Posted on Oct 15, 2004

Kurt Hollocher and John
Garver, professors of geology,
have published a paper, “Provenance and tectonic settings of accretionary wedge
sediments on northeastern Karaginski Island (Kamchatka, Russian Far
East)” in Russian Journal of Earth
Sciences (v. 6. No. 2,  2004, p. 1-28). Co-authors are Ledneva, G.V.;
Shapiro, M.N.; Lederer, J.R.; and Brandon, M.T. This work summarizes the
findings of Russian Visitor Galina Ledneva and Jason Lederer '01 on the
tectonic evolution of the eastern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, a remote
frontier area has been little studied by geologists. Findings suggest that a
terrane collided with Kamchatka about 45 million
years ago, and then sediment built up along the edge of that collided block. This
work has important implications for tectonic models in the Pacific Northwest,
as it relates to oil exploration and mineral studies. Lederer, one of the few students
to do field research in the Russian Far East, went on to earn a master's degree
at the University of Indiana. His senior
thesis was titled “Fission-track ages of clasts in mélange, Karaginsky Island, Kamchatka Russia: Implications
for the timing of terrane accretion.”