending time with me talking about their research, and their overall hospitality.
Great landmark and place to visit in Halifax!
Stop 2 – Wolfville. My second stop on the Atlantic leg was at Acadia University on February 2nd where I gave the talk on Zn-rich VMS deposits. There were a lot of great questions and discussions on recognizing magmatic fluids in VMS deposits, VMS in the Appalachians and the wonderful natural laboratory we get to work on! and A special thanks to Sandra Barr for the invite, her hospitality and arranging things on the tour (including the really cool place to stay while there – the Blomidon Inn). It was also great to catch up with numerous people there including Sandra, Chris White, Cliff Stanley, Scott Swinden, and Peir Pufahl, and chat about tectonics, geochemistry, and VMS deposits. Thanks for taking the time.
View looking out from the Blomidon Inn looking out over Wolfville with the Minas Basin in the background.
Stop 3 – Antigonish. The third stop on the Atlantic leg was at St. Francis Xavier University where I gave the Zn-rich VMS talk on February 3rd. There was a great discussion about magmatic fluids, Zn contents of fluids, distribution of magmatic input in VMS through time (and lack thereof), water depth in VMS, and so on. I thank Evelise Bourlon for arranging the talks and other logistics. I would also like to thank Brendan Murphy and Alan Anderson for their hospitality there, for the great craft beer (when in Antigonish check out this place), and the opportunity to chat about tectonics and ore deposits!
View over St. FX campus.
Stop 4 – Halifax. The final talk on the Atlantic Leg was at Dalhousie University where I gave the Zn-rich VMS talk on February 4th. The discussion session was fantastic with lots of tangents into anoxia, framboids and sulfur isotopes, Irish-type Zn-Pb mineralization, secular distributions of VMS and metal contents, sources of metals and fluids. Lots of fun. I would like to both Yana Fedortchouk and John Gosse for their hospitality and the discussions. I would like to especially thank John for the invite, arranging things, touring me around Dalhousie, and hosting me while there.
I apologize to all on the Atlantic Leg as it seems I was finishing a talk and running off to another destination. I wish I had more time at each place to talk more science. Thanks again to all for the hospitality, I know that you are all busy, but I really appreciate the time taken to host me!
Stay tuned, one more leg in Ontario and Quebec to come!
Economic Geology Blog 