Documentation to "My Case"

November 6, 2006

Professor John B. Parise, Chair
Faculty Search Committee
Department of Geosciences
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-2100


Dear Professor Parise:

I am applying for the tenure-track position of Assistant Professor, as advertised in the October 17 issue of Eos Transactions of the AGU. Enclosed, please find my resume, the list of publications, and the contact information on 3 individuals who could write a letter of reference.

The topic of my MS thesis was contact metamorphism. I started PhD studies working on metagabbros of the Adirondacks, where I mapped, in two summer seasons, a 60 square mile area in the northern parts of the Elizabethtown and Port Henry quadrangles. It was the lack of good-quality experimental data to estimate equilibrium P-T conditions of metamorphism of the metagabbros, and the opportunity to work with Don Lindsley, that convinced me to do a PhD in the field of experimental petrology. The title of my PhD thesis completed in 1981 was: “Thermodynamic properties of pyroxenes in the NCMAS system saturated with silica.” In the following 4 years I worked as Postdoctoral Associate with Bob Newton at the University of Chicago, continuing in phase equilibrium studies using piston-cylinder apparatus for high-pressure experiments and electron microprobe for the analysis of experimental products. I carried out in total 1000 experiments with the piston-cylinder apparatus in a time period of 6 years, and the results appeared in 9 publications.

I returned to Stony Brook in 1985 to help Bob Liebermann and Don Weidner to build and manage and new high-pressure lab. The main equipment, the split-sphere anvil apparatus, was installed in the lab in December 1985. Originally developed in Japan and patterned after a similar press at the Institute for Study of the Earth’s Interior in Misasa, it was the first modern multi-anvil apparatus in the Western hemisphere. A similar press was installed later by Chris Scarfe in Edmonton, and this was followed in the U.S. by several other presses, mostly based on the Walker’s design. But it was initially up to me to develop the experimental techniques, procedures, and sample assemblies, which were later copied in the United States by almost everybody else. I accomplished this by combining the expertise learned from our Japanese colleagues with my experience from the experimental work with the piston-cylinder apparatus. The resulting techniques and procedures made possible to conduct experiments at pressures up to 25 GPa and temperatures up to 2500 °C at a high success rate. I have subsequently applied these new techniques to investigate systematically phase relations in chemical systems most relevant to Earth, ranging from the simplest systems to the phase relations in compositions complex enough to be directly applicable to the Earth’s mantle. The first major study clearly demonstrating the successful operation of the high-pressure lab and the split-sphere anvil apparatus was published in 1989, and was followed in 1990 by four papers in a special volume of the Journal of Geophysical Research published in memory of Chris Scarfe. These early developments and studies played a decisive role in the successful bid by the Mineral Physics Institute in Stony Brook to acquire in 1990 a NSF Science and Technology Center, the Center for High Pressure Research. The Center provided a unique opportunity for me to substantially expand the already extensive body of experimental data obtained in my earlier studies with the piston-cylinder apparatus at pressures below 4 GPa to the high pressures and temperatures of the transition zone and the uppermost lower mantle. This became the main focus and close to full-time effort until May 2001, during which time I carried out close to 700 multi-anvil experiments.

The main emphasis in these piston-cylinder and multi-anvil studies was on internal consistency. Large sets of data were produced using the same sample assembly, high-pressure apparatus, experimental procedures, temperature and pressure calibrations, by the same experimentalist, to maximize the internal consistency. The results were published in 70 peer-reviewed publications. The need for a summary, possibly in the form of a book, had become evident early on in the course of these studies, since it was impossible to publish intermediate results of individual research projects within the framework of an internally consistent thermodynamic data set, while the work was still in progress. As the interest in high-pressure studies in the United States has waned with the decline in funding, there was also the need to summarize the research at high pressures and temperatures carried out mostly in the second half of the last century by many other experimental petrologists. Several preliminary theoretical papers were published in 1990, 1994, and 2000 in preparation for the book. Finally, as the Center was approaching its planned end in January 2002, I stopped my experimental studies to focus on writing the book. The book, published by Springer-Verlag in March 2003 includes 288 figures, mostly phase diagrams, and represents the largest collection of calculated phase diagrams published so far for the chemical systems most relevant to Earth, encompassing for the first time the temperature and pressure ranges corresponding to the whole upper mantle and even the uppermost lower mantle. While these phase diagrams are mostly limited in composition to the 5-component system NCMAS, they include most phases, assemblages, and phase relations commonly occurring in the Earth’s upper mantle. This makes them suitable for thermobarometric applications to metamorphic rocks and xenoliths at lower pressures, and to inclusions in diamond and shocked meteorites at higher pressures.

