Title
Kayla Kopinski
Files
Description
Microstructural Documentation of Metamorphic Rocks from Coastal Maine
Kayla Kopinski, Geology
Faculty Mentor: Professor Gary Solar, Earth Sciences
Kayla is a senior Geology major who will be graduating in spring 2020. She plans to attend graduate school in Geology.
During her fellowship, Kayla documented the metamorphic-deformation combination recorded in rocks that were at the edge of ancient North America approximately 300 million years ago, but now exposed in coastal Maine. Kayla documented the microstructures in the rocks where older mineral patterns are preserved inside larger crystals. The older patterns do not match the geometry of the bulk rock patterns, thereby signifying an earlier continental collision whose mineral patterns were replaced by new mineral growth during a later collision (about 100 million years later). Kayla was selected to present these results at the Geological Society of America Combined Northeastern and Southeastern Regional annual meeting in Reston, Virginia in March 2020.
