Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies

CV

Research

Lawford Anderson’s principal research interest is the evolution and construction of the Earth’s crust. As an igneous petrologist concerned with granitic magma genesis and mineral equilibria, much of his work and that of his students have been devoted to an understanding of the evolution of granite magma from its source to emplacement. The research is both field and lab oriented and has shared interests with other disciplines including geochemistry, structural geology and tectonics, and rock mechanics. Present research problems are diverse but follow a common theme, one of crustal petrology. Much of his research is focused on the Proterozoic crustal evolution of North America with emphasis on the rapid growth of orogenic crust during the Early Proterozoic (1.7-1.9 Ga) and the Proterozoic-unique, “anorogenic” magmatism of the period 1.0 to 1.5 Ga world wide. A second area of research is related to the Mesozoic and Tertiary magmatism of the western U.S. Recent work has been on emplacement conditions and magmatic evolution of metamorphic core complexes of California, the Mt. Stuart batholith of the north Cascades, Washington and the Tuolumne Intrusion of the Sierra Nevada batholith, California.

Teaching

  • EE 105 Crises of the Planet
  • EE 300 Earth’s Rocky Materials