Having spent over 20 years conducting experiments at high pressures and temperatures, I would like to focus now on the application of these results, and to teach what I have learned. During the last few years of my research between 1999 and 2001, I carried out the first experimental studies designed specifically to determine the origin of inclusions in diamonds from the deep mantle by matching their compositions in multi-anvil experiments at high pressures and temperatures. It is now clear that these inclusions could provide continuous sampling of the subasthenospheric mantle to the depth of 800 km. The evidence from the inclusions and experiments suggests that the real Earth’s mantle is differentiated and complex, and thus not consistent with the views currently prevalent in the mineral physics community. The importance of the inclusions in diamond to Earth can be compared with the importance of the samples returned by the Apollo missions from Moon. Finding more of these inclusions, analyzing their composition, and interpreting their origin, is likely to become the most exciting and rewarding research direction, and the most important source of new information about the Earth’s interior. This new evidence, in combination with equally important and complementary information obtained from seismic observations, could lead to full and detailed understanding of the composition and structure of the Earth interior in near future.

Many phase diagrams appearing in my book could be viewed as graphical thermobarometers. Some represent phase relations in chemically most complex systems that can still be treated rigorously with a thermodynamic model. Hence, empirical expressions would have to be used to correct for the effects of other, mostly minor, elements, which were not included in the model, such as Fe, Cr, Ti, Mn, etc., otherwise the calculations would become too complex to be practical. This could be done by using available experimental data, or by conducting additional experiments. But these empirical expressions could also be determined by using the nature as an experimental petrology lab. It should be possible to locate outcrops in metamorphic rocks showing large variations in composition with respect to an element of interest, but otherwise metamorphosed at the same P-T conditions. Corrections for the effect of such elements on phase relations could be obtained by extrapolating the compositional trends obtained for such elements to their zero concentrations. This could provide not only the metamorphic P-T conditions for a particular outcrop, but also diagrams or empirical expressions potentially valid in other applications.

Based on my book, I plan to develop two original graduate courses. The course on phase diagrams would include some basic thermodynamics, would teach students how to calculate and apply phase diagrams, and would give a review of phase relations in chemical systems most relevant to Earth over the whole range of the upper-mantle pressures and temperatures. The second course on the Earth’s interior would be similar to courses taught by mineral physicists, but instead of using the usual one-sided approach with the main emphasis on physical properties, the course would use a balanced approach designed to integrate all available evidence about the Earth’s interior from high-pressure experiments, xenoliths, inclusions in diamond, seismology, mineral physics, geochemistry, and planetary sciences. In addition, I could teach basic courses in physical geology, mineralogy, igneous and metamorphic petrology, geochemistry, and thermodynamics.

Thank you for your kind consideration of this application.

