Tomas Næraa

My research interests focuses on crust forming processes in the Archaean, and on understanding the changing geological settings under which the Archaean continental crust have formed. I work with geochemistry, isotope geochemistry and geochronology and I am interested in the zircon mineral, both as a reservoir for isotopes, but also in understanding the alteration processes that occur in zircon gains. Geographically my current research is focused on south east Greenland on the Skjoldungen region, this is a relatively unknown region composed of Archaean rocks that host some of the earliest alkaline magmatism at ca. 2.7 billion years ago. My work is however on the basement gneisses and granites that formed during a major geological event some 2.8 to 2.7 billion years ago. This period, belonging to Neoarkæikum (2.8 to 2.5 billion years ago), represents a very interesting period in the history of the earth, during which large changes in the geochemical composition of the crust occurred probably related to large changes in the geodynamics of the Earth.