Courses Taught

Physical Geology, Historical Geology, Structural Geology, Coastal Geology, and Southern Appalachian Geology

Education

Ph.D. (Geology) University of South Carolina, 1989

Research Interests

Dr. Allen Dennis conducts research in tectonics generally, the Ediacaran and younger history of the Appalachians in particular, and that of the Piedmont of the Carolinas and Georgia specifically. All studies are rooted in field observations and detailed geologic mapping. Over the past 33 years he has worked on kinematic models for the formation of structures in shear zones, the geochemistry and petrology of mafic-ultramafic complexes, U-Pb dating of zircon and monazite (TIMS, ion probe and laser ablation methods), structural and petrologic analysis of the basement underlying the US DOE Savannah River Site, eclogite and high-pressure granulite facies metamorphism internal to Carolinia, K-metasomatism accompanying Mesozoic rifting, provenance of tillites deposited at the D-M boundary in the Pennsylvania Valley and Ridge, and detrital zircon provenance studies of the exposed Rheic margin in the North and South Carolina. He continues to welcome highly motivated students to participate in on-going projects.