Research

Geochemical exchange in Earth, Geochemical tracers, Geochemistry, Geology, Mantle dynamics, Petrology, Tectonics, Trace metal geochemistry, Volcanism, Volcano

My research broadly focuses on the exchanges of materials between the Earth’s surface and interior that take place at tectonic plate boundaries. Specifically, I study the lava erupted from Earth’s many types of volcanoes, as a window into the processes that melt the Earth’s interior and bring magma from depth to the surface. In areas where tectonic plates spread apart, the lava that erupts provides valuable information, such as the composition and gas content, of the Earth’s upper mantle. In areas where tectonic plates converge with each other, however, rocks and sediments from the sea floor are thrust into the mantle, polluting it and changing its composition and gas content. Volatile elements and compounds, like water and oxygen, are transported from the surface into the solid Earth’s deep interior, as if the Earth were drinking the ocean and breathing the air. The volcanoes in these convergent settings erupt different kinds of lava as a result, creating explosive volcanoes and manufacturing our continental crust.
In the laboratory, I apply novel tools of geochemistry to analyze the composition of natural volcanic glasses, minerals, and bulk rocks, as a means of finding and unraveling the processes of magma formation and geochemical evolution of the Earth’s crust and mantle. In particular, the cycling of material between the Earth’s atmosphere/ocean, crust, and mantle are intimately linked to the behavior and distribution of the volatile elements (e.g., water, carbon dioxide, sulfur) that play important roles in each of these Earth reservoirs and the ways they communicate with each other. I also ultimately seek broader links between the natural geochemistry of Earth materials and geophysical properties, dynamic models, and experimental predictions of these same conditions and processes, to drive forward our understanding of the whole Earth as a physical and chemical system.