Faculty

Carl E. Jacobson

Professor and Department Chair
Metamorphic Petrology, Structure

253 Science I
Dept. of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
Phone: (515) 294-1837
Email: cejac@iastate.edu

Education
B.S. (with honors) SUNY at Binghamton, 1975
Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, 1980
 
Research Interests
Most of my research centers around the application of structural geology, metamorphic petrology, and radiometric age dating to understanding the Late Cretaceous through Tertiary tectonic evolution of southern California and southwestern Arizona, particularly with regard to the origin of the Pelona, Orocopia, and Rand schists. The Pelona and related schists consist of high-pressure/low-temperature oceanic rocks that underlie North American continental basement along the Vincent, Chocolate Mountains, Orocopia, and Rand faults. These faults were originally thought to be subduction thrusts responsible for burial of the schists, but are now considered to be the structures along which the schists were brought back toward the surface. One major issue involves determining the relative proportion of exhumation that occurred in Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary time as a result of convergence between the Farallon and North American plates versus that associated with development of the middle Tertiary Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes. I am also involved in a group project to analyze the provenance of the Pelona-type schists using ages of detrital zircons determined with the ion microprobe. All the above studies involve a strong emphasis on computer mapping and visualization.

Teaching
As Chair, my only regularly scheduled class is undergraduate structural geology.

Selected Publications
Barth, A.P., Anderson, J.L., Jacobson. C.E., Paterson, S.R., and Wooden, J.L., 2008, Magmatism and tectonics in a tilted crustal section through a continental arc, eastern Transverse Ranges and southern Mojave Desert, in Duebendorfer, E.M., and Smith, E.I., eds., Field guide to plutons, volcanoes, reefs, dinosaurs, and possible glaciations in selected areas of Arizona, California, and Nevada: Geological Society of America Field Guide 11, p. 101-117.

Grove, M., Bebout, G.E., Jacobson, C.E., Barth, A.P., Kimbrough, D.L., King, R.L., Zou, H., Lovera, O.M., Mahoney, B.J., and Gehrels, G.G., 2008, The Catalina Schist: Evidence for middle Cretaceous subduction erosion of southwestern North America, in Draut, A.E., Clift, P.D., and Scholl, D.W., eds., Formation and applications of the sedimentary record in arc collision zones: Geological Society of America Special Paper 436.

Jacobson, C.E., Grove, M., Vućić, A., Pedrick, J.N., and Ebert, K.A., 2007, Exhumation of the Orocopia Schist and associated rocks of southeastern California: Relative roles of erosion, synsubduction tectonic denudation, and middle Cenozoic extension, in Cloos, M., Carlson, W.D., Gilbert, M.C., Liou, J.G., and Sorensen, S.S., eds., Convergent margin terranes and associated regions: A tribute to W.G. Ernst: Geological Society of America Special Paper 419, p. 1–37.

Heimann, A., Spry, P.G., Teale, G.S., and Jacobson, C.E., 2006, Coronas, symplectite textures, and reactions involving aluminous minerals in gedrite-cordierite gneisses from Evergreen, Front Range, Colorado: Canadian Mineralogist, v. 44, p. 1025-1044.

Grove, M., Jacobson, C.E., Barth, A.P.,  and Vucic, A., 2003, Temporal and spatial trends of Late Cretaceous–early Tertiary underplating of Pelona and related schist beneath southern California and southwestern Arizona, in Johnson, S.E., Patterson, S.R., Fletcher, J.M., Girty, G.H., Kimbrough, D.L., and Martin-Barajas, A., eds., Tectonic evolution of northwestern Mexico and the southwestern USA: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Special Paper 374, p. 381-406.

Jacobson, C.E., Grove, M., Stamp, M.M., Vucic, A., Oyarzabal, F.R., Haxel, G.B., Tosdal, R.M., and Sherrod, D.R., 2002, Exhumation history of the Orocopia Schist and related rocks in the Gavilan Hills area of southeasternmost California, in Barth, A., ed., Contributions to crustal evolution of the southwestern United States: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Special Paper 365, p. 129-154.

Publications