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Professor Geoff Clarke BSc(Hons), PhD

Director, Post-graduate Research for the Faculty of Sciences

Madsen Building (F09), Rm 442
Phone: +61 2 9351 2919
Fax: +61 2 9351 3644
Email:
Web: Personal Pages

Research Interests

Geoffrey Clarke has been a Professor in the School of Geosciences since 2007.

Prof. Clarke was born in Melbourne and completed a B.Sc. (Hons) at the University of Melbourne between 1977 and 1980. From 1981 to 1983 he worked as a minerals exploration geologist for Esso Exploration and Production, in the Olary (South Australia), Cloncurry (Qld) and Charters Towers (Qld) districts. Clarke then retuned to the University of Melbourne to complete his PhD thesis between 1984 and 1987, working on structural and metamorphic relationships in granulite facies rocks of the Mawson Coast (Australian Antarctic Territory) and in the Olary and Broken Hill areas. In 1988, he assumed the post of research fellow at Macquarie University. From 1989 to 1990 Clarke was employed by the Regional Mapping section of the Geological Survey of Western Australia, preparing geological maps in the Rudall River area. In July 1990, he was appointed as a Lecturer in Geology at the University of Sydney.

Prof. Clarke has contributed to all aspects of the textural analysis of high-grade metamorphic rocks. Field-based ARC-funded research on high-P Cretaceous granulites (with Klepeis & Rushmer, USA, and Tulloch & Mortimer, IGNS, New Zealand) integrates tightly data from structural, petrologic and isotopic studies to study geological processes critical to the formation and modification of continental crust. Other ARC-funded research (with Powell, University of Melbourne) on the application of equilibrium thermodynamics has defined the P-T domains of common blueschist and eclogite facies assemblages, something that could not be done by direct experimentation, and established new approaches to the study of equilibrium during metamorphism. Clarke has also had ASAC-funded field programme examining lower crustal processes that formed high-grade rocks in MacRobertson and Kemp Lands, Australian Antarctic Territory.

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Selected Publications

  • Klepeis, K., Betka, P., Clarke, G., Fanning, C., Hervé, F., Rojas, L., Mpodozis, C. & Thomson, S., 2010. Continental underthrusting and obduction during the Cretaceous closure of the Rocas Verdes rift basin, Cordillera Darwin, Patagonian Andes, Tectonics, 29, TC3014, doi: 10.1029/2009TC002610
  • Clarke, G.L., Fitzherbert, J.A., Milan, L.A., Daczko, N.R. & Degeling, H.S., 2010. Anti-clockwise P-T paths related to kyanite-bearing regional aureoles in the lower crust: an example from George Sound, New Zealand. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 28, 77-96 doi:10.1111/j.1525-1314.2009.00854.x.
  • De Paoli, M.C., Clarke, G.L., Klepeis, K.A., Allibone, A.H. & Turnbull, I.M., 2009. The eclogite - granulite transition: mafic and intermediate assemblages at Breaksea Sound, New Zealand. Journal of Petrology, 50, 2307-2343, doi:10.1093/petrology/egp078.
  • Wei, C., Wang, W., Clarke, G.L., Zhang, L. & Song, S., 2009. Metamorphism of High/ultra High-pressure Pelitic felsic Schist in the South Tianshan Orogen, NW China: Phase equilibria and P-T path. Journal of Petrology, 50, 1973–1991.
  • Vernon, R.H. & Clarke, G.L., 2008. Principles of Metamorphic Petrology. Cambridge University Press, New York, 446pp. ISBN 978-0-0521-87178-5 (hardback).
  • Clarke, G.L., White, R.W., Fitzherbert, J.A., Lui, S. & Pearson, N.J., 2007. Contrasting behaviour of rare earth and major elements during partial melting in granulite facies migmatites, Wuluma Hills, Arunta Block, central Australia. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 25, 1-18.
  • Halpin, J.A., Clarke, G.L., White, R.W. & Kelsey, D.E., 2007. Contrasting P-T-t paths for Neoproterzoic metamorphism in MacRobertson and Kemp lands, east Antarctica. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 25, 683-701.
  • Wei, C., Clarke, G., Wei, T. & Lin, Q., 2007. Transition of metamorphic series from the Kyanite- to andalusite-types in the Altai orogen, Xinjiang, China: Evidence from petrography and calculated KMnFMASH and KFMASH phase relations. Lithos, 96, 353-374.
  • Clarke, G.L., Powell, R. & Fitzherbert, J.A., 2006. The lawsonite paradox: a comparison of field evidence and mineral equilibria modelling. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 24, 715-725.
  • Clarke, G.L., Daczko, N.R., Klepeis, K.A. & Rushmer, T., 2005. Roles for fluid and/or melt advection in forming high-P mafic migmatites, Fiordland, New Zealand. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 23, 557-567.
  • Klepeis, K.A. & Clarke, G. L., 2004. Evolution of an exposed lower crustal attachment zone in Fiordland, New Zealand, In: Vertical coupling and decoupling in the lithosphere, Grocott, J., McCaffrey, K., Taylor, G., Tikoff, B. (eds), Geological Society Special Publication, 227, 327-344.
  • Clarke, G.L., 2002. The Geology of Australia. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems online
  • Daczko, N.R., Clarke, G.L. & Klepeis, K.A., 2001. The transformation of two-pyroxene hornblende granulite to garnet granulite: simultaneous melting and fracturing of the lower crust, Fiordland, New Zealand. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 19, 547-560.
  • Greenfield, J.E, Clarke, G.L. & White, R.W., 1998. A sequence of partial melting reactions at Mt Stafford, central Australia. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 16, 363-378.
  • Clarke, G.L., Aitchison, J.C. & Cluzel, D., 1997. Eclogites and blueschists of the Pam Peninsula, NE New Caledonia: a reappraisal. Journal of Petrology, 38, 843-876.
  • Clarke, G.L., Collins, W.J. & Vernon, R.H., 1990. Successive early Proterozoic metamorphic events in the Anmatjira Range, central Australia. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 8, 65-88.
  • Clarke, G.L., Powell, R. & Guiraud, M., 1989. Low-pressure granulite facies metapelitic assemblages and corona textures from MacRobertson Land, Antarctica: the importance of Fe2O3 and TiO2 in accounting for spinel-bearing assemblages. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 7, 323-335.
  • Clarke, G.L., Guiraud, M., Powell, R. & Burg, J.P., 1987. Metamorphism in the Olary Block, South Australia: compression with cooling in a Proterozoic fold belt. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 5, 291-306.
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Units Taught

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