Group Members

Kelly Yong,

B.S. in Geology, Queen's College

Kelly is a graduate student at Stony Brook University with a B.S. in Geology from Queens College (2017). Her undergraduate research focused on the temporal-compositional trend from low-SiO₂, alkali-rich basanite to late high-SiO₂, low-alkali tholeiite of the AD 1730-1736 Timanfaya eruption on Lanzarote, Canary Islands. To explain the increasing SiO₂ trend, Dr. Longpré and Kelly tested the hypothesis of assimilation of metasedimentary xenoliths in the basaltic magma by analyzing the composition of the xenoliths and their interaction with the host magma in a key thin section. Kelly performed point analysis, back-scattered electron (BSE) imaging, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy on olivine grains from different phases of the eruption and the thin section with both metasedimentary and peridotite xenoliths in the basalt host using the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Kelly has also designed an analog model of the exhumation of UHP (Ultra High Pressure) rocks with buoyancy and viscosity as the variables, which spurred my interest in the processes and modeling of Earth’s interior.