Grenville Draper

Dr. Draper is associate director of liberal studies and a professor of Earth and Environment. He is a geologist whose research focuses on the use of structural and metamorphic information to develop models for the tectonic evolution of the Caribbean. His research has included field studies in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Dr. Draper is Chair of the Standing Committee of the Caribbean Geological Conference series and is on the editorial boards if International Geology Review and Geologica Acta.

Research Areas

The Caribbean region is a varied and complicated part of the Cordilleran system of the Americas and the overall goal of Dr. Draper's research is to use structural and metamorphic information to constrain and develop models for the tectonic evolution of that region.

In order to do this, Dr. Draper's research has focused largely, but not exclusively, on field studies deformation, metamorphism and tectonic implications of metamorphic complexes in the Caribbean. He has examined blueschist and other metamorphic complexes in Jamaica and the northern Dominican Republic. In addition, he has participated in regional tectonic studies in Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico that have helped to understand the development of the Early Cretaceous to mid-Eocene Greater Antilles island arc. Several of these studies have involved documenting brittle fault and ductile shear zone kinematics.

Current Interests:

• Investigating the tectonic significance of garnet pyroxenite lenses in a mafic gneiss terrane in the northern Dominican Republic that have been exhumed form more than 100km depth
• Understanding how transtension may lead to highly linear fabrics in Jamaica's blueschists

Education

• Ph.D. University of the West Indies, 1979
• M.Sc. London (Imperial College), 1974
• B.A. (Honors) Cambridge, 1973