Scholarships

Diana Jean Urda, PhD Student, Candidate, Texas Tech University

The title of Diana’s dissertation is “Using U-Pb geochronology and radiogenic isotopes to determine crustal-mantle sources of magmatic rocks in the Mazatzal-Yavapai Provinces of New Mexico.” She plans to do fieldwork to sample Proterozoic-age outcrops in Laramide uplifts in New Mexico, followed by sophisticated chemical analyses to determine their origin. She will use zircon geochronology and isotopic geochemistry. Goals of Diana’s research include: (1) documenting ages and proportions of mantle versus crustal inputs during Paleoproterozoic orogenesis in New Mexico; (2) defining chemical and isotopic affinities of the mantle and crustal sources and the magmas derived from them; (3) determining if or how the mantle and crustal sources varied from north to south across the region. This study will constrain the proportions of juvenile crust and mantle sources versus evolved crustal sources for magmas of the Yavapai and Mazatzal provinces of Central-Southern New Mexico.

Diana’s work is under the direction of Dr. Paul Sylvester

Diana has a MS in Geology from California State University, Fullerton and a BS in Geology from the University of California, Los Angeles