Sincerely yours,

Tibor Gasparik
Research Associate Professor


Contact information of three references:

Professor Claude T. Herzberg, Department of Geological Sciences, Wright Geological Laboratory, Rutgers University, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854; phone: (732) 445-3154;
e-mail: herzberg@rci.rutgers.edu

Dr. Dean C. Presnall, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5251 Broad Branch Road, N.W., Washington, DC 20015; phone: (202) 478-8948; e-mail: d.presnall@gl.ciw.edu

Prof. Charles T. Prewitt, Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, Gould-Simpson Building, 208, Tucson, AZ 85721; phone: 520-621-9993; e-mail: prewitt@geo.arizona.edu


Tibor Gasparik
352 Plad Blvd, Holtsville, New York 11742
Phone: (631) 447-2168; E-mail: tomanti@optonline.net
Web site: http://www.mpi.stonybrook.edu/ResearchResults/PhaseRelationsGasparik/

PROFESSIONAL

1989-Present: Research Associate Professor, SUNY at Stony Brook
1986-1989: Research Assistant Professor, SUNY at Stony Brook
1985-1986: Research Associate, SUNY at Stony Brook
1981-1985: Post-Doctoral Associate, University of Chicago
1978-1981: Research Assistant, SUNY at Stony Brook
1973-1975: Research Associate, Komensky University, Bratislava, now Slovakia

EDUCATION

MAT (Earth Science) SUNY at Stony Brook, 2005
PhD (Experimental Petrology) SUNY at Stony Brook, 1981
MS (Geology) Komensky University, Bratislava, now Slovakia, 1973

OTHER APPOINTMENTS AND POSITIONS

2006-Present: Correspondence Examination Technician, IRS, Holtsville
2005-Present: Substitute Teacher, Central Islip School District
1986-2002: Manager of the High-Pressure Lab, SUNY at Stony Brook
1987-2002: Member, Mineral Physics Institute, SUNY at Stony Brook
1990-2002: Member, NSF Science and Technology Center for High-Pressure Research (CHiPR), SUNY at Stony Brook
2001: Co-Editor (with L. L. Perchuk) of a special issue of Lithos (v. 60): Mineral equilibria in mantle-derived rocks

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Geophysical Union
Mineralogical Society of America

RESEARCH INTERESTS AND ACTIVITIES

Experimental studies of phase relations and solution properties of mantle materials at high pressures and temperatures, determination of the mineral and chemical composition of the Earth's mantle and its evolution with time. Principal investigator on 5 NSF research grants from 1988 to 2002. Author of 70 refereed articles and a book. The book was listed on Amazon.com as the most popular book in petrology from January 2004 to February 2005.


Book

Gasparik T (2003) Phase Diagrams for Geoscientists: An Atlas of the Earth’s Interior. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 462 pp


Articles

1. Gasparik T (1980) Geology of the Precambrian rocks between Elizabethtown and Mineville, Eastern Adirondacks, New York. Geol Soc Am Bull, Part I, 91:78-88

2. Gasparik T, Lindsley DH (1980) Phase equilibria at high pressure of pyroxenes containing monovalent and trivalent ions. In: Prewitt CT (ed), Reviews in Mineralogy, Vol 1, Pyroxenes, Mineral Soc Am, Washington, D.C., pp 309-339

3. Gasparik T (1984) Two-pyroxene thermobarometry with new experimental data in the system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2. Contrib Mineral Petrol 87:87-97

4. Gasparik T (1984) Experimentally determined stability of clinopyroxene + garnet + corundum in the system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2. Am Mineral 69:1025-1035

5. Gasparik T (1984) Experimental study of subsolidus phase relations and mixing properties of pyroxene in the system CaO-Al2O3-SiO2. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 48:2537-2545

6. Gasparik T, Newton RC (1984) The reversed alumina contents of orthopyroxene in equilibrium with spinel and forsterite in the system MgO-Al2O3-SiO2. Contrib Mineral Petrol 85:186-196

7. Belsky HL, Rossman GR, Prewitt CT, Gasparik T (1984) Crystal structure and optical spectroscopy (300-2200 nm) of CaCrSi4O10. Am Mineral 69:771-776

8. Gasparik T (1985) Experimentally determined compositions of diopside-jadeite pyroxene in equilibrium with albite and quartz at 1200-1350ºC and 15-34 kbar. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 49:865-870

9. Gasparik T (1985) Titanium in ureyite: A substitution with vacancy. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 49:1277-1279

