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Degrees: B.S., Yale University; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Interests:
I teach a wide variety of courses in geology reflecting my very broad interests in science. I teach a course in Mineralogy, showing how the most basic part of rocks can be identified using a variety of methods, why they have the properties that we use, and how they can be used to interpret the processes that form the earth. In Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology, we look at two of the three major groups of rocks, how pressure, temperature, and time interact to form them, and how we can use them to interpret geological activity in the past. Hydrogeology is the study of water both on the surface and under the ground, how it is located, which way it flows, how pollution spreads, and how it can be cleaned up. Volcanoes, Agents of Regional and Global Crisis examines how and why volcanoes erupt, what hazards they pose, and how they affect people near and far. Earth from Above teaches basic principles of geographic information systems, the new tool for managing all types of map or geographic data. This includes geological information as well as infrastructure (roads, electrical, water supply, etc.) management for cities and towns. Research interests include cation ordering and optical properties of pyroxenes, petrologic study of the Massabesic gneiss in southern New Hampshire, Rietveld analysis by x-ray diffraction, and ICP spectrometry as applied to chemical analysis of rocks.
Publications:
Thompson, M.D., Hermes, O.D., Bowring, S.A., Isachsen, C.E., Besancon, J.B., and Kelly, K.L., Tectonostratigraphic implications of Late Proterozoic U-Pb ages in the Avalon zone of southeastern new England, in Nance, R.D. and Thompson, M.D., eds., Avalonian and Related Peri-Gondwanan Terrances of the Circum-North Atlantic: Geological Society of America Special Paper 304,179-191, 1996.
Besancon, J.R., An Automated Spindle Stage for Polarized Light Microscopes. The Microscope, 40, 13-19, 1992.
Burns, R.G., Besancon, J.R., and Pratt, S.F., Reflectance spectra of Fe2+ - Mg2+ disordered pyroxenes; implications to remote-sensed spectra of planetary surfaces. Reports of planetary geology and geophysics program, 1990, NASA Technical memorandum 4300, Pages 253-255, 1991.
Additional Interests and Activities:
I am an avid hiker, reader, and swimmer. My wife and three children make much of my time away from work a joy.
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Created and maintained by Maria Raffi mraffi@wellesley.edu
date created: September 15, 2002