Contact Information Office:   Traphagen Hall 217 Phone:   (406) 994-6760 Email:   colin.shaw1@montana.edu Education B.A. Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1985 M.S. University of Colorado, Boulder, 1995 Ph.D. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 2001

Research Interests

My research focuses on the architecture and evolution of the continental crust and on processes of brittle-plastic deformation including earthquake faulting, crystalplastic flow, and folding. Current projects include:

1. 'CREST': a four-year collaborative investigation of the ‘Aspen mantle aonomaly’ and its relation to uplift in central Colorado. The project combines a natural source seismic experiment with geologic, geomorphic, and thermochronologic studies of the Colorado mineral belt, and central Rocky Mountains. Funded by NSF Continental Dynamics Program.
2. A study of the interaction between frictional and plastic processes during seismic rupture. Detailed microstructural and field studies of pseudotachylyte-filled fault systems and related mylonite shear zones provide unique insight into seismic processes in the middle crust. Funded by NSF Tectonics Program.
3. Mapping Precambrian rocks in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado. This project focuses on the newly discovered Grizzly Creek shear zone (Allen and Shaw, in prep.). Funded by USGS EDMAP program.
4. Mapping in the Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico. This basic mapping project will provide data related to the hydrology of the region. Funded by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources and USGS STATMAP program.

Current Graduate Students

Evan Gearity

Selected Publications

Shaw, C.A., Allen, J.L., 2007, Rheological and Structural Evolution of the Homestake Shear Zone, Colorado: Flow, Folding, Plastic Shear and Seismogenic Faulting, Rocky Mountain Geology, in press.

Shaw, C.A., Heizler, M.H., Karlstrom, K.E., 2005. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar Thermochronologic Record of 1.45-1.35 Ga Intracontinental Tectonism in the Southern Rocky Mountains: Interplay of Conductive and Advective Heating With Intracontinental Deformation, in Karlstrom, K.E. and Keller, G.R., eds., The Rocky Mountain Region -- An Evolving Lithosphere: Tectonics, Geochemistry, and Geophysics, American Geophysical Union Monograph 154, p. 163-184.

McCoy, A.M., Karlstrom, K.E., Williams, M.L., and Shaw, C.A., 2005. Proterozoic ancestry of the Colorado mineral belt: 1.4 Ga shear zone system in Colorado: in Karlstrom, K.E. and Keller, G.R., eds., The Rocky Mountain Region -- An Evolving Lithosphere: Tectonics, Geochemistry, and Geophysics, American Geophysical Union Monograph 154, p. 71 90.

Karlstrom, K.E., Whitmeyer, S.J., Dueker, K., Williams, M.L., Bowring, S.A., Levander, A., Humphreys, E.D., Keller, G.R., Andronicos, C., Bolay, N., Boyd, O., Cather, S. Chamberlain, K., Christiansen, N., Crowley, J., Crosswhite, J., Coblentz, D., Eschete, T., Erslev, E., Farmer, G.L., Flowers, R., Fox, O., Heizler, M.H., Jessup, M., Johnson, R., Kelley, S., Kirby, E., Magnani, M.B., Mahan, K., Matzal, J., McCoy, A.M., Meyer, G., Miller, K., Morozova, E., Pazzaglia, F., Prodehl, C., Read, A.S., Quezada, O., Roy, M., Rumpel, H-M., Selverstone, J., Sheehan, A., Stevens, L., Shaw, C.A., Shoshitaishvili, E., Smithson, S., Snelson, C., Timmons, J.M., Treviño, L., Tyson, A., Wagner, S., Wan, X., Wisniewski, P., Yuan, H., Zurek, B. (CD-ROM Working Group), 2005. Synthesis of results from the CD-ROM experiment: 4-D image of the lithosphere beneath the Rocky Mountains and implications for understanding the evolution of continental lithosphere; in Karlstrom, K.E. and Keller, G.R., eds., The Rocky Mountain Region -- An Evolving Lithosphere: Tectonics, Geochemistry, and Geophysics, American Geophysical Union Monograph 154, p. 421-441.

