Robert Bauer
Associate Professor
education: University of Minnesota, 1982
interest: Structural geology and metamorphic petrology

email: BauerR@missouri.edu
office:204 Geological Sciences Bldg.
phone: 573-882-3759
fax: 573-882-5458

Research

Bob Bauer studies ancient mountain-building processes. The principal objectives of this research are to determine the tectonic and thermal history of mountain building and to relate these histories to major orogenic events and plate interactions.

These objectives are accomplished through a combination of field and laboratory studies. The field studies include mapping and analysis of deformation features to determine both their geometries and the distributions of strains and fabrics associated with their formation. The field work also involves evaluation of the metamorphic history of the region and its relationship to deformation history. This evaluation continues in the laboratory with petrographic analysis of the relationship between deformation fabrics and metamorphic minerals and with chemical analysis of selected minerals to determine the pressure and temperature histories that the rocks record. Ultimately, this analysis allows determination of the pressure-temperature history of the rocks and a better understanding of the relationship between metamorphism and deformation history.

Bob Bauer and his students are currently working on projects to evaluate mountain-building processes during Precambrian time. The areas of study include the Laramie Range of southeastern Wyoming, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and the southern Superior Province in northern Minnesota. The work in the Laramie Range and the Black Hills involves determining the relationship between the Trans-Hudson and the Central Plains orogenies that affected these areas during Early Proterozoic time (ca. 1,800 million years ago). The research in Minnesota involves studies of Archean (>2,500 million years old) mountain-building and plate accretionary processes that formed the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield.

Tectonic research is typically interdisciplinary. As a result, Bob Bauer collaborates with a wide variety of researchers from other institutions, including the University of Wyoming, the University of Minnesota, the U.S. and Minneosta Geological Surveys and the Royal Ontario Museum. The research in the Black Hills is in collaboration with Peter Nabelek from MU. Bob Bauer is also the director of the University's Branson Field Laboratory in the Wind River Range near Lander, Wyoming.

Selected Publications

Bauer, R.L. and Hudleston, P.J., 1995, Transpression-induced ductile shear in the boundary region of the Quetico and Wawa Subprovinces, NE Minnesota - a response to local strain partitioning. in Ojakangas, R.W. and Dickus, B. (eds.): Basement Tectonics, v. 10, p. 367-377.

Nachatilo, S.A. and Bauer, R.L., 1993, Structural analysis of Archean rocks in the Negaunee area, Michigan: Constraints on Archean versus Proterozoic Deformation: U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull. 1904-O. p. O1-O46.

Bauer, R.L. and Himmelberg, G.R., 1993, Lake Superior region and Trans-Hudson orogen, gneiss terranes, Minnesota River Valley. in Reed, J.C. et al. (eds.), Precambrian: Conterminous U.S., The Geology of North America, v. C-2, Geol. Soc. Am. p. 31-38.

Bauer, R.L., Hudleston, P.J., and Southwick, D.L., 1992, Deformation across the western Quetico Subprovince and adjacent boundary regions in Minnesota: Can. J. Earth Sci., v. 29, p. 2087-2103.

Bauer, R.L., 1992, Pretectonic burial metamorphism in the Heritage Group, southern Ellsworth Mountains, West Antarctica; in Webers, G.F. et al., (eds.) The Geology and Paleontology of the Ellsworth Mountains, West Antarctica: Geol. Soc. Am. Memoir 170, p. 333-349.

Last Modified: winter 2008