Magazines

Laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) is a mature, but still developing, micro-analytical technique that has allowed significant research advances in many areas of the Earth sciences. The method produces quantitative elemental and isotopic analyses on the micrometer scale of most solid, and some liquid, materials across most of the periodic table.

The relationship between silicic volcanic and plutonic rocks has long puzzled geologists. Although the compositional evolution for volcanic and plutonic rock suites are virtually identical, there is much debate whether rhyolites form as melt extracted from granite plutons or whether the two rock types reflect wholly separate origins.

Supergene metal deposits form when deeply buried orebodies are exposed at the surface and undergo oxidation, dissolution, and significant reconcentration of metals. Much of the global economic and scientific interest in these ores stems from their mineralogical diversity and advantages for exploitation due to their surficial development and increased grades.

Research over the past decade has established that magmatism in oceanic and continental arcs is not temporally or spatially steady-state. The causes of well-documented order of magnitude increases in magmatic production over relatively short-lived, high-volume events remain controversial.