Veronique Le Roux WHOI

The mantle represents more than 80% of the volume of the Earth. It controls the thermal state of the planet, drives plate tectonics, and is the reservoir from which magmas are extracted. Variations in mantle composition and temperature controls the location and dynamics of volcanoes at the surface of our planet. Using petrology, geochemistry, field work, experimental petrology, and 3-D imaging of mantle-derived rocks, we aim to answer fundamental questions about the nature of the Earth’s mantle.

News from the lab

Fig1_with right template_cropped_melange in wedge geodynamics

July 2018 – New paper: Arc-like magmas generated by melange-peridotite interaction in the mantle wedge

The mechanisms of transfer of crustal material from the subducting slab to the overlying mantle wedge are still debated. Mélange rocks, formed by mixing of sediments, oceanic crust, and ultramafics along the slab-mantle interface, are predicted to ascend as diapirs from the slab-top and transfer their compositional signatures to the source region of arc magmas. […]

April 2018 – Visit at the Perkins school for the Blind

A great outreach event with geobiologist collaborator Joan Bernhard. This spring, we introduced students at the Perkins School for the Blind to foraminifera, or forams: small, single-celled organisms that abound in ocean waters and seafloor sediments. Joan collected a variety of forams which were scanned using x-ray micro-computed tomography in the Mantle Rocks lab. The computer models were then […]

March 2018 – New paper: melting of pure melanges produces alkaline magmas

Alicia ‘Cici’ Cruz-Uribe (WHOI postdoc 2014-2015) has just published her work on melange melting in Geology.

Oct 2017 – Back from the mid-Atlantic ridge!

The SCARF 2017 student-led cruise is back on shore! After a few days in the Azores we sailed across the mid-Atlantic ridge aboard the R/V Neil Armstrong and acquired bathymetry, gravity and magnetics data along a flow line. It was an amazing adventure! SCARF 2017: A modern-day transatlantic crossing

Sept 2017 – Welcome Emily!

Emily just started a Doherty Postodoctoral scholar at WHOI and is working on (U-Th)/He thermochronology and trace element geochemistry to 1) date magnetite that form during fluid alteration, 2) investigate the geochemical fingerprints of serpentinization at different tectonic settings, and 3) constrain the thermal history of mantle peridotites. Emily has extensive experience with anything outdoorsy […]

July 2017 – Welcome Taylor!

Taylor comes from Brown University and is a 2017 Summer Student Fellow working on the formation of pyroxenites in the Josephine Ophiolite (Oregon). He is using EPMA, LA-ICP-MS, REE closure temperatures and Nd isotopes by MC-ICP-MS to decipher the timing of vein formation in the mantle.