Projects

THIN - Lithosphere Thinning During Subduction Initiation (Marie Curie Actions)

The THIN project (Sept 2020 - Aug 2022) is a Marie Sklodovska Curie Individual Fellowship awarded to the University of Birmingham and led by myself (as supervisor) and Dr Eldert Advokaat (fellow). The project addressed a key question of global plate tectonics: what happens when a spreading ridge ceases its activity? The THIN project aimed at studying the deformation of the upper mantle and lower crustal section of the Troodos Ophiolite of Cyprus to understand the tectonic processes associated with the demise of a spreading ridge. The results of this study are currently being reported on two manuscripts, which will be submitted soon. Stay tuned!

Bay of Islands ophiolite (Newfoundland, Canada) - July 2022

This project stemmed from a collaboration between myself and Prof Carl Guilmette (University of Laval, Canada). In July 2022 I attended a conference/fieldtrip organised by Carl and Prof. Jean Bedard (Canadian Geological Survey) in the Bay of Islands ophiolite. We carried out a preliminary sampling during this trip, and collected samples fropm the gabbro and sheeted dyke section of the ophiolite. The aim of this study is to reconstruct: (i) the local rotations within the ophiolite and, by doing so, try to understand how lithosphere thins above an ongoing subduction zone, and (ii) what was the orientation of the spreading ridge at wghich this ophiolite was formed in the Paleozoic. Preliminary data have been now obtained.