Embedded Files
field areas
field areas
The MSU group has a long standing project in Ethiopia that dates back to the Ph.D. research of Prof. Rooney. This beautiful place has prompted a variety of studies in regions from the high plateau of the northwest traps basalts, the lowlands near the Sudan border, the Rift Valley and Afar Depression, and the rugged Bale Mountains (picture shown to the left).
objectives
objectives
There are multiple projects within this subdivision of the group but primarily the focus of discovery is the relationship between magmatism, rifting, and lithospheric extension. Simply put, how do lavas play a role in the break up of the African continent. Ethiopia exhibits a significant volume of geologically recent volcanism, such as the small cinder cone and large volcano (Ziqualla) shown to the left.
Discoveries
Discoveries
Through our work in this region we have constrained the composition of the Afar plume. With these data we have explored the spatial variation in the contribution from the deep earth and shallower earth in breaking of the African continent. Our work has broad use from constraining the age of volcanism to where magmas might have been generated and stored prior to eruption.
ongoing work
ongoing work
Rift valleys may eventually become oceans - a process that allows the continents to split. Part of this transition means creating new oceanic crust. How this process operates remains unclear. A continuing focus of our research is on how magmas might be involved in accommodating extension. This can be achieved through injection of a ribbon of magma into the crust and dilating it. Where these regions of magma injection are location, their age, and source are important unknowns in the ongoing exploration of continental rifting processes.
ABSTRACTS
ABSTRACTS
1. Rooney, T.O., Hanan, B., Furman, T., and Graham, D., 2008. Multi-component isotopic mixing in the Ethiopian Rift: Modeling plume contributions to recent magmatism. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. v. 72, p. A804.
2. Rooney, T.O., Herzberg, C., and Bastow, I., 2008. A heated debate: Evidence for two thermal upwellings in East Africa. EOS Trans. AGU. v. 89 (53), V53A-2133.
3. *Pluda, A., and Rooney, T.O., 2009. Inferring a petrogenetic history of the Ethiopian lithospheric mantle using the geochemistry of olivine crystals in mantle xenoliths. EOS Trans. AGU. v. 90, V23B-05.
4. Rooney, T.O., Hanan, B., Graham, D., Furman, T., 2009. Invited Talk: Geochemically deduced mantle dynamics beneath the main Ethiopian rift. EOS Trans. AGU. v.90 (52), V11G-05.
5. Rooney, T.O., Mohr, P., Dosso, L., and Hall, C.M., T., 2010, Geochemical evidence of mantle reservoir evolution during progressive rifting. EOS Trans. AGU. v.91 (52), T23F-01.
6. Rooney, T.O., Herzberg, C.T., and Bastow, I.D., 2011. The East African mantle: Warm but not hot. EOS Trans. AGU. v.92 (52), T33D-2440.
7. Rooney, T.O., Bastow, I.D., and Herzberg, C.T., 2012. The Thermo-chemical state of the East African mantle, Magmatic Rifting and Active Volcanism Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. January 11-13th 2012.
8. Rooney, T.O., Yirgu, G., Dosso, L. 2012. Invited Talk: Development of magma reservoirs during the final stages of rifting - the role of the continental lithosphere in magma genesis in the Afar depression. EOS Trans. AGU. v.93 (52), T41G-08.
9. *Denny, A.C., *Chiasera, B., Rooney, T.O., Mohr, P., Zimbelman, J.R., Ramsey, M., Grosfils, E.B., and Yirgu, G., 2012. The riftward migration of focused magmatism in Central Ethiopia: Geochemical evidence of magmatic processes within the Galema Ridge. EOS Trans. AGU. v.93 (52), V43D-2892.
10. Rooney, T.O., Yirgu, G., Zimbelman, J.R., Grosfils, E.B., Ramsey, M., and *Movsesian, E., 2012. Pliocene cinder cone chains adjacent to the Main Ethiopian Rift: Precursors to rift-based quaternary zones of focused magmatic intrusion? EOS Trans. AGU. v.93 (52), V53C-2856.
11. *Chiasera, B., and Rooney, T.O., 2014, Lithospheric Processes on Mars and Venus; a Geochemical Study of Analogous Terrestrial Structures in the Galema Range, Central Ethiopia. Presented at the Michigan Space Grant fall meeting in Ann Arbor, October 18th, 2014.
12. *Chiasera, B., Rooney, T.O., Magmatically assisted off-rift extension – a study of the Galema range. Abstract 311. Presented the Meeting of the International Association of Volcanology and chemistry of the Earth’s Interior, Portland, Oregon, United States. August 14-18 2017.
13. Rooney., T.O., Invited: Afar and the East African Rift – A lithosphere in Transition. Goldschmidt Abstracts, 2015-2682.
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