Pierre Robin (Emeritus)

Emeritus Professor

University of Toronto
Department of Earth Sciences

22 Ursula Franklin St., Toronto
Ontario, Canada M5S 3B1

Tel.: 416 978 5080
Fax.: 416 978 3938

Civil and Mining Engineer (1965, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Métallurgie et de l’Industrie des Mines, Nancy, France)
M.Sc. (Geology, 1968, University of Toronto)
Ph.D. (Geology, 1974, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Research Interests

Physical chemistry of deformation and phase transitions within minerals:

Thermodynamics and stress
Theory and models of coherent transformation reactions within crystals: coherent exsolution, shear-induced coherent transitions, order-disorder transitions

Physical chemistry of deformation of polymineralic rocks under crustal conditions of temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.:

Physical chemistry of diffusion transfer in rocks, induced by stress (alias pressure solution) or by metamorphic reactions
Modelling and interpretation of textures caused by interaction of deformation with diagenetic and metamorphic reactions
Development of tectonic layering and cleavage
Fluid flow within and toward shear zones
Migmatization, migmatites, melting under stress

Measurement of large “paleostrains”, and, more generally, objective, numerical description of the fabrics of rocks:

Numerical methods of strain analysis in deformed rocks, statistical evaluation of the results, petrographic image analysis
Graphical representation and evaluation of oriented fabric data

Tectonics:

PreCambrian tectonics: selected problems in Archean, Hudsonian and Grenvillian orogenic belts
Mathematical and numerical modelling of deformation in tectonic belts

Fluid flow through porous media:

Laboratory measurements and interpretation of very low permeabilities in rocks
Theoretical models and numerical calculations of fluid flow through ‘crystalline’ rocks and fractured media.