richard_gaschnig@uml.edu
978-934-3706
301C Olney Hall
Dr. Richard Gaschnig
Associate Professor
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. I specialize in geochemistry, geochronology, and petrology. At UMass Lowell, we have a Q-ICP-MS, laser ablation unit, and ICP-OES, along with a wet lab for sample digestion and column chromatography. With LA-ICP-MS, we regularly perform combined U-Pb and trace element analysis of zircon, monazite, rutile, and titanite and are working on expanding to other minerals.
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Recent news:
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I was coauthor on a paper in PNAS on the use of vanadium isotopes to understand the evolution of the continental crust. Interview on it here
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Grad student Ericka Boudreau and I were interviewed by Nick Zentner on his popular geology explainer YouTube series: LINK
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New paper on the Kaniksu batholith
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In the summer of 2022, I ran a field geology course in Glacier National Park and eastern Idaho; this was supported by an NSF grant. Read about it here.​
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I was fortunate to see the 2021 eruption in Iceland. Videos
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Recent papers on nontraditional stable isotopes in OIBs: here and here
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Recent paper co-authored with former postdoc Shelby Rader (now assistant prof at Indiana University) on thallium isotopes in HPLT rocks here
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Recent paper on detrital zircons in ancient glacial diamictites here
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