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

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.

June 2017 – New paper: Fluorine and chlorine in mantle minerals

Fluorine and chlorine in mantle minerals and the halogen budget of the Earth’s mantle, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology (B. M. Urann, V. Le Roux, K. Hammond, H. R. Marschall, C.‑T. A. Lee, B. D. Monteleone) We have developed a technique to reliably measure the F and Cl contents of natural peridotite minerals by SIMS […]

Dec 2016 – New paper: Dating the formation of mantle heterogeneties

Constraining the scale and the nature of mantle heterogeneities is critical to understand mantle dynamics, but there is still limited information available on the mechanisms and timing of formation of mantle heterogeneities observed in exhumed mantle rocks. Most of those heterogeneities are layered pyroxene-rich veins that form as a result of melt focusing and subsequent […]