James Richard Darling Portrait

Professor James Darling

Professor of Earth and Planetary Materials

James.Darling@port.ac.uk

PhD Supervisor

View my research outputs
Faculty of Science and Health School of the Environment and Life Sciences Environmental Geography and Geosciences Sustainability and the environment Centre for Applied Geosciences

Summary

My research explores the interface of geology, analytical chemistry and materials science to improve understanding of the rock record of Earth and other planetary bodies. This work aims to elucidate the fundamental processes and timescales of tectonics, ore formation, hypervelocity impact events and crustal evolution.

Research interests

Evolution of planetary crusts

  • Microstructural geochronology of magmatic, crustal and impact processes on the Moon, Mars, differentiated asteroids and early Earth.
  • Shock metamorphism and its effects on key chemical records of planetary evolution, including the isotopic systematics of volatile and moderately volatile elements
  • The formation and differentiation of hypervelocity impact melt sheets, and the effects of impact bombardment
  • Origin and evolution of Earth's early crust, through study of sites such as the >3.8 billion year old Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt, Superior Province, Canada

Advances in micro- to nano-scale geochemical measurements

  • Novel techniques for in-situ geochemical and isotopic measurements by atom probe tomography (APT), femtosecond laser ablation inductively-coupled-plasma mass-spectrometry (fs-LA-ICP-MS) and integrate laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), and multi-collector ICP-MS
  • Integration with electron microscopy techniques, including electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and quantitative energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS)

Mineral systems research

  • Geology, geochemistry and geochronology of ore-deposits, focusing on linkages with tectonics and major crustal processes. This has included magmatic sulfide, a range of magmatic-hydrothermal, and rare earth element ore systems
  • Novel approaches to the characterisation of ores, mine waste and recycling products; e.g. lithium characterisation by fs-LA-LIBS

Research outputs

2024

Evidence of a 4.33 billion year age for the Moon’s South Pole–Aitken basin

Darling, J. R., Goodwin, A., Joy, K. H., Lin, Y. T., Liu, Y., Pernet-Fisher, J. F., Snape, J. F., Tar, P., Tartèse, R., Wang, N., Whitehouse, M. J.

16 Oct 2024, In: Nature Astronomy, 11p.

The corrosion mechanism of grey cast-iron yacht keel in marine environment during long-term exposure

Birosca, S., Dandekar, T. R., Darling, J., Dunlop, J., Knox-Johnston, R., Shishavan, B. H.

28 Aug 2024, In: International Journal of Cast Metals Research, 6p.

The source craters of the martian meteorites: implications for the igneous evolution of Mars

Benedix, G. K., Darling, J. R., Hamilton, J. S., Herd, C. D. K., Johnson, B. C., Lagain, A., Melosh, H. J., Sharp, T. G., Sheen, A. I., Tornabene, L. L., Walton, E. L., Wiggins, S. E.

16 Aug 2024, In: Science Advances. 10, 33, 9p., eadn2378

Accessory mineral microstructure and chronology reveals no evidence for late heavy bombardment on the asteroid 4-Vesta

Anand, M., Chamberlain, K., Darling, J., Dunlop, J., Hyde, B. C., Moser, D., Rider-Stokes, B. G., Schmitt, A., Tait, K., White, L.

15 Jun 2024, In: Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 636, 11p., 118694

Source and parental melts of poikilitic shergottites: implications for martian magmatism

Darling, J., Evan, O., Gross, J., Howarth, G., Johnsen, R., Lapen, T., McQuaig, D., Ostwald, A., Righter, M., Udry, A.

15 May 2024, In: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 373

U-Pb geochronology and microstructural analysis of apatite within a Proterozoic crustal-scale shear zone, Outer Hebrides, NW Scotland

Chapman, G., Darling, J. R., Dunlop, J., Fowler, M., Metcalfe, J. H., Strachan, R. A.

6 May 2024, In: Journal of the Geological Society. 181, 20p., jgs2023-139

Brecciation at the grain scale within the lithologies of the Winchcombe Mighei‐like carbonaceous chondrite

Alesbrook, L. s., Almeida, N. v., Anderson, I., Bagot, P. a. j., Bates, H., Behnsen, J., Black, K., Bland, P. a., Bridges, J., Burchell, M. j., Daly, L., Darling, J., Einsle, J. f., Floyd, C. j., Forman, L. v., Franchi, I., Genge, M. j., Griffin, S., Hallatt, D., Hallis, L. j., Hicks, L., Johnson, D., Jones, R., King, A. j., Lee, M. r., Macente, A., Mansour, H., Martin, P. m. c., Mitchell, J. t., Montgomery, M., O'brien, A., Parsons, M., Piazolo, S., Rollinson, G., Russell, S. s., Salge, T., Schofield, P. f., Smith, C., Spathis, V., Stephen, N. r., Suttle, M. D., Taylor, R., Trimby, P. w., Van ginneken, M., Vasseur, J., Wadsworth, F. b., Westmoreland, D., Willcocks, F. m., Worden, R., Wozniakiewicz, P. j.

15 Apr 2024, In: Meteoritics and Planetary Science

Baddeleyite microstructural response to shock metamorphism in three enriched shergottites and implications for U–Pb geochronology

Darling, J. R., Herd, C. D. K., Schwarz, W. H., Sheen, A. I., Staddon, L. G., Tait, K. T.

1 Feb 2024, In: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

2023

The impact history and prolonged magmatism of the angrite parent body

Anand, M., Darling, J. R., Degli-Alessandrini, G., Franchi, I., Greenwood, R. C., Rider-Stokes, B. G., Tartèse, R., White, L. F., Whitehouse, M. J.

27 Nov 2023, In: Meteoritics and Planetary Science, 17p.

In-situ phosphate U-Pb ages of the L chondrites

Anand, M., Baziotis, I., Darling, J., Ferrière, L., Hu, S., Jeon, H., Kuppili, V. S., Rae, A. S., Shorttle, O., Tang, F., Walton, C. R., Whitehouse, M. J., Černok, A.

15 Oct 2023, In: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 359

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