The Crustal Processes Research Group investigates the evolution of the Earth's crust, and its interrelationships with the mantle, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. It utilises a wide range of techniques, including field studies, geochemistry (whole-rock, mineral, trace element and isotopic), geochronology, fluid inclusion studies, remote surveying and GIS, and tectonic analysis. Group research is focussed on four inter-related themes, all with strong international links.

Large Scale Magmatic and Volcanic Processes. What are the causes and mechanisms of large volcanic eruptions - explosive, caldera-forming events, and flood basalts - and what are their effects on the environment? What is the role of mantle plumes in the formation of large igneous provinces (LIPs)? These are some of the questions that this group is currently addressing.

Earth Sytems Processes. A topic that pervades all of our groups, from the role of flood basalts in mass extinctions, to the use of Se isotopes to evaluate the evolution of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans.

Tectonics and Sedimentology. An international team working in Mongolia is seeking to understand the processes of intracontinental mountain building and the formation of associated sedimentary basins. Closely allied research is investigating the tectonic and climatological controls on sedimentation, and the evolution of depositional systems using well-log analysis and geochemistry. Geochronology, especially U-Pb (zircon and monazite) techniques, is used to determine the rates of tectonic and sedimentological processes, from mountain building to the diagenesis of mudrocks.

Fluid Processes. This topic includes studies of the hydrogeology and structure of the oceanic crust, and of volcanically-driven mineralisation in active and fossil geothermal systems.

Academic Staff

Dr Mike Branney                           Dr Dickson Cunningham
Dr Sarah Davies                            Dr Gawen Jenkin
Dr Mike Norry                                Professor Randall Parrish
Professor Andy Saunders             Dr Jan Zalasiewicz

Professor Mike Petterson

Professor Mel Leng

Research Staff

Dr Marc Reichow

Dr Claire Smith

Emeritus Staff                  

Professor John Tarney                         Professor Brian Windley

Honorary Research Staff 

Dr Tiffany Barry (Open University)
Dr Diana Sutherland 
Dr Stephen Wickham (Galson Sciences, Rutland)

Research Students
Stephen Grebby: Application of airborne LiDAR to fault mapping, structural analysis, and identification of fracture controlled mineralisation, Slovenia and Cyprus
Nick Roberts: Mesoproterozoic crustal evolution in southwest Norway
Dinah Smith:The Holocene Palaeoenvironmental Change in the Fenland of Eastern England
Chris Willcox: Piecemeal-type explosive calderas: eruption behaviour, periodicity, and volcanic structure in Los Humeros volcano, Central Mexican Volcanic Belt
Rebecca Williams: Catastrophic emplacement of hot volcanic density currents over irregular topography, Pantelleria, Italy  
Tom Knott: 'Ash dispersal from ignimbrite-forming super-eruptions in the central Snake River Plain, Yellowstone hot-spot, USA'
Nina Jordan: 'Eruptive history of the peralkaline caldera volcano at Pantelleria, Italy'

Recent Graduates

Dan Smith: Understanding Active and Fossil Magmatic-Hydrothermal Mineralising Processes within an Emergent Volcano, Savo, Solomon Islands

Simon Jowitt: The geometry and evolution of fluid-flow systems forming volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) deposits - the Troodos ophiolite, Cyprus                                                

Full department staff list

Current Projects

• The extent and environmental impact of Siberian Trap volcanism (NERC)
• Flood basalts, impacts and mass extinctions, with particular reference to the Permo-Triassic extinction Anorogenic magmatism in Transbaikalia, Russia
• Mantle plumes and the formation of large igneous provinces
• Evolution of the High-Arctic Large Igneous Province
• The architecture of the oceanic crust (NERC)
• Hydrogeology of oceanic crust (Troodos Massif, Cyprus) (BGS)
• Volcanically-driven mineralising systems (Savo Volcano, Solomon Islands) (NERC)
• Proterozoic crustal formation in Scandinavia
• Large-volume, caldera-forming explosive eruptions (Snake River-Yellowstone Province, Central Mexico, Canary Islands, and English Lake District) (NERC)
• Large-volume, caldera-forming explosive eruptions (English Lake
  District and Mexico)
• The formation and emplacement of rheomorphic ignimbrites (Idaho,
  Canary Islands and Lipari) (NERC)
• Evolution of the Earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere using Se
  isotope geochemistry (American Geochemical Society)
• Constraining diagenesis in mudrocks by radiometric dating of minor
  mineral phases
• Intracontinental mountain building and basin formation, the 4-D
  evolution of restraining bends and other belts of oblique deformation, and the structural evolution of strike-slip fault systems (Mongolia and Slovenia) (NERC, EU)
• Rates of tectonic and sedimentological processes determined from
  radiometric dating
• The tectonic and climatological controls on clastic sedimentation 
• Emerald Formation in ophiolitic terranes, Pakistan (British
  Commonwealth) 
  

Collaboration

• British Gas plc
• British Geological Survey
• CASP (Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme)
• Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia, Seismology Office
• ETH, Zurich
• Institute of Geochemistry, Irkutsk, Russia
• Mongolian Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources
• Mongolian University of Science and Technology
• NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratories
• SUERC, Glasgow
• USGS Ar/Ar Geochronology Laboratory, Denver
• Universities of Sheffield, Bristol, Liverpool, Dalhousie (Canada), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Victoria (BC, Canada), Wroclaw (Poland); Novosibirsk & Ulfa, Russia; Cincinatti, Idaho; Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA); Curtin University of Technology, Perth Australia; Free University, Amsterdam; Open University; UNAM, Mexico City