Tim Holland

Dr. T. J. B. Holland Reader in Petrology Telephone:  +44 (0) 1223 333 466 FAX:  +44 (0) 1223 333 450

My Ph.D. work (on eclogites in the Eastern Alps) was carried out at Oxford between 1974 and 1977, after which I spent two years at the Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, doing high-pressure experiments with Professor R.C. Newton. I joined what used to be the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology in 1979, and have continued to work on high-pressure metamorphism and the thermodynamics of minerals as a function of temperature, pressure and composition in the Department of Earth Sciences since its inauguration in 1980.

Research Interests

• Structural and metamorphic evolution of young orogenic belts (Alps, Pyrenees, Cyclades).
• Experimental petrology and mineral stability at high temperatures and pressures.
• Thermodynamics of mixing and of order-disorder in rock-forming minerals.
• Generating and maintaining a thermodynamic data base and software (THERMOCALC), together with Roger Powell (University of Melbourne, Australia) for calculating phase equilibria and forward-modelling of mineral assemblages and reactions in metamorphic rocks. 
• Melting in crustal environments; thermodynamics of melts and prediction of melting relations.

    Some examples of calculated phase diagrams using THERMOCALC:

 
• Rock-fluid interactions; fluid flow in metamorphic rocks.

Click here for a list of some recent publications.

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