Kurt
Friehauf - ResearchKurt
Friehauf - ResearchWe are all partners
in a quest.
The essential
questions have no answers.
Questions unite people.
Answers divide them.
Elie Wiesel - 1986 Nobel Peace Prize
My
research integrates extensive field mapping data and petrographic work
with thermodynamic modeling to evaluate metasomatic chemical reaction
paths.
My current research projects focus on:
In
the
Qinling Mountains of
Henan province, we are studying the origins of a belt of
magmatic-hydrothermal molybdenum deposits. This
work
is in collaboration with the China University of
Geosciences in Beijing. I brought two Kutztown University
undergraduate students to Henan
province in China
with me
in the summer of 2008 to aid in
this work. The trip was a cornucopia of fascinating lessons in
Chinese culture and frustrating lessons in... well... other aspects of Chinese
culture! 
At Bayan
Obo,
we are looking
at chemical variations in the limestone rocks that host the
orebodies
to see if there is evidence for influence by carbonatite magmas (either
as orthomagmatic lava flows and intrusions, or due to hydrothermal
activity related to carbonatite intrusions at depth). This work
is in collaboration with the China University of
Geosciences in Beijing. I brought three Kutztown University
undergraduate students to Inner
Mongolia, China
with me
in the summer of 2004 to aid in
this work.
At Ertsberg in West Papua,
Indonesia, my field
mapping (1999-2002)
revealed the system to be hosted by several igneous phases that
alternate
in time with multiple structural and hydrothermal events. I am
currently
refining that work through petrographic studies aimed at constraining
the
fluid chemistry, temperature, and pressure. In
collaboration with
Dr.
Spencer Titley and Stacie Gibbins (University of Arizona), I am
also studying the
origins
of the giant Grasberg porphyry copper deposit in the same
district.
Although the Grasberg and Ertsberg
porphyry deposits occur within 2 km
of one another and apparently formed within 100,000 years of one
another
in relation to similar igneous rocks, metasomatism around the Grasberg
center is much more intense and widespread. The ultimate goal of
this project is to draw a comparison of physiochemical conditions
between
these two contrasting systems to identify some of the factors that
affect how porphyry hydrothermal systems evolve.
I
am also investigating, in
collaboration with the Berks Products
Corporation and Dr.
Sarah Tindall along with a crew of Kutztown University
undergraduate student
researchers, the geological controls on groundwater
flow and cave formation in
eastern Pennsylvania. We are
comparing hydrologic data such as changes in groundwater table
and groundwater chemistry (temperature, pH, etc.) in a field of
monitoring wells with rock types and fracture patterns mapped in the
adjacent quarry. Our goal is to determine the relative importance
of different types of fractures, the abundance of fractures, and the
chemistry of the limestone rocks in affecting cave formation and
groundwater flow in the area.
The
focus of the magnetite
(iron) deposits of the eastern U.S.
research is to
determine if the
Proterozoic
magnetite deposits scattered throughout eastern Pennsylvania,
northern
New Jersey, and southern New York are related to one another and, if
they are, learn what causes the subtle variations in their
geology. These old magnetite deposits may be similar in
origin to the much younger iron deposits that occur in contact aureoles
of plutons
intruding
the Triassic/Jurassic rift basins nearby, which Rose et al. (1985)
proposed to be the result of hydrothermal
activity
related to
regional
fluid flow of non-magmatic (basinal? evaporative?) brines. The
widespread scale of the
many small magnetite Proterozoic deposits, their relationship to
hydrothermally altered wall rocks, and the spatially systematic
variation in this alteration and the host rock types suggests the
Proterozoic deposits are related to the same general geologic event and
that different deposits formed at different depths. This work is
in collaboration with Dr. Robert C. Smith II (Pennsylvania Geological
Survey) and Richard Volkert (New Jersey Geological Survey).
My Ph.D. research combined field
mapping
with detailed petrographic studies, investigations of the carbon-oxygen
isotope systematics in carbonate rocks, and irreversible thermodynamic
reaction path modeling to document metasomatic reactions in carbonate
rocks
by fluids given off during the late stages of the crystallization of
felsic
magmas (i.e. porphyry copper deposits). These aqueous solutions are
analogous
to those recorded in active geothermal systems in volcanic arcs of the
circumpacific (e.g. Pinatubo Philippines and White Island New
Zealand).
The exposures in the mine at Superior Arizona provided remarkable
access
to the hydrothermal system there, allowing detailed study of 1) the
geology
of carbonate-hosted massive sulfide replacement ores, 2) factors
affecting
the relative sulfur, metal, and chlorine budgets metaliferous solutions
upon reaction with wall rocks, and 3) the evaluation of stable isotopic
tracers in determining fluid flow paths in carbonate rocks.
