Lakehead University Geology - Journal Yearbook (Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada)

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Dr. R. Garth Platt, B.Sc.. Ph.D. Academic Background; Visiting Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 1969-70 NRC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Western Ontario, 1970-71. N.E.R.C. Research Fellow and Staff member. University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1971-74. Assistant Professor, Lakehead University, since 1974 The summer season began and ended with organized field trips to the Coldwell Alkaline Complex in N.W. Ontario. The early summer field trip was organized for the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Institute on Lake Superior Geology. A guide book was prepared for the occasion. The late summer trip saw a group of hardy students (some students claimed it snowed - fertile imaginations), studying the complexities of North America ' s largest alkaline complex and the rigours of life on the North Shore of Lake Superior. In between these events, serious research was continued on the pet- rology of the Coldwell Alkaline Complex with particular emphasis on the neph- eline syenites and the dike rocks associated with the intrusion. In addition, preliminary investigations of the Keweenawan Osier Volcanics of Northwestern Ontario were undertaken. The department ' s research boat was often seen braving the waters of Lake Superior with Dr. Platt in command and Dr. Mitchell navig- ating. Dr. Mitchell ' s navigation was so bad that the beginning of July saw us both on Bathurst Island in N.W.T.. This trip, under the auspices of the Polar Continental Shelf Project, was made to initiate studies into the geology and petrology of the Freeman ' s Cove Alkaline Volcanic Suite. This suite, con- taining as it does, nephellnites, basanites and phonolites is unique to the Canadian Arctic and its study will provide us with valuable information about the geological history of the area.

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Dr. Roger H. Mitchell, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. Academic Background; Lecturer in Isotope Geochemistry, University of Oslo, Norway, 1971-72. Assistant Professor of Geology, Lakehead University, 1972-76. Associate Professor of Geology, Lakehead University, since 1976. Field work this year commenced with a visit to the Moonshine Hills of Kentucky in search of the type locality of mica peridotite. The search was not a resounding success as the peridotite dikes are intruded into faults occupied by flourite veins which weather to a persistant glutinous red mud, thus hiding the igneous rocks. Six months later I still have some of the mud on my boots. Samples were found with the aid of gophers, despite such hazards as flourite mud, bloodsucking ticks, snakes, fields of poison ivy and a local populace remeniscent of characters from Deliverance . Never do field work in Kentucky unless you really have to I Springtime found myself as 100% of the crew of the notorious Captain Platt and involved in a study of the igneous rocks found in the Lake Superior Islands and of the nepheline syenites found on the Marathon Riviera - field work not to be missed if you ever get the chance - one of the most beautiful parts of Lake Superior. July found Dr. Platt and myself encamped upon some awfully stoney ground in the permafrost desert called Bathurst Island. Our work there sponsored by the Federal Polar Continental Shelf Project, was to make a de- tailed study of the Freeman ' s Cove volcanic rocks, these are the second only known occurrence of nephelinite in North America. During the work Dr. Platt did an excellent job as gunbearer, wreaking havoc amongst the oil drums with the 30-06, but failed abyssmally in attracting any polar bears. In fact, the fiercest beast we came across was a long-tailed jaegar. The fall saw me once more in the desert, but this time in the very hot Arizona desert. As a part of the Second International Kimberlite Conference field trips were organized in the U.S„ southwest. Here I collected kimberlites, minettes and pieces of mantle to compliment my studies of Canadian and South African upper mantle material. Much of the field work involved such activities as pushing rubber rafts down the San Juan River Canyon, climbing mountains under the blistering hot sun or coughing ones way around sagebrush and cactus in sandstorms. All very enjoyable and some 70 petrologists were kept on the liquidus by consuming some 5000 cans of beer over ten days. In all this was the most Interesting field work of the year as I saw recent volcanism, the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, the Rio Grande Rift, and a wide variety of igneous rocks.

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Dr. Stephen A. Klssin, B.Sc., M.S., Ph.D. Academic Background; Post Doctoral Fellow, McMaster University 1973 N.R.C. Post Doctoral Fellow, CANMET, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Ottawa 1974-75 Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, Lakehead University since 1975. My activities last summer began with the GACMACGEGCGU (basically. Geological Association of Canada Mlneraloglcal Association of Canada) meeting in Vancouver in late April. As well as presenting a paper on the new mineral cernyite, Cu CdSnS , I attended a field trip to the southeastern B.C. lead-zinc deposits. My particular aim was to collect specimens from the Sullivan Mine, with the view of examining the tin mineralogy and pyrrhotite-sphalerite geobarometry. On my return to Thunder Bay, I was involved with the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Institute of Lake Superior Geology, hosted by the Department, in the capacity of Technical Sessions Co-Chairman. I also attended the Mattabi field trip as a supernumary. For the remainder of May, I worked on the preparation of journal papers and some geological field problems in the Rabbit Mountain Mine area. My efforts were interrupted by the birth of my daughter, my second child, on May 31st. After two weeks at home, I returned to the University to work on another journal paper on stannite and other tin-bearing sulphide minerals. Continued study on tin-bearing sulphide minerals led me to the appreciation that two previously undiscovered species exist. One is the cubic form of stannite, normally tetragonal Cu 2 FeSnS , while the other is the iron analogue of kesterite, Cu 2 ZnSnS , which is also tetragonal, but has a space group which differs from that of stannite. In the latter part of August, I spent some time in the field mainly in the reconnaissance study of silver mines in the Rabbit Mountain area. As well, I made a trip to Ottawa to use the facilities at CANMET in order to investigate the two new minerals mentioned earlier and continue some aspects of research on the synthetic system Cu 2 FeSnS -Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 . After all this, I found that the summer was suddenly gone. F 1