Posted on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006

Geologists fight for their plutons

By Catherine Clabby

When astronomers made public their plans to reclassify our solar system, they said Pluto and other faraway planets needed a new name: plutons.

Trouble is, we already have plutons -- on Earth. For more than 100 years, geologists have used "pluton" to describe a common type of rock with molten origins that, unlike lava, remains underground and cools there.

Allen Glazner, a UNC-Chapel Hill geologist, studies plutons. Recently he helped revise long-held ideas about the speed with which they form, refining understanding of Earth's crust.