This approach requires field work in a variety of petrologic settings, in order to determine mineral compatibilities under a wide range of physical and chemical conditions. Dr. Burt's research has recently taken him from locations ranging from Antarctica to Siberia and China. One of his students, David London, experimentally verified his prediction of the lithium aluminosilicate phase diagram for pegmatites. These components allow the representation of mineral compositions and substitutions as vectors in a vector space, rather than merely as points on a composition triangle. This approach has recently been applied to the compositions of several mineral groups, and of other inorganic materials.
Related studies involve the genesis of ore deposits.
Types of deposits studied include skarns, greisens, pegmatites, carbonatites, and volcanogenic deposits. Current research is especially directed at fluorine-rich systems that are also enriched in lithium, beryllium, tin, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, niobium, and the rare earths. Other acid volatiles present in such systems include chlorine, boron, phosphorus, sulfur, and carbon dioxide. Pegmatites form in such systems at relatively great depths, whereas unusual volcanic rocks called topaz rhyolites form at the earth's surface. As the result of a sabbatical year as Visiting Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Dr. Burt began studying the extraction of useful materials in space.