10. Gasparik T (1985) Experimental study of subsolidus phase relations and mixing properties of pyroxene and plagioclase in the system Na2O-CaO-Al2O3-SiO2. Contrib Mineral Petrol 89:346-357

11. Gasparik T (1986) Experimental study of subsolidus phase relations and mixing properties of clinopyroxene in the silica saturated system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2. Am Mineral 71:686-693

12. Gasparik T (1987) Orthopyroxene thermobarometry in simple and complex systems. Contrib Mineral Petrol 96:357-370

13. Angel RJ, Gasparik T, Ross NL, Finger LW, Prewitt CT, Hazen RM (1988) A silica-rich sodium pyroxene phase with six-coordinated silicon. Nature 335:156-158

14. Remsberg AR, Boland JN, Gasparik T, Liebermann RC (1988) Mechanism of the olivine-spinel transformation in Co2SiO4. Phys Chem Minerals 15:498-506

15. Gasparik T (1989) Transformation of enstatite-diopside-jadeite pyroxenes to garnet. Contrib Mineral Petrol 102:389-405

16. Angel RJ, Gasparik T, Finger LW (1989) Crystal structure of a Cr2+-bearing pyroxene. Am Mineral 74:599-603

17. Finger LW, Ko J, Hazen RM, Gasparik T, Hemley RJ, Prewitt CT, Weidner DJ (1989) Crystal chemistry of phase B and an anhydrous analogue: implications for water storage in the upper mantle. Nature 341:140-142

18. Ko J, Brown NE, Navrotsky A, Prewitt CT, Gasparik T (1989) Phase equilibrium and calorimetric study of the transition of MnTiO3 from the ilmenite to the lithium niobate structure and implications for the stability field of perovskite. Phys Chem Minerals 16:727-733

19. Gasparik T (1990) A thermodynamic model for the enstatite-diopside join. Am Mineral 75:1080-1091

20. Gasparik T (1990) Earth interior. McGraw-Hill Yearbook of science & Technology 1991, 110-113

21. Gasparik T (1990) Phase relations in the transition zone. J Geophys Res 95:15751-15769

22. Herzberg C, Gasparik T, Sawamoto H (1990) Origin of mantle peridotite: Constraints from melting experiments to 16.5 GPa. J Geophys Res 95:15779-15803

23. Pacalo REG, Gasparik T (1990) Reversals of the orthoenstatite-clinoenstatite transition at high pressures and high temperatures. J Geophys Res 95:15853-15858

24. Presnall DC, Gasparik T (1990) Melting of enstatite (MgSiO3) from 10 to 16.5 GPa and the forsterite (Mg2SiO4) - majorite (MgSiO3) eutectic at 16.5 GPa: Implications for the origin of the mantle. J Geophys Res 95:15771-15777

25. Ross NL, Shu J-F, Hazen RM, Gasparik T (1990) High-pressure crystal chemistry of stishovite. Am Mineral 75:739-747

26. Herzberg C, Gasparik T (1991) Garnet and pyroxenes in the mantle: A test of the majorite fractionation hypothesis. J Geophys Res 96:16263-16274

27. Gasparik T (1992) Enstatite-jadeite join and its role in the Earth's mantle. Contrib Mineral Petrol 111:283-298

28. Gasparik T (1992) Melting experiments on the enstatite-pyrope join at 80-152 kbar. J Geophys Res 97:15181-15188

29. Pacalo REG, Weidner DJ, Gasparik T (1992) Elastic properties of sodium-rich majorite garnet. Geophys Res Lett 19:1895-1898

30. Phillips BL, Howell DA, Kirkpatrick RJ, Gasparik T (1992) Investigation of cation order in MgSiO3-rich garnet using 29Si and 27Al MAS NMR spectroscopy. Am Mineral 77:704-712

31. Gasparik T (1993) The role of volatiles in the transition zone. J Geophys Res 98:4287-4299

32. Gasparik T (1993) Stability of Sr4Cu2O9 and other oxygen-rich phases synthesized at 7-23 GPa. High Temp-High Pres 25:245-251

