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May 2024: 
Dr. Kerrigan finishes his tenth year at Pitt-Johnstown.

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Ph.D. work

Images (left to right): Phase diagram for the MSH system; NaCl recrystallization in the HDAC; Field work in Yosemite Natl. Park, CA; Growth of fibrous talc in the HDAC; SEI image of fibrous talc grown on magnesite; National Synchrotron Light Source beamline map

My Ph.D. was conducted in the Laboratory of Mineral Deposits Research the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland - College Park under the supervision of Drs. Phil Candela and Phil Picooli

My Ph.D. research focused on the experimental investigation of the interaction of hot fluids and oceanic lithosphere, specifically the kinetics of hydrothermal alteration of mafic and ultramafic rocks. My Ph.D. work is on the system MgO-SiO2-H2O (± FeO, HCl, O2 and CO2) to simulate the metasomatic alteration of ultramafic rocks by silica-rich fluids in greenschist to amphibolite facies metamorphism.

   For my Ph.D. I had several specific areas of investigation:

    To conduct this research I employed the following techniques:

Master's Degree

Images (left to right): Italian Mt., Gunnison Natl. Forest, CO; S+6-S-2-Cl- triangle plotting lazurite compositions; Hourglass selenite; Geologic Map of Italian Mt vicinity Gunnison Natl. Forest, CO; Single crystal of lazurite; WDS scan of K alpha sulfur peaks

My masters thesis was conducted in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities under the supervision of Dr. James H. Stout.  

My masters research focused on field mapping the Italian Mountian skarn deposit and lapis lazuli mine, along with identification of the chromophore for the blue mineral in lapis lazuli, lazurite. Our work indicated that the intenisty of blue within lazurite is attributed to the ratio of S+6 to S-2. Deeper darker blue lazurite contained more reduced sulfur (S-2) and lighter blue lazurite contained more oxidized sulfur (S+6).

Thesis Title:"The origin of color in lazurite from Italian Mountain, Colorado and other localities."     

Bachelor's Degrees

    My bachelors degrees were conducted at Bridgewater State University where I completed a B.S. in geology under the supervision of Dr. Peter Saccocia and a B.A. in chemistry under the supervision of Dr. Chirufu (Chief) Noda.  My undergraduate thesis was titled "Investigations of hourglass inclusions in selenite" and was presented at the 2001 BUROP conference, Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA.