Donna L. Whitney

About

Donna L. Whitney is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Her research focuses on metamorphic geology, utilizing metamorphic rocks to reconstruct the chemical and physical processes that drive metamorphism in continental and oceanic crust, and understanding how these rocks are returned to the Earth’s surface. She is actively involved in collaborative projects, including studies on the dynamics of partially molten crust and the mantle-to-surface processes during tectonic development, such as her large multidisciplinary research project in Turkey investigating tectonic escape systems. Whitney's interests extend to metamorphic textures, microstructures in garnet, and the interaction of deformation and metamorphism across various tectonic settings, with field sites in North America, Turkey, France, and Norway. She is engaged in mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in projects related to metamorphic petrology, mineralogy, structural geology, and tectonics. Her contributions to the field have been recognized through numerous awards and honors, including her election as a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America and the Geological Society of America, and her appointment as a Distinguished McKnight University Professor.

Research topics

• Geology
• Paleontology
• Geochemistry
• Petrology
• Materials science
• Metallurgy
• Mineralogy
• Seismology

Selected publications

• Deformation-enhanced recrystallization of titanite drives decoupling between U-Pb and trace elements

  Earth and Planetary Science Letters · 2021 · 50 citations

  DOI

• Lawsonite composition and zoning as tracers of subduction processes: A global review

  Lithos · 2020 · 43 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Lawsonite is an abundant hydrous mineral in oceanic crust, sediments, and metasomatic rocks at depths of ~45 to 300 km in most subduction zones, but it is rarely preserved in the geologic record because it commonly transforms to epidote and other minerals during prograde or retrograde metamorphism. Owing to the significance of lawsonite for water and element cycling in subduction zones, occurrences of fresh lawsonite in blueschist and, more rarely, eclogite provide important opportunities to det…

  DOI

• Breaking plates: Creation of the East Anatolian fault, the Anatolian plate, and a tectonic escape system

  Geology · 2023 · 40 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Lateral movement of lithospheric fragments along strike-slip faults in response to collision (escape tectonics) has characterized convergent settings since the onset of plate tectonics and is a mechanism for the formation of new plates. The Anatolian plate was created by the sequential connection of strike-slip faults following ≥10 m.y. of distributed deformation that ultimately localized into plate-bounding faults. Thermochronology data and seismic images of lithosphere structure near…

  DOI

• Deep crustal source of gneiss dome revealed by eclogite in migmatite (Montagne Noire, French Massif Central)

  Journal of Metamorphic Geology · 2020 · 35 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract In orogens worldwide and throughout geologic time, large volumes of deep continental crust have been exhumed in domal structures. Extension‐driven ascent of bodies of deep, hot crust is a very efficient mechanism for rapid heat and mass transfer from deep to shallow crustal levels and is therefore an important mechanism in the evolution of continents. The dominant rock type in exhumed domes is quartzofeldspathic gneiss (typically migmatitic) that does not record its former high‐pressure…

  DOI

• Deep Lithospheric Controls on Surface Deformation and Seismicity around the East Anatolian Fault Zone and A3 Triple Junction

  GSA Today · 2024-06-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  The East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) is a plate-bounding strike-slip fault capable of hosting large earthquakes, as demonstrated by the extremely damaging February 2023 Mw 7.8 and Mw 7.7 mainshocks of the Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence. Deformation related to this boundary, part of the Anatolia-Arabia-Africa (A3) Triple Junction, is diffuse, as was shown by part of this earthquake sequence occurring on a northern splay of the EAFZ (the Sürgü-Çardak Fault Zone; SCFZ). Controls on surface defor…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Field-Based Analysis of Subduction Petrofabrics

  NSF · $220k · 2007–2011

• Textures and Tectonics of Metamorphic Crystallization

  NSF · $201k · 2005–2009

• Collaborative Research: Linking Deep and Shallow Crustal Processes in a Continental Arc, North Cascades, Washington

  NSF · $129k · 2005–2009

Frequent coauthors

• Christian Teyssier

  170 shared

• Patrice Rey

  69 shared

• C. Teyssier

  46 shared

• Michael A. Cosca

  United States Geological Survey

  35 shared

• Clémentine Hamelin

  34 shared

• Françoise Roger

  31 shared

• Stacia M. Gordon

  University of Nevada, Reno

  29 shared

• Katherine Fornash

  29 shared

Labs

• Structure Tectonics and Metamorphic Petrology Research GroupPI

Education

• AB, Geology

  Smith College

  1985

Awards & honors

• President, Mineralogical Society of America, 2024
• Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professi…
• Member, Academy of Distinguished Teachers, University of Min…
• Distinguished McKnight University Professor, awarded 2010
• Fellow, Mineralogical Society of America, elected 2005

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• Marc Hirschmannh-75
• William Seyfriedh-63