[Geolalumni] A new Washington geology story

[George Mustoe]

Dear Geofolks,
I'm the first to admit that there are some disadvantages of being old (I'm 75). One of the advantages is that I 0ccasionally get invitations to write long review articles for research journals. They apparently mistake age for wisdom. Anyway, here is a link to my new paper Nephrite Jade and Related Rocks from Western Washington State, USA: A Geologic Overview. It was published online last night in Minerals. Writing for international journals is always entertaining. The associate editor for this manuscript lives in Serbia, the journal head office is in Switzerland, and the final production editing is done in Wuhan, China. One of the four peer reviewers for this manuscript is a metamorphic petrologist at a university in Siberia, another is a geology professor in Taiwan. Writing a metamorphic petrology-based story was a stretch for me, it's not my usual line of work.  I had a class on the subject 50+ years ago. There are lots of pretty pictures in this story, and the analytical data all came from WWU AMSEC and SciTech Services facilities. It's testimony to the availability of instruments to campus users.
George M.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/14/12/1186
[https://pub.mdpi-res.com/img/journals/minerals-logo-social.png?8600e93ff98dbf14]<https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/14/12/1186>
Nephrite Jade and Related Rocks from Western Washington State, USA: A Geologic Overview<https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/14/12/1186>
The geologic framework of western Washington, USA, is the result of collisional tectonics, where oceanic plate materials were subducted beneath the continental margin. As part of this process, fragments of mantle peridotites were transported into the upper crust along deep faults. The hydration of these ultramafic materials produced bodies of serpentinite. Subsequent regional metamorphism caused metasomatism of the serpentinite to produce a variety of minerals, which include nephrite jade, grossular, chlorite, diopside, vesuvianite, and pumpellyite. Many of the nephrite-bearing rocks are located along the Darrington–Devils Mountain Fault Zone in Skagit and Snohomish Counties. Intense prospecting has led to the establishment of many mining claims, but recreational collecting remains a popular activity.
www.mdpi.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kula.geol.wwu.edu/pipermail/geolalumni/attachments/20241122/143ab8ad/attachment.htm>