33. Litvin YuA, Gasparik T (1993) Melting of jadeite to 16.5 GPa and melting relations on the enstatite-jadeite join. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 57:2033-2040

34. Drake MJ, McFarlane EA, Gasparik T, Rubie DC (1993) Mg-perovskite /silicate melt and majorite garnet/silicate melt partition coefficients in the system CaO-MgO-SiO2 at high temperatures and pressures. J Geophys Res 98:5427-5431

35. Wang Y, Gasparik T, Liebermann RC (1993) Modulated microstructure in synthetic majorite. Am Mineral 78:1165-1173

36. Zhang J, Liebermann RC, Gasparik T, Herzberg CT, Fei Y (1993) Melting and subsolidus relations of SiO2 at 9-14 GPa. J Geophys Res 98:19785-19793

37. Gasparik T (1994) A petrogenetic grid for the system MgO-Al2O3-SiO2. J Geology 102:97-109

38. Gasparik T, Wolf K, Smith CM (1994) Experimental determination of phase relations in the CaSiO3 system from 8 to 15 GPa. Am Mineral 79:1219-1222

39. Hazen RM, Downs RT, Conrad PG, Finger LW, Gasparik T (1994) Comparative compressibilities of majorite-type garnets. Phys Chem Mineral 21:344-349

40. Hazen RM, Downs RT, Finger LW, Conrad PG, Gasparik T (1994) Crystal chemistry of Ca-bearing majorite. Am Mineral 79:581-584

41. Gasparik T, Drake MJ (1995) Partitioning of elements among two silicate perovskites, superphase B, and volatile bearing melt at 23 GPa and 1500-1600ºC. Earth Planet Sci Lett, 134:307-318

42. Gasparik T, Parise JB, Eiben BA, Hriljac JA (1995) Stability and structure of a new high-pressure silicate Na1.8Ca1.1Si6O14. Am Mineral 80:1271-1278

43. Downs RT, Hazen RM, Finger LW, Gasparik T (1995) Crystal chemistry of lead aluminosilicate hollandite: A new high-pressure synthetic phase with octahedral Si. Am Mineral 80:937-940

44. Gasparik T (1996) Melting experiments on the enstatite-diopside join at 70-224 kbar, including the melting of diopside. Contrib Mineral Petrol 124:139-153

45. Gasparik T (1996) Diopside-jadeite join at 16-22 GPa. Phys Chem Minerals 23:476-486

46. Li B, Jackson I, Gasparik T, Liebermann RC (1996) Elastic wave velocity measurement in multi-anvil apparatus to 10 GPa using ultrasonic interferometry. Phys Earth Planet Inter 98:79-91

47. Gasparik T (1997) A model for the layered mantle. Phys Earth Planet Inter 100:197-212

48. Gasparik T, Litvin YuA (1997) Stability of Na2Mg2Si2O7 and melting relations on the forsterite-jadeite join at pressures up to 22 GPa. Eur J Mineral 9:311-326

49. Hazen RM, Yang H, Prewitt CT, Gasparik T (1997) Crystal chemistry of superfluorous phase B (Mg10Si3O14F4): Implications for the role of fluorine in the mantle. Am Mineral 82:647-650

50. Sinogeikin SV, Bass JD, O'Neill B, Gasparik T (1997) Elasticity of tetragonal end-member majorite and solid solutions in the system Mg4Si4O12-Mg3Al2Si3O12. Phys Chem Minerals 24:115-121

51. Zhao Y, Von Dreele RB, Shankland TJ, Weidner DJ, Zhang J, Wang Y, Gasparik T (1997) Thermoelastic equation of state of jadeite NaAlSi2O6: An energy-dispersive Reitveld refinement study of low symmetry and multiple phases diffraction. Geophys Res Lett 24:5-8

