With the help of four external grants, an NIU geologist is researching the evolution process of earth’s lower crust.

“Little is known worldwide about the nature and origin of the lower crust,” said Ruth Kalamarides, assistant geology professor. The lower crust is a layer between the uppermost portion of the earth and the second layer which is called the mantle layer. The lower crust ranges from 16 kilometers to 50 kilometers, Kalamarides said.

Kalamarides, who shares a $92,000 National Science Foundation grant with NIU geologist Jonathan Berg, will determine the composition, structure, geothermal gradient and evolution of the Antarctic crust, she said.

Kalamarides and Berg will concentrate on the crustal granulites from the McMurdo Sound region of Antarctica (South Pole). They plan to focus their study on the inclusions of the earth’s crust that have been transported to the surface by volcanic eruptions in Antarctica, Kalamarides said.

The history, structure and evolution of this portion of Antarctica is poorly understood, she said.

The American Philosophical Society also granted Kalamarides $2,500 for the same research work. Kalamarides, along with Berg and Robert Hank, an NIU graduate student, authored an article about the discoveries they already have made. The article appeared in the September 1987 issue of Science magazine.

Berg said their study enabled them to determine how much heat is generated and lost in this portion of the earth.

They also have discovered the discontinuity in the formation of the lower crust, he said. “There must have been a period long ago when two continents collided together and formed a single continental mass, that is Antarctica,” Berg said.

The National Science Foundation offered Kalamarides a $64,000 grant to study the magna composition of Labrador (northeastern portion of Canada). This research will help explain how the earth evolved.

The American Chemical Society offered Kalamarides a $15,000 grant to study the igneous and metamorphic rocks of northern Labrador. This study will evaluate the heat and fluid transport or a fossil geothermal system caused by igneous intrusion.

Italy will be her next location to study the volcanic rocks which could help explain the geological evolution of Italy, she said.

Kalamarides, who has worked at NIU since 1977, received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts.