My main interests revolves around the application of high-precision U-Pb geochronology to large layered intrusions. Layered intrusions are important to geoscientists as they represent natural laboratories to study magmatic processes in the crust and are host to major platinum-group-element (PGE) deposits. My main focus is on two layered intrusions, the Stillwater Complex in Montana and the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. These two layered intrusions are considered to have formed under "open-system" conditions, which means that they formed by multiple injections of magma into the magma chamber. However, little dating has been done on the entire stratigraphy of the Bushveld or Stillwater Complexes and the total duration of magmatism as well as absolute timing of injections is poorly understood. With new zircon pre-treatment techniques (i.e. chemical abrasion (Mattinson, 2005)), reduction of Pb-blanks, the development of multi-element isotopic tracers, and improvements in instrumental characterization has resulted in more precise ages (uncertainty <0.1% on an individual analysis). This increase in precision now allows for the recognition of distinct magma pulses at the timescale aimed at sequencing Earth history.
Additionally, I have pursued studies of ion emitter chemistry and enhanced ionization efficiency, characterization of mineral standard materials for in situ U-Pb geochronology, the tectonomagmatism of the Early Cambrian Oklahoma Aulacogen large igneous province, and the integration of zircon geochemistry and rhyolite-MELTS modeling of silicic magma petrogenesis.
PCIGR Facilities Manager and U-Pb specialist, University of British Columbia, Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research (2021-present)
Research Scientist, Boise State University, Isotope Geology Laboratory (2017-2021)
Post Doctoral Fellow, Boise State University, Isotope Geology Laboratory (2016-2017)
PhD. Geological Sciences, University of British Columbia (2016). Establishing the age and duration of magmatism in large open-system layered intrusions form the high-precision geochronology of the Neoarchean Stillwater Complex and Paleoproterozoic Bushveld Complex.
B.Sc. Honours Geological Sciences, University of British Columbia (2009). Uranium-Lead Geochronology of Granophyres from the Archean Stillwater Complex, Montana (USA): Characterization of Uranium-Bearing Accessory
Minerals (Zircon, Titanite, Rutile) and Preliminary Dating Results.
Oliveira, A.L., Schmitz, M.D., Wall., C.J., & Hollanda, M.H.B.M., (2022) A bulk annealing and dissolution-based zircon concentration method for mafic rocks. Chemical Geology, 597, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2022.120817
Apen, F. E., Wall, C. J., Cottle, J. M., Schmitz, M. D., Kylander-Clark, A. R., & Seward, G. G. (2022). Apatites for destruction: Reference apatites from Morocco and Brazil for U-Pb petrochronology and Nd and Sr isotope geochemistry. Chemical Geology, 590, 120689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2021.120689
Jin, X., Baranyi, V., Caggiati, M., Franceschi, M., Wall, C. J., Liu, G., ... & Preto, N. (2021). Middle Triassic lake deepening in the Ordos Basin of North China linked with global sea-level rise. Global and Planetary Change, 207, 103670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2021.103670
Thines, J. E., Ukstins, I. A., Wall, C., & Schmitz, M. (2021). Volumetric extrusive rates of silicic supereruptions from the Afro-Arabian large igneous province. Nature communications, 12(1), 1-9.
Fitzherbert, J. A., McKinnon, A. R., Blevin, P. L., Waltenberg, K., Downes, P. M., Wall, C., ... & Huang, H. (2021). The Hera orebody: A complex distal (Au–Zn–Pb–Ag–Cu) skarn in the Cobar Basin of central New South Wales, Australia. Resource Geology, 71(4), 296-319.
Kenny, G. G., Harrigan, C. O., Schmitz, M. D., Crowley, J. L., Wall, C. J., Andreoli, M. A., ... & Maier, W. D. (2021). Timescales of impact melt sheet crystallization and the precise age of the Morokweng impact structure, South Africa. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 567, 117013.
Wall, C. J., Hanson, R. E., Schmitz, M., Price, J. D., Donovan, R. N., Boro, J. R., ... & Toews, C. E. (2021). Integrating zircon trace-element geochemistry and high-precision U-Pb zircon geochronology to resolve the timing and petrogenesis of the late Ediacaran–Cambrian Wichita igneous province, Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, USA. Geology, 49(3), 268-272.
Scoates, J. S., Wall, C. J., Friedman, R. M., Weis, D., Mathez, E. A., & VanTongeren, J. A. (2021). Dating the Bushveld Complex: timing of crystallization, duration of magmatism, and cooling of the world’s largest layered intrusion and related rocks. Journal of Petrology, 62(2), egaa107.
Hodgin, E. B., Nelson, L. L., Wall, C. J., Barrón-Díaz, A. J., Webb, L. C., Schmitz, M. D., ... & Smith, E. F. (2021). A link between rift-related volcanism and end-Ediacaran extinction? Integrated chemostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and U-Pb geochronology from Sonora, Mexico. Geology, 49(2), 115-119.
Nixon, G. T., Scheel, J. E., Scoates, J. S., Friedman, R. M., Wall, C. J., Gabites, J., & Jackson-Brown, S. (2020). Syn-accretionary multistage assembly of an Early Jurassic Alaskan-type intrusion in the Canadian Cordillera: U–Pb and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of the Turnagain ultramafic–mafic intrusive complex, Yukon–Tanana terrane. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 57(5), 575-600.
Nasdala, L., Corfu, F., Schoene, B., Tapster, S. R., Wall, C. J., Schmitz, M. D., ... & Giester, G. (2018). GZ 7 and GZ 8–Two Zircon Reference Materials for SIMS U‐Pb Geochronology. Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research, 42(4), 431-457.
Ver Hoeve, T. J., Scoates, J. S., Wall, C. J., Weis, D., & Amini, M. (2018). A temperature-composition framework for crystallization of fractionated interstitial melt in the Bushveld Complex from trace element systematics of zircon and rutile. Journal of Petrology, 59(7), 1383-1416.
Ver Hoeve, T. J., Scoates, J. S., Wall, C. J., Weis, D., & Amini, M. (2018). Evaluating downhole fractionation corrections in LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon geochronology. Chemical Geology, 483, 201-217.
Wall, C. J., Scoates, J. S., Weis, D., Friedman, R. M., Amini, M., & Meurer, W. P. (2018). The Stillwater Complex: integrating zircon geochronological and geochemical constraints on the age, emplacement history and crystallization of a large, open-system layered intrusion. Journal of Petrology, 59(1), 153-190.