52. Gasparik T (1998) A temperature-pressure calibration grid for multianvil experiments based on phase relations in the system CaO-MgO-SiO2. Rev High Pressure Sci Technol 7:9-11

53. Litvin YuA, Gasparik T, Tikhomirova VI, Tschitschagov AV (1998) Na-Mg-silicates – possible minerals of the Earth’s mantle: Melting and structure stability at 1 atm and high pressures. Doklady Akad Nauk 361:807-811

54. Gasparik T, Parise JB, Reeder RJ, Young VG, Wilford WS (1999) Composition, stability, and structure of a new member of the aenigmatite group, Na2Mg4+xFe3+2-2xSi6+xO20, synthesized at 13-14 GPa. Am Mineral 84:257-266

55. Crichton WA, Ross NL, Gasparik T (1999) Equations of state of magnesium silicates anhydrous B and superhydrous B. Phys Chem Minerals 26:570-575

56. Gasparik T (2000) An internally consistent thermodynamic model for the system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 derived primarily from phase equilibrium data. J Geology 108:103-119

57. Gasparik T (2000) Evidence for immiscibility in majorite garnet from experiments at 13-15 GPa. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 64:1641-1650

58. Gasparik T (2000) Evidence for the transition zone origin of some [Mg,Fe]O inclusions in diamonds. Earth Planet Sci Lett 183:1-5

59. Gasparik T, Huchison MT (2000) Experimental evidence for the origin of two kinds of inclusions in diamonds from the deep mantle. Earth Planet Sci Lett 181:103-114

60. Gasparik T, Tripathi A, Parise JB (2000) Structure of a new Al-rich phase, [K, Na]0.9[Mg, Fe]2[Mg, Fe, Al, Si]6O12, synthesized at 24 GPa. Am Mineral, 85:613-618

61. Inoue T, Rapp RP, Zhang J, Gasparik T, Weidner DJ, Irifune T (2000) Garnet fractionation in a hydrous magma ocean and the origin of Al-depleted komatiites: melting experiments of hydrous pyrolite with REEs at high pressure. Earth Planet Sci Lett 177:81-87

62. Litvin VYu, Gasparik T, Litvin YuA (2000) The system enstatite-nepheline in experiments at 6.5-13.5 GPa: The importance of Na2Mg2Si2O7 for the melting of nepheline-normative mantle. Geochem Inter 38:S100-S107

63. Wang W, Gasparik T (2000) Evidence for a deep-mantle origin of a NaPX-EN inclusion in diamond. Inter Geology Rev 42:1000-1006

64. Wang W, Gasparik T, Rapp RP (2000) Partitioning of rare earth elements between CaSiO3 perovskite and coexisting phases: constraints on the formation of CaSiO3 inclusions in diamonds. Earth Planet Sci Lett 181:291-300

65. Wang W, Sueno S, Takahashi E, Yurimoto H, Gasparik T (2000) Enrichment processes at the base of the Archean lithospheric mantle: observations from trace element characteristics of pyropic garnet inclusions in diamonds. Contrib Mineral Petrol 139:720-733

66. Wang W, Gasparik T (2001) Metasomatic clinopyroxene inclusions in diamonds from the Liaoning Province, China. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 65:611-620

67. Gasparik T, Litvin YuA (2002) Experimental investigation of the effect of metasomatism by carbonatic melt on the composition and structure of the deep mantle. Lithos 60:129-143

68. Gasparik T (2002) Experimental investigation of the origin of majoritic garnet inclusions in diamonds. Phys Chem Minerals 29:170-180

69. Reichmann HJ, Sinogeikin SV, Bass JD, Gasparik T (2002) Elastic moduli of jadeite-enstatite majorite. Geophys Res Lett 29(19), doi:10.1029/2002GL015106

70. Nasdala L, Brenker FE, Glinnemann J, Hofmeister W, Gasparik T, Harris JW, Stachel T, Reese I (2003) Spectroscopic 2D-tomography: Residual pressure and strain around mineral inclusions in diamonds. Eur J Mineral 15:931-935