Karlstrom, K.E., Amato, J.M., Williams, M.L., Heizler, M., Shaw, C.A., Read, A.S., Bauer, P, 2004. Proterozoic tectonic evolution of the New Mexico region: a synthesis. in Mack, G.H. and Giles, K.A., eds., Geology of New Mexico, A Geologic History, New Mexico Geological Society Special Publication, Fiftieth Anniversary Volume. New Mexico Geological Society Special Publication, p. 1-34.

Shaw, C.A., Karlstrom, K.E., Williams, M.L., Jercinovic, M.J., McCoy, A.M., and Dueker, K., 2003. Proterozoic Shear Zones of the Colorado Rocky Mountains: From continental assembly to intracontinental reactivation. in Lageson, D.R., Erslev, E., and Magloughlin, J., Southern Rocky Mountains: Geological Society of America Field Guide, p. 102–117.

Karlstrom, K.E., Bowring, S.A., Chamberlain, K.R., Dueker, K.G., Eshete, T., Erslev, E.A., Farmer, G.L., Heizler, M., Humphreys, E.D., Johnson, R.A., Keller, G.R., Kelley, S.A., Levander, A., Magnani, M.B., Matzel, J.P., McCoy, A.M., Miller, K.C., Morozova, E.A., Pazzaglia, F.J., Prodehl, C., Rumpel, H.M., Shaw, C.A., Sheehan, A.F., Shoshitaishvili, E., Smithson, S.B., Snelson, C.M., Stevens, L.M., Tyson, A.R., and Williams, M.L. (CD-ROM Working Group), 2002, Structure and evolution of the lithosphere beneath the Rocky Mountains; initial results from the CD-ROM experiment: GSA Today, v. 12, p. 4-10.Structure and Evolution of the Lithosphere Beneath the Rocky Mountains: Initial results from the CD-ROM experiment. GSA Today, v. 12, p. 4-10.

Shaw, C.A., Karlstrom, K.E. Williams, M.L., Jercinovic, M.J., and McCoy, A.M., 2001. Electron microprobe monazite dating of ca. 1.71 - 1.65 Ga and ca. 1.45 – 1.38 Ga deformation in the Homestake Shear Zone, Colorado: Origin and early evolution of a persistent intracontinental tectonic zone. Geology, v. 29, n. 8, p. 739-742.

Shaw, C.A., Snee, L. W., Reed, J.C., and Selverstone, J., 1999. 40Ar/39Ar thermochronologic evidence for Middle Proterozoic metamorphism in the Colorado Front Range. Journal of Geology, v. 107, n. 1, p. 49 67.

Shaw, C.A. and Karlstrom, K.E., 1999. The Yavapai-Mazatzal Crustal Boundary in the Southern Rocky Mountains. Rocky Mountain Geology, v. 34, n. 1, p. 37-52.

Selverstone, J., Hodgins, M., Shaw, C.A., Aleinikoff, J.N., Fanning, C.M., 1997. Proterozoic tectonics of the northern Colorado Front Range. in Bolyard, D.W. and Sonnenberg, S.A., eds., Geologic History of the Colorado Front Range, Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, Denver, p. 9-18.

PUBLISHED ABSTRACTS

*Bartingale, R.J., Shaw, C.A., 2006, Defining flow patterns: Paleomagnetic characteristics of the Wissota dike. Institute on Lake Superior Geology 52nd Annual Meeting Part 1 – Proceedings and Abstracts, p. 1-2. Best student poster award.

Shaw, C.A., Allen, J.L, *Ferri, F.E, *Ganak, M.E., *Graves, A. S., *Johnson, A.G., *Lyman, S.J., and *Ofsa, J.L., 2005. Age, setting, and reactivation of the Grizzly Creek shear zone: Tectonic implications of a newly recognized brittle/plastic thrust in central Colorado, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 37, No. 7, p. 60.

Allen, J.L, Shaw, C.A., *Ferri, F.E, *Ganak, M.E., *Graves, A. S., *Johnson, A.G., *Lyman, S.J., and *Ofsa, J.L., 2005. Grizzly Creek shear zone: A newly recognized frictional–plastic deformation system in the White River uplift, Colorado, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 37, No. 7, p. 464.

Shaw, C.A. and Allen, J.L., 2004. Brittle and plastic deformation in the Homestake shear zone, Colorado: implications for deformation processes in the middle crust and the evolution of the Colorado mineral belt, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 36, No. 5, p. 405.

