The Mantle Rocks – LeRoux Lab

Welcome to Vero Le Roux's Laboratory

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

June 2021 – New Paper in Science Advances: Postmelting hydrogen enrichment in the oceanic lithosphere

The large range of H2O contents recorded in minerals from exhumed mantle rocks has been challenging to interpret, as it often records a combination of melting, metasomatism, and diffusional processes in spatially isolated samples. Here, we determine the temporal variations of H2O contents in pyroxenes from a 24-Ma time series of abyssal peridotites exposed along…

Feb 2021 – Ben’s graduation

Ben Urann has graduated from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program (2015-2021)! Congratulations for a great job Ben!

August 2020: Visiting Scholar at SCIENCE 2020

I have obtained a visiting Scholar award to visit the IGN, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) for some months. Thank you to both WHOI and IGN for support.

March 2020 – New Paper in Geology: Quantifying the volume increase and chemical exchange during serpentinization

Quantifying the concurrent changes in rock volume and fluid composition during serpentinization remains a major challenge in assessing its physicochemical effects during continental rifting, seafloor spreading, and subduction. Here we conducted a series of 11 hydrothermal laboratory experiments where cylindrical cores of natural dunite, harzburgite, and pyroxenite were reacted with an aqueous solution at 300…

March 2020 – New paper in American Mineralogist: The distribution and abundances of halogens in subducted eclogites

Ben Urann (PhD student in Le Roux’s group) just published his work on halogen cycling in subduction zones! We present in situ secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and electron microprobe analyses of coexisting garnet, omphacite, phengite, amphibole, and apatite, combined with pyrohydrolysis bulk-rock analyses to constrain the distribution, abundance, and behavior of halogens (F and…

Nov 2019: Emmanuel passed his generals exam

Congratulations Emman!

September 2019 – New paper in Minerals: Connecting timing of boninite percolation and pyroxenite formation in subduction mantle

The peridotite section of supra-subduction zone ophiolites is often crosscut by pyroxenite veins, reflecting the variety of melts that percolate through the mantle wedge, react, and eventually crystallize in the shallow lithospheric mantle. Understanding the nature of parental melts and the timing of formation of these pyroxenites provides unique constraints on melt infiltration processes that…

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

Emmanuel Codillo (now PhD student in Le Roux’s group) just published the work he performed as an undergraduate guest student at WHOI! 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…

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 enlarged,…

March 2018 – New paper in Geology: 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. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/528313/generation-of-alkaline-magmas-in-subduction-zones “Here we report results from experiments in which natural mélange materials were partially melted at upper mantle conditions to produce alkaline magmas. Partial melts produced in our experiments have trace-element abundance patterns that are typical of alkaline arc lavas,…

Arc-like magmas generated by melange-peridotite interaction in the mantle wedge

Dating layered websterite formation in the lithospheric mantle

Fluorine and chlorine in mantle minerals and the halogen budget of the Earth’s mantle

Experimental evidence for melt partitioning between Ol and Opx in partially molten harzburgite

Welcome to Vero Le Roux's Laboratory

News from the lab

Selected Publications