About Dr. Willis E.Hames,
"Dr Willis Hames, 'Bill,' is a native of Georgia, with degrees in Geology from the University of Georgia and Virginia Tech, and completed his professional training while a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. God allowed the postdoctoral appointment and disciples to show Bill the life intended for him, and he was baptized in 1990 (three long days after his wife, Alicia, was baptized). They presently live with their daughters in Auburn, Alabama, where Bill is a professor at AuburnUniversity and they are members of the Auburn-Tuskegee Christian Church. Bill uses his talents in geochemistry and mass spectrometry to evaluate the ages of geologic materials. His interests range from rocks older than the Sun (primordial meteorites) to global climate change. He recently built a novel mass spectrometer ( and is using that spectrometer with students and colleagues in his current geochronologic research. Research continually reminds Bill that the nature of God is evident from what has been made, and that - were we to be silent - even the stones would cry out for Him. An appreciation of geologic time can remind us all that we are but a mist, and emphasize that our days are very sort in comparison to God's perspective.�
Teaching Responsibilities
'Bill' Hames joined the faculty in 1994 for teaching and research in mineralogy, petrology, and radiogenic isotope geochemistry. Dr. Hames received his Ph.D. in 1990 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity and came to AU via a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Hames teaches undergraduate courses in Physical Geology, Mineralogy, and Petrology, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Metamorphic Petrology and Geochronology.
Dr. Hames uses an integrated approach to geologic work that combines several tools of study (field mapping, petrography, the electron microprobe, fluid inclusion techniques, geochronology, and numerical modeling) that allow him to bring a variety of research experiences into classroom instruction and to design projects that match the interests of individual students.
Research Interests and Current Projects
A principal interest of Dr. Hames is the interpretation of Earth's tectonic history as recorded in igneous and metamorphic rocks and minerals. The general approach to this work is first to study the regional tectonic history of
terrains through field mapping and petrology, and then to proceed with more detailed research into the processes that form or change the chemical and isotopic composition of minerals.
For example, Dr. Hames' work in the Appalachians and Caledonides utilizes field relationships and petrology to study the conditions and relationships of the major mountain-building events. Dr. Hames works to enhance the techniques for this type of research by, for example, investigating the processes that can form and modify garnet composition (commonly used as a basis for temperature and pressure estimates), and by developing new methods and applications for isotopic dating. Such work has been supported by NSF funding to Dr. Hames and his colleagues, including Dr. Mark Steltenpohl of AuburnUniversity and Dr. Robert Tracy of Virginia Tech.
Much of the current research by Dr. Hames and his students focuses on the evolution of the Early Jurassic 'CentralAtlanticMagmaticProvince' or CAMP. Graduate students Daniel Morris and William Branton of AuburnUniversity are studying the petrology of basalt dikes in the southeastern USA and buried flows of the South Georgia Rift basin in an effort to characterize the mechanisms of early Pangean rifting and generation of this large igneous province. This NSF-sponsored research is in collaboration with Dr. Carolyn Ruppel of Virginia Tech, with scientists at FloridaStateUniversity (Dr. Vincent Salters and Dr. Paul Ragland) and the University of California at Berkeley (Dr. Paul Renne).Dr. Hames has worked extensively to enhance and extend the applications of 40Ar/39Ar dating. Technical innovations in mass spectrometry and 40Ar/39Ar analysis over the past decade, such as micro-sampling with a laser, allow us to address new and increasingly detailed questions about Earth's history. Much of Dr. Hames' initial work with laser 40Ar/39Ar techniques dealt with laser dating of muscovite from complexly metamorphosed or slowly cooled plutonic rocks. This work has mainly been pursued with colleagues at MIT (Dr. Kip Hodges and Sam Bowring), the Open University (Dr. Simon Kelley), and AmherstCollege (Dr. Jack Cheney). Recently, Dr. Hames geochronologic studies have greatly expanded in scope, and he is currently working to date meteorite impact events (through projects with Dr. David King of Auburn University and Dr. Peter Schultz of Brown University), hominid evolution in Indonesia (with Dr. Andy Kramer of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville), and global climate change in the Carboniferous (with Dr. Hermann Pfefferkorn of the University of Pennsylvania).
This is an exciting time for geochronologic research, as new technical advances facilitate research collaborations and pose new research questions. Dr. Hames is currently building an automated laser 40Ar/39Ar microanalytical facility at AuburnUniversity, with funding provided by AuburnUniversity. The new geochronologic facility is scheduled to be commissioned in the fall of 2001.
Selected References
Hames, W.E., Renne, P.R., and Ruppel,
C., 2000, New evidence for geologically-instantaneous emplacement of earliest Jurassic Central Atlantic magmatic province basalts on the North American margin. Geology, v. 28, no. 9, p. 859-862.
Klein, A.C., Steltenpohl, M.G., Hames, W.E., and Andresen, A., 1999, Ductile and brittle extension in the Lofoten archipelago, north Norway: implications for differences in tectonic style along an ancient collisional orogen. American Journal of Science, v. 299, p. 69-89. Schultz, P.H., Zarate, W. Hames, M., Camilion, C., and King, J., 1998, A 3.3-Ma Impact in Argentina and Possible Consequences. Science, v. 282, p. 2061-2063.
Hames, W.E., and Cheney, J.T., 1997, On the retention of 40Ar* in polymetamorphic muscovite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 61, no. 18, p. 3863-3872.
Hames, W.E., and Andresen, A., 1996, The timing of late Paleozoic extension between Norway and Greenland as indicated by laser 40Ar/39Ar muscovite dating. Geology, v. 24, p. 1005-1008.
Dinter, D.A., Macfarlane, A., Hames, W., Isachsen, C., Bowring, S., and Royden, L., 1995, U-Pb and 40Ar/39Ar Geochronology of the Symvolon Granodiorite: Implications for the thermal and structural evolution of the Rhodope metamorphic core complex, northeastern Greece. Tectonics, v. 16, no. 4, p. 886-908.
Hames, W.E., and Bowring, S.A., 1994, An empirical study of the argon diffusion geometry in muscovite. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 124, p. 161-169.