Heizler, M.T., Karlstrom, K.E., Shaw, C.A., Timmons, J. M., and *Sanders, R.E., 2004. The evolution of Laurentia as documented by 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology studies, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 36, No. 5, p. 405.

Cronin, Vincent S., Davidson, C., Harris, J., Lewis, Jonathan C., Rinard, B., Shaw, C.A., 2004. Integrating geophysical information into structural geology courses, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 36, No. 5, p. 439.

Shaw, C.A., 2004. Recurrent Intracontinental Deformation and Magmatism in the Colorado Mineral Belt: Targeting a Persistent Lithospheric Structure using Rocky Mountain EarthScope, Rocky Mountain Earthscope workshop, 15-18 September 2004, http://www.ees.nmt.edu/RME/Abstracts2004.html.

Shaw, C.A., *Dayton, R.N., *Fell, C.D., *Formolo, S.D., *Niss, K.M., *Pace Graczyk, K.J., 2004. BASMAP (Basement Age and Structure Map): Prototype GIS database of crustal geology in the southern Rocky Mountain Region, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program, Rocky Mountain and Cordilleran Section Meeting, v. 36, n. 4, p. 35.

Shaw, C.A., Karlstrom, K.E., 2003. Window into the middle crust: A deeply exhumed Proterozoic orogenic plateau in the western U.S., Eos, Proceedings American Geophysical Union – Supplement, Fall Meeting, v. 84, n. 46, abstract T32D-03.

Shaw, C.A., Karlstrom, K.E., Heizler, M.T., 2001. Ca. 1.4 Ga metamorphic temperatures in the southwestern U.S. estimated from regional 40Ar/39Ar data. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 33, n. 5, p. 10.

Jessup, M.J., Karlstrom, K.E., and Shaw, C.A., 2001. Cross section of Proterozoic rocks in the Black Canyon, Colorado, and use of dated plutons as "snap shots" of evolving deformational conditions. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 33, n. 5, p. 43.

McCoy, A.M., Shaw, C.A., Karlstrom, K.E., and Williams, M.L., 2001. Tectonic “fingerprint” for deformational history in the Colorado Mineral Belt: Two ~100 Ma orogenic intervals punctuated by ~15 Ma tectonic pulses. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 33, n. 5, p. 10.

McCoy, A. M., Shaw, C.A., Karlstrom, K.E., Williams, M.L., Jercinovic, M.J., 2000. Geometry, kinematics, and protracted deformation along the Colorado Mineral Belt mylonite network. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 32, n. 7, p. 230-231.

Shaw, C.A. and Karlstrom, K.E., 1999. Evolution of Proterozoic accretionary structures in the Rocky Mountains. Geological Association of Canada, Abstract Volume, v. 24 p. 113-114.

Shaw, C.A., Karlstrom, K.E., McCoy, A.M., Williams, M.L., and Bulman, G., 1999. Multiple displacements on Proterozoic intracontinental shear zones in Colorado: Insights into the lithospheric evolution of the Rocky Mountains. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 31, n. 7, p.107.

Karlstrom, K.E. and Shaw, C.A., 1999. Continental Dynamics—Rocky Mountain project (CD-ROM): 4-D imaging of the continental lithosphere. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 80, n. 46, p. 640.

Karlstrom, K.E., Shaw, C.A., McCoy, A.M., Kelley, S.A., 1999. Ancestry of structures and record of a composite uplift history in the Rocky Mountains. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v.31, n. 7, p. 244.

Shaw, C.A. and Karlstrom, K.E., 1997. Heterogeneity of 1.7-1.68 Ga deformation in southern Colorado, implications for orogenic province boundaries. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 29, n. 6, p. 467.

Shaw, C.A., Snee, L.W., Reed, J.C., and Selverstone, J., 1995. 40Ar/39Ar data identify transient thermal event related to mid-Proterozoic metamorphism in the Colorado Front Range. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 27, n. 6, p. 50.

Selverstone, J., Hodgins, M., and Shaw, C.A., 1995. 1.4 versus 1.7 Ga metamorphism in the northern Colorado Front Range: A repeated history of post-accretion mid-crustal heating. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 27, n. 6, p. 49.

* student co-authors

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