Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Faculty of Science

(U‑TH)/HE Laboratory (UTHHE)

Our laboratory is equipped with a house-build ultra-high vacuum system for extraction, purification and measuring 4He isotopes in apatite and zircon grains. This system includes:

  • 45 W diode laser for thermal extraction of 4He
  • All metal gas extraction and purification line with Janis cryogenic pump and two SAES getters
  • Pneumatic valves controlled by solenoid system
  • 3 l stainless steel tanks for spikes and standards equipped with precise volume pipets for delivering these spikes and standards
  • Pfiffer Vacuum Prisma Quad mass spectrometer for precise measurements of 3He/4He ratios.
  • All components of our He extraction system are controlled by computer. Our software package is based on LabVIEW and allows fully automated analyses of samples, blanks, and standards 24/7 without human interaction.
  • Optimal apatite and zircon grains are selected using stereoscopic polarising microscope and the shape analyses is performed by software.

Current Research

  • Landscape evolution of the East Canada and Artic rim Atlantic margin (Coutand, MUN, GAC)
  • Exhumation kinematics of the Eastern Himalaya (Coutand, Grujic)
  •  Shear Zone reactivation and mineralisation in Yukon (Kellett , Coutand)
  • Exhumation and glaciations in the Patagonian Andes, Chile and Argentina (Coutand)
  • Exhumation of the Bundelkhand massif, Central India (Coutand)
  • Tectonic development of the Neuquen Andes, Argentina (Coutand)

Graduate Theses

Landry K. R. (2014) Neogene Exhumation of the Sikkim Himalaya from (U-Th)/He Thermochronology and 3-D Thermo-kinematic Modelling. M.Sc. Thesis. Dalhousie University

Antinao, J.-L. 2008 Quaternary landscape evolution of the southern Central Andes of Chile, quantified using landslide inventories, 10Be and 36Cl cosmogenic isotopes, and (U-Th)/He thermochronology. Ph.D. thesis. Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax

Grist, A. (2004) Aspects of the thermal history of the eastern margin of Canada based on apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He thermochronology. Ph.D. Thesis, Dalhousie University, 422p.

Honours Theses

Landry, K. R. (2010) Pliocene exhumation of the Trumsing La area (Eastern Himalaya, Kingdom of Bhutan) Using U-Th-Sm/He thermochronology. Honours Thesis, Dalhousie University.

Buckley, R. (2009) Application of (U-Th-Sm)/He Analysis in Apatite: Assessing the Effect of Salt Structures on Sverdrup Basin Rocks, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut. Honours Thesis, Dalhousie University, 78 p.

Yaehne, S. (2008) Apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He Thermochronology of the Eastern Arctic Rim: Evolution of the North-Central Baffin Island Rifted Margin. Honours thesis. Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax.

Publications

(* indicates student-authored paper)

*Landry, K. R., Coutand, I., Whipp Jr, D. M., Grujic, D., Hourigan, J. K. (2016) Late Neogene tectonically driven crustal exhumation of the Sikkim Himalaya: Insights from inversion of multithermochronologic data. Tectonics, 35, 3, 833–859, doi: 10.1002/2015TC004102

Coutand, I., Whipp Jr., D. M., Grujic, D., Bernet, M., Fellin, M. G., Bookhagen, B., *Landry, K. R., Ghalley, S. K. and Duncan, C. (2014) Geometry and kinematics of the Main Himalayan Thrust and Neogene crustal exhumation in the Bhutanese Himalaya derived from inversion of multithermochronologic data, 
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 119, 1446–1481, doi:10.1002/2013JB010891.

*Kellett, D.A., Grujic, D., Coutand, I., Cottle, J. and Mukul, M.  (2013) The South Tibetan detachment system, Sikkim Himalaya facilitates rapid cooling, not rapid exhumation. Tectonics. 32, 2, 252–270, doi:10.1002/tect.20014.

Contact

Djordje Grujic 902-494-2208
Djordje.Grujic@Dal.Ca
Roman Kislitsyn 902-494-4455
roman.kislitsyn@dal.ca