Susan DeBari

Department of Geology
Western Washington University

I am an associate professor in the Geology Department at Western Washington University .

Email Address: debari@geol.wwu.edu
Phone: (360) 650-3588

Ph.D., Stanford University, 1990

Science Education , Igneous Petrology, Tectonics
Take a look at Sue's science ed page for links to educational sites

Courses with Web Pages

Western Washington University
Geology 309: Volcanology
Science Education 390 : Science Methods for Elementary School Teachers
Geol 101: Introduction to Geology
Geol 406: Igneous & Metamorphic Petrology

Research Interests (Petrology and Science Education)

Petrology

My research concerns crustal scale petrologic processes within island arcs. I am trying to understand what happens to magmas as they stall and fractionate at deep levels in the Earth's crust.

Currently, I have projects in the North Cascades of Washington, in Alaska (Talkeetna arc), Canada (Vancouver Island, Bonanza arc), Japan (Izu Bonin arc), and Pakistan (the Kohistan arc).

I am currently funded to work on rocks of the Talkeetna arc in Alaska. This arc is Jurassic in age, and was accreted to North America sometime during the Jurassic or Cretaceous. The arc preserves a beautiful crustal section from deformed subarc mantle through the volcanic carapace. Mafic rocks near the Moho are garnet bearing, two-pyroxene gabbros. The middle of the section is comprised of gabbroic to tonalitic plutonic rocks, and the uppermost part is dominantly volcanic rocks ranging from basalt to dacite. This project is collaborative, involving scientists of various disciplines from several universities.

The Tenpeak pluton is located in the North Cascades of Washington. The pluton was crystallized at ~25-30 km depth in a Cretaceous magmatic arc. Our goal is to elucidate the emplacement and petrologic history of the pluton. The project is collaborative and involves structural geologists Robert Miller and Scott Paterson.

If you are interested in graduate school at Western, click here to see my Potential projects for graduate students

More information can be found in my list of publications.

Science Education

NSF has generously funded our North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership as part of their Math Science Partnership Program. I am currently working with a group of community college faculty and WWU faculty to develop a year-long curriculum in introductory science for future elementary school teachers. The earth science subgroup has developed a module-based, non-lecture course that is currently in the testing phase. You can read a bit more about it in an abstract for the 2005 Fall AGU DeBari et al., 2005

Link to Science Education Publications on the Internet for locations of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth and Space Science, and General Science Education journals

Link to Earth Science Sites of the Week Archive by Mark Francek