9614342 Mueller A number of exotic terranes evolved between the time of break-up of Rodinia and the amalgamation of Gondwanaland. Traditional terrane analysis techniques are difficult to apply in the attempt to reconstruct these terrane in their proper neoproterozoic places, due to their age and predominance of magmatic rocks. This project involves extensive elemental, isotopic and geochronlogic characterization of neoproterozoic and younger rocks of the Carolina terrane in North Carolina, to test the suggestion that the Carolina terrane has a Grenvillian to a segment and has magmatic rocks as young as early Paleozoic. Results will improve the age and isotopic data base required to define terrane placement in the context of the Rodinia-Pangea supercontient cycle.
