Richard A. Secco
Earth Physics
Professor
Ph.D. Western University, 1988
Office: BGS 0178
Phone: 1-519-661-2111 x.84079
Fax: 1-519-661-3198
Email: secco@uwo.ca
Research Interests
My
research interest lie in Mineral Physics and Materials Science. Each
study in these two disciplines finds application to specific and
different physico-chemical problems/investigations. The unifying theme
that binds them is my primary goal of understanding the effects of high
pressures and temperatures on solids and liquids, particularly as these
parameters perturb and present the promise of control of physical
properties. Knowledge of physical property behavior is pivotal for
understanding many Earth processes as well as for tailoring specific
responses in materials for applications. Many of these studies utilize
equipment in the UWO Experimental High Pressure / Temperature Mineral
Physics / Materials Science Laboratory.
Selected Publications
Balog, P.S., Secco, R.A.,
D.C. Rubie, D.C. and Frost, D.J., Equation of State of Liquid
Fe-10wt%S: Implications for the Metallic Cores of Planetary Bodies,
submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research, accepted June 21, 2002,
in press.
Liu,
H., Secco, R.A., Imanaka, N., Rutter, M.D., Adachi, G., Uchida, T.,
Ionic to Electronic Dominant Conductivity in Al2(WO4)3 at High Pressure
and High Temperature, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids,
accepted May 28, 2002, in press.
Secco,
R.A., Liu, H., Imanaka, N., Adachi, G., Anomalous Ionic Conductivity
of Sc2(WO4)3 Mediated by Structural Changes at High Pressures and
Temperatures Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, in press, 2002.
Secco,
R.A., Rutter, M.D., Balog, S.P., Liu, H., Rubie, D.C., Uchida, T.,
Frost, D., Wang, Y., Rivers, M., Sutton, S., Viscosity and Density of
Fe-S Liquids at High Pressures, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter,
in press, 2002.
Uchida,
T., Wang, Y., Rivers, M.L., Sutton, S.R., Weidner, D.J., Vaughan,
M.T., Chen, J., Li, B., Secco, R.A., Rutter, M.D., Liu, H., A large
Volume Press Facility at the APS: Diffraction and Imaging Studies on
Materials Relevant to the Cores of Planetary Bodies, Journal of
Physics: Condensed Matter, in press, 2002.
Courses Taught
Undergraduate Courses
Earth Sciences 1085: Introduction to Geophysics (Fall 2001)
Earth Sciences 3321: Physics of the Earth I
Earth Sciences 4424: Advanced Mineral Physics
Graduate Courses
Geophysics 9507: Aspects of High Pressure Geophysics
Geophysics 9572: Physics of the Earth
Geophysics 9574: Seismic Exploration (with Lalu Mansinha)
Students
Marie Burford, M.Sc. candidate
Innocent Ezenwa, Ph.D. candidate
Soushyant Kiarasi, Ph.D. candidate
Tim Officer, Ph.D. candidate
Ryan Sawyer, Ph.D. candidate (w/ H.W. Nesbitt)
Reynold Sukara, M.Sc. candidate
