Member of the Faculty,
PhD Program in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Graduate School, CUNY
Ph.D. Yale University
Office: SB D-202
Telephone: (718) 997-3303
FAX: (718) 997-3299

Research Interests

My research interests are tectonics, structural geology, field geology, geochronology (Rb-Sr, U-Pb, Sm-Nd, Re-Os), isotopes and trace element geochemistry, igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology.

Field-oriented geologists and laboratory-oriented geochemists suffer a vast communications gap. Members from one group often misunderstand the other's techniques, conclusions and even their language. I have had the good fortune to be educated in structural geology, metamorphic petrology, geochronology, and trace element geochemistry and, therefore, I like to see myself as a link between these two important sub-areas in the earth sciences. In particular, I try to solve petrological, structural and chronological problems of the field geologist by using the modern geochemical laboratory techniques including radiometric dating. I have worked in the field in such diverse areas as Guatemala, Norway, Sweden, the Aleutians, around New York City, Maine, northern Nevada, Brazil, Central Africa, Egypt (the Red Sea), and even Greenland and Antarctica on problems related to the formation and history of such diverse rocks as peridotites, eclogites, jades and cherts, and the timing of structural, metamorphic and magmatic events. Broadly speaking, I am interested in the evolution of mountains, particularly those that form by continent-continent collision, and on the interactions between the crust and mantle in these collisional zones.

I am working at present in the Caledonides of Norway and Sweden and eastern Greenland (Liverpool Land) and along the Motagua Fault Zone of Guatemala. I am involved with two NSF funded studies: one on the eclogites, serpentinites and jades along the Motagua Fault Zone of Guatemala and another on the abyssal peridotites from the Vema Fracture zone in the Equatorial Atlantic.

Teaching Philosophy and Interests

I try to teach students to be generalists: to integrate information from all branches of the earth sciences as well as from the other physical sciences.  I think too many scientists are too narrow in their interests and this narrowness limits their ability to see make important broad contributions to science.   I also try to instill a love of nature and a sense of wonder about how this planet of ours operates.  This broad outlook has given me the ability to teach a wide variety of courses (see below).

A list of courses taught:

Undergraduate

• GEOL 3 The Physical Environment
• GEOL 8 Introduction to Oceanography
• GEOL 9 Environmental Issues
• GEOL 12 Natural Disasters
• GEOL 16 Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Moving Continents
• GEOL 25 Natural Resources and the Environment
• GEOL 100 Introduction to Geology
• GEOL 101 Physical Geology
• GEOL 201 Earth Materials I
• GEOL. 202 Earth materials II
• GEOL 214 Earth’s Internal Processes
• GEOL 237 Origins and Uses of Earth Materials
• GEOL 270 Geochemistry of the Global Environment
• GEOL 335 Petrography and Petrology
• ENSCI 111 Introduction to the Environment
• ENSCI 112 Our Changing Planet

Graduate

• GEOL 509 Environmental Geology of the New York Metropolitan Region
• GEOL 701 Advanced Principles of Physical Geology
• GEOL 710 Structural Geology
• GEOL 712 Geotectonics
• GEOL 721 Optical Mineralogy
• GEOL 726 Metamorphic Petrology
• GEOL 771 (Geochemistry)
• GEOL 799 (Geochronology as a Special Topic in Geology)

Selected Publications

Brueckner, H.K., 1977, A crustal origin for eclogites and a mantle origin for garnet peridotites: Strontium isotopic evidence from clinopyroxenes. Contrib. Mineral. & Petrol. 60, 1-15.

Griffin, W.L., and Brueckner, H.K., 1980, Caledonian Sm-Nd ages and a crustal origin for Norwegian eclogites. Nature 285, 319-321.

Brueckner, H.K., 1998, Sinking intrusion model for the emplacement of garnet-bearing peridotites into continent collision orogens. Geology, 26/7, 631-634.

Brueckner, H.K & Medaris, Jr., L.G, 2000, A General Model for the Intrusion and Evolution of “Mantle” Garnet Peridotites in High-Pressure and Ultrahigh Pressure Metamorphic Terranes. J. Metamorphic Geol. 18, 123-133.

Brueckner, H.K., & Van Roermund, H.L.M., 2004, Dunk Tectonics: a multiple subduction/eduction model for the evolution of the Scandianvian Caledonides. Tectonics, 23,TC2004, doi:10.1029/2003TC001502.