Degrees

Ph.D, Virginia Tech (2017)
M.S., University of Montana (2012)
B.A., Middlebury College (2010)

Research Interests

I am a metamorphic geologist with a broad interest in tectonics, heat and mass transfer in modern plate boundaries and their ancient analogues, and the long-term evolution of Earth's continental crust. I study these processes by reading the geologic record preserved in metamorphic rocks.

Specifically, my research aims to elucidate processes at convergent plate margins (mountain belts, subduction zones) as recorded by exhumed metamorphic rocks in both modern and ancient settings, through the use and development of novel techniques to "reading" metamorphic rocks. I integrate field and microstructural observations, geochemical analysis, and various computational modelling techniques to quantify the depths, temperatures, paths, and timescales of metamorphism in the rock record. 

Some of the questions that motivate my research include:

• How are heat, mass, and fluids transferred in the lithosphere at active plate boundaries, and over what timescales do these processes occur?
• How are feedbacks between deep crustal melting and rapid surface erosion initiated in orogenic belts, and over what time- and length-scales do deep crustal and surficial processes influence each other?
• Do metamorphic rocks faithfully record their burial depths?
• What were the tectonic mechanisms for extreme heating and stabilization of Earth's early continents? What signature do these processes imprint in the Archean metamorphic rock record?
• In what ways do metamorphic reactions control the occurrence of slow-slip earthquakes in subduction zones?

Teaching Interests

I teach Mineralogy (GEOL 271), Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology (GEOL 321), and Principles of Geology (GEOL 111).

Publications

Please see my Google Scholar Page  for a comprehensive list of my publications 

Extramural Research Grants Awarded

National Science Foundation, NSF-EAR-2225643 (2023-2024): Collaborative Research: Equipment: Acquisition of a Confocal Micro-Raman Spectroscopy System at the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College

National Science Foundation, NSF-EAR-221076 (2022-2025): Collaborative Research: Resolving Conflicting Thermobarometry and Stratigraphy in the Tethyan Himalaya: is Non-Lithostatic Pressure During Orogenesis Preserved at Crustal Scales? 

National Science Foundation, NSF-EAR-2120412 (2021-2023): Collaborative Research: Understanding the Tectonic and Petrological Processes Controlling Iron Oxide-Apatite Mineralization in a Mesoproterozoic Collisional Orogen 

National Science Foundation, NSF-EAR-2119843 (2021-2024): Collaborative Research: Probing feedbacks between thermal structure, petrologic transformation, and rheologic evolution within dynamically evolving subduction zones

Links

Personal Research Website: https://www.victoreguevara.weebly.com/