Research Leader

PhD (La Trobe)

Visit: Room DB034-216, Townsville campus

Call: (+61) 7 4781 6077

Fax (+61) 7 4781 4020

Email:Bill.Collins

Research Interests

Global tectonics. My current major research project (ARC Discovery) is to study the causes of Pangean breakup, by focussing on the Mesozoic orogenic development of the Andes and US Cordillera. Was Pangea split apart by thermal upwelling (superplumes) or was it pulled apart at the peripheries by convection associated with subduction retreat? It is in the circum-Pacific orogens that the crust is most likely to record thickening and/or thinning events that coincide with Atlantic opening during Pangean breakup. With Gavin Mantle (PhD student) we have established a global correlation between REE composition of arc basalts and Moho depth from active volcanoes. We can use this correlation to determine when (and by how much) the crust thickened or thinned during orogenic events. Presently, we are applying this concept to Andean and Cordilleran orogenic evolution to answer the Pangean question.

Brief description of research impact:

• Engagement of industry in the geotransect concept in NE Qld. 5 companies and the Geol. Survey of Queensland will participate in the new way of doing “big science” in Australia

Selected Publications:

Collins WJ, Wiebe R, Healy B & Richards SW (2006) Replenishment, Crystal Accumulation and Floor Aggradation in the Megacrystic Kameruka Suite, Australia. Journal of Petrology, 47 (11), 2073 - 2104

Mantle G & Collins WJ (2006) Correlation of REE with Moho depth for modern volcanic arc basalts.

In: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 389 - 389. Elsevier (18)

Collins, W.J., 2003. Slab pull, mantle convection, and Pangean assembly and dispersal. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 205, 225 - 237.

Collins, W.J. 2002. Hot orogens, tectonic switching and creation of continental crust. Geology, 30, 535-538.

Collins W.J. 2002. Nature of extensional accretionary orogens. Tectonics 21 (4); 10.1029/2000TC001272

Full list of Publications

Personal research web site