Andrew Barth, Ph.D.

Research

My research is focused on the tectonic evolution of convergent margins. Research projects generally use the techniques of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology to gain insight into the environments of mineral and rock formation. Detailed geochronologic studies using multiple isotope systems are crucial to success in this type of approach. Student projects involve field mapping followed by detailed geochemical, isotopic and mineralogic analysis of rock suites.

My previous work emphasized the evolution of Mesozoic granitic rocks, both as windows into the evolution of magma systems and as indicators of later rock exhumation. Currently I am studying Proterozoic metamorphic rocks and their implications for the origin of continental crust, and the tectonics within the dying Mesozoic continental margin arc system in southern California and western Arizona.

Education

• B.S. Geology, California State University, Los Angeles, 1981
• M.S. Geology, California State University, Los Angeles, 1985
• Ph.D. Geological Sciences, University of Southern California, 1989

Publications & Professional Activity

Barth, A.P., Wooden, J.L., Grove, M., Jacobson, C.E., and Dawson, J.P., 2003, U-Pb geochronology of rocks in the Salinas Valley region of California: A reevaluation of the crustal structure and origin of the Salinian block: Geology 31, 517-520.

Barth, A.P., Wooden, J.L., Jacobson, C.E., and Probst, K.*, 2004, U-Pb geochronology and geochemistry of the McCoy Mountains Formation, southeastern California: A Cretaceous retroarc foreland basin: Geological Society of America Bulletin 116, 142-153.

Barth, A.P., and Wooden, J.L., 2006, Timing of magmatism following initial convergence at a passive margin, southwestern U.S. Cordillera, and ages of lower crustal magma sources: Journal of Geology 114, 231-245.

Anderson, J.L., Barth, A.P., Wooden, J.L., and Mazdab, F., 2008, Thermometers and thermobarometers in granitic systems, in Putirka, K., and Tepley, F. (eds.), Minerals, Inclusions and Volcanic Processes: Mineralogical Society of America Reviews in Mineralogy 69, 121-142.

Barth, A.P., Wooden, J.L., Coleman, D.S., and Vogel, M.B., 2009, Assembling and disassembling California: A zircon and monazite geochronologic framework for Proterozoic crustal evolution in southern California: Journal of Geology 117, 221-239.

Needy, S.K.*, Anderson, J.L., Wooden, J.L., Barth, A.P., Paterson, S.R., Memeti, V., and Pignotta, G.S., 2009, Mesozoic magmatism in an upper- to middle-crustal section through the Cordilleran continental margin arc, eastern Transverse Ranges, California, in Miller, R.B., and Snoke, A.W. (eds.), Crustal cross-sections from the western North America Cordillera and elsewhere: Implications for tectonic and petrologic processes: Geological Society of America Special Paper 456, 187-218.

Jacques-Ayala, C., Barth, A.P., Wooden, J.L., and Jacobson, C.E., 2009, Provenance and U-Pb geochronology of the Upper Cretaceous El Chanate Group, northwest Sonora, Mexico, and its tectonic significance: International Geology Review 51, 1051-1077.

Fohey-Breting, N.K., Barth, A.P., Wooden, J.L., Mazdab, F.K., Carter, C.A., and Schermer, E.R., 2010, Relationship of voluminous ignimbrites to continental arc plutons: Petrology of Jurassic ignimbrites and contemporaneous plutons in southern California: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 189, 1-11.