My research at MSU and Cornell University, and going back to my PhD thesis at Yale, has focused on fluid-rock interactions, primarily in fault zones at a wide range of crustal levels. This work has focused on oil and gas migration in the Gulf of Mexico, along with processes that affect oil chemistry and how some of those effects can be used in exploration; ore deposits in California, Nevada, and Minnesota; and general fluid flow in faults and faulting processes in the French Pyrenees, Nevada, and Wyoming.
Petroleum-related research:
- Fault “burping:” Oil migration in an active growth fault, SEI 330 Field, offshore Louisiana
- How does a fault in shale transmit fluid?
- Reservoir brines and “plumbing system” in a major oilfield, offshore Louisiana
- Gas washing of oil: geologic controls on a widespread petroleum alteration process
- Exploration application of gas washing at the Tiger Shoals Field, offshore Louisiana: a geochemical probe.
Ore deposits research
- The Picacho CA Gold Mine: Gold in a low-angle normal fault environment
- Hydrothermal oxidation of iron ore, Mesabi Iron Range, Minnesota
- Gold in a hot-spring environment: the McLaughlin Mine, California
Fluids in deep and shallow faults
- Fluid flow and fault permeability in the Snake Range and Mormon Peak Detachments, Nevada
- Fluid flow across the brittle-ductile transition in a Pyrenean shear zone, France
- Really large block slides in Wyoming and Nevada