Paul W. Layer
Associate Professor of Geophysics

Michigan State University '81, B.S.; Stanford University '84, M.S., '86, Ph.D.

Dr. Layer is head of the Geochronology Laboratory. His research focuses on use of the 40-argon/39-argon dating technique to investigate geological and geophysical problems in Alaska and elsewhere. Applications include determining the age of plutonism and tectonic events, dating of volcanoes in Alaska, and constraining the time of formation of mineral deposits. Dr. Layer is involved in international collaborative projects with scientists from Russia, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Sweden and South Africa. He also works with researchers and students at other US universitites, state and U.S. government agencies and with industry. Dr. Layer teaches courses on general and advanced geochronologic techniques, the use of statistical methods in the geosciences and introductory geology.

email: Paul.Layer@gi.alaska.edu
phone: 907-474-5514
FAX: 907-474-7290

Applications of 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and other current research areas including:

The thermal history and evolution of Archean cratons such as the Kaapvaal Craton in southern Africa and the Superior Craton in Canada.

The dating of metamorphism and terrane accretion in Alaska and the eastern USSR.

Constraining the timing of emplacement of mineralization in ore deposits in Alaska and elsewhere.

Tephrochronology and volcanostratigraphy.

Studies of the thermal and metamorphic history of the Brooks Range.

Paleomagnetism of Archean terranes and Precambrian plate tectonics.

Applications of argon isotopes to igneous petrology

Recent Publications (for a full vita, see: http://www.uaf.edu/geology/Facultyn/Layer.pdf)

2005

Thorkelson, D.J., Abbott, J.G., Mortensen, J.K., Creaser, R.A.., Villeneuve, M.E., McNicoll, V.J., Layer, P.W., 2005, Early and Middle Proterozoic evolution of Yukon, Canada, Canadian Journal of Earth Science, v. 42, 1045-1071.

2004

Dallegge, T.A., and P.W. Layer, 2004, Revised chronostratigraphy of the Kenai Group from 40Ar/39Ar dating of low-potassium bearing minerals, Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska, Canadian Journal of Earth Science, v. 41, p. 1159-1179.

Dusel-Bacon, C., J. L Wooden, and P. W. Layer, 2004, A Cretaceous SHRIMP U-Pb zircon age for the West Point Orthogneiss: Evidence for another gneiss dome in the Yukon-Tanana Upland, in Galloway, J.P., ed., Studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey during 2001: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1678, 41-61.

Rombach, C.S. and P.W. Layer, 2004, 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of the western and central Brooks Range, Alaska: implications for the geologic evolution of the Anarraaq and Red Dog Zn-Pb-Ag deposits, Economic Geology, 99, 1307-1322.

Werdon, M., B., P.W. Layer, and R. J. Newberry, 2004, 40Ar/39Ar dating of Zn-Pb-Ag mineralization in the northern Brooks Range, Alaska, Economic Geology, 99, 1323-1343.

2003

Bradley, D.C., J. Dumoulin, P. Layer, D. Sunderlin, S. Roeske, B. McClelland, A.G. Harris, G. Abbot, T. Bundtzen, T. Kusky, 2003, Late Paleozoic orogeny in Alaska’s Farewell terrane, Tectonophysics, 372, 23-40.

Constenius, K. N., R. P. Esser, and P. W. Layer, 2003, Extensional Collapse of the Charleston-Nebo Salient and Its Relationship to Space-Time Variations in Cordilleran Orogenic Belt Tectonism and Continental Stratigraphy, in R.G. Raynolds and R. M. Flores, eds., Cenozoic Systems of the Rocky Mountain Region, Society for Sedimentary Geology, Denver, Colorado, p303-355.

Douglas, T. A., C. P. Chamberlain, A. Poage , M. Abruzzese, S. Shultz, J. Henneberry and P. Layer, 2003, Fluid flow and the Heart Mountain fault: a stable isotopic, fluid inclusion, and geochronologic study, Geofluids 3, 13–32.

Friese, A.E.W, W.U. Reimold, and P.W. Layer, 2003, 40Ar/39Ar dating of tectonites from the Witwatersrand basin – evidence for multistage, post-Transvaal magmatic-thermal activitiy in the central Kaapvaal Craton, in revision to South African Journal of Geology, v 108.

Groome, W.G., D.J. Thorkelson, R.M. Friedman, J.K. Mortensen, N.W.D. Massey, D.D. Marshall, and P. W. Layer, 2003, Magmatic and tectonic history of the Leech River Complex, Vancouver Island, British Columbia: Evidence for ridge-trench intersection and accretion of the Crescent Terrane, in J. Sission, S. Roeske and T. Pavli, eds. Geology of a transpressional orogen developed during ridge-trench interaction along the north Pacific Margin submitted to GSA Special Paper 371, 327-353.

Ring, U., and P.W. Layer, 2003, High pressure metamorphism in the Aegean, eastern Mediterranean,: Underplating and exhumation from the Late Cretaceous until the Miocene to Recent above the retreating Hellenic subduction zone, Tectonics, Vol. 22, No. 3, 1022, doi:10.1029/2001TC001350.