Yiming Zhang

I am a Postdoctoral Associate at the Institute for Rock Magnetism at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

My research primarily uses field observations, laboratory experiments, and statistical methods to understand Earth history. In particular, I integrate rock magnetic, paleomagnetic, geochronologic and thermochronologic data to study ancient Earth magmatism, paleogeography, and the evolution of Earth’s magnetic field and interior.

I have conducted a total of 23 weeks of original field work since the beginning of my Ph.D. My field areas include the Lake Superior Region (MN, MI, WI) where I study igneous and sedimentary rocks associated with the ca. 1109-1083 Ma North American Midcontinent Rift; the ca. 1.08 Ga Pikes Peak granite in Colorado; the ca. 1.1 Ga Southwest Large Igneous Province (Death Valley, CA, Grand Canyon, AZ); the Grenville orogen (Adirondack Mountains, NY, Bancroft area, ON, Lac Saint Jean and Saint Urbain area, Quebec) where I study the exhumation history and associated paleogeographic records using metamorphic rocks; the late Mesozoic volcanics in southwestern Montana where I study volcanism associated with the subduction of the Farallon plate and deformation associated with the development of the Laramide orogeny; and the Middle East (Oman) where I use Tonian intrusive rocks to constrain the paleogeography of the Arabian-Nubian Shield before the onset of the Snowball Earth.

For my paleomagnetism research, I conduct experiments at the UC Berkeley Paleomagnetism Lab which has a 2G DC-SQUID rock magnetometer and a quantum diamond microscope. In summer 2022, I attended the rock magnetism summer school at the Institute for Rock Magnetism at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

I also use a suite of techniques and instruments including X-ray powder diffraction for bulk compositional analysis, making custom thin sections for optical petrography, using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to collect compositional (EDS) and crystal orientation (EBSD) information of minerals. I have also been a visiting student in 2024 at the Boise State Univeristy Isotope Geology Lab where I performed U-Pb LA-ICP-MS and ID-TIMS experiments on accessory minerals for geochronology and thermochronology.