Research concentrations (2000)

The research programs of the Department are divided into the three general domains of magmatism and volcanology, geologic risk assessment and response, and ore deposit genesis, which are respectively the responsibilities of Professors M. Dungan, M. Delaloye, and J. Bertrand, J.-J. Wagner, and L. Fontboté, in collaboration with academic staff members D. Fontignie, R. Moritz, M. Chiaradia, and A. Marzoli postdoctoral assistants (G. Morris and K. Frischknecht), and 15 PhD students. Many of these projects involve multiple international collaborators and all involve PhD and MSc students (Europe, North America, South America)

Click here for publications and publications on line resulting from these programs.
Click here for teaching information and for analytical resources.

A. Magmatism and volcanology

1. Quaternary subduction-related volcanism of the southern Andes (3 PhD students). A long-term, comprehensive field, geochronological, paleomagnetic, and geochemical investigation of Volcán Tatara-San Pedro (36 °S) is continuing, and the scope of research into the origin and evolution of arc magmas is being broadened to include an assessment of variations in magma chemistry along the Andean Southern Volcanic Zone (33-42 °S), Chile (Dungan). Regional patterns will be interpreted in light of detailed modelling studies at Tatara-San Pedro and other centers which will be studied in the coming years. Climate-volcanism connections in the Southern Andes will continue to be opportunistically exploited on the basis of well calibrated stratigraphic frameworks developed in the course of fundamentally petrologic studies.

2. Mesozoic to recent plume-related volcanism (2 PhD students). Projects include: (1) isotopic investigations of large scale dynamic interactions between plume and ridge magma sources in the south Atlantic and southeast Pacific, and more recently in Iceland, in collaboration with a research team at the University of Rhode Island (Fontignie), and (2) a combined geochemical and geochronologic study of the Early Jurassic Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP - 200 Ma) in both South American and Europe from the standpoint of the role of giant plumes in continental breakup and the impact of volcanism on mass extinctions (Marzoli).

3. Caldera-related Oligocene volcanism of the San Juan volcanic field, Colorado (2 PhD students). In collaboration with P.W. Lipman (USGS), Dungan is in the process of completing a long-term volcanological and petrologic investigation of large-scale ash-flow tuff volcanism, with a current emphasis on the Fish Canyon magmatic system (La Garita caldera) and related units. Highlights of recent results include: (1) new insights into relationships among caldera collapse geometry, eruptive processes, and ash-flow tuff emplacement mechanisms, (2) a new model for the origin of the immense Fish Canyon magma body by remelting and remobilisation of a pre-existing Tertiary batholith, and (3) the recognition of sulfur-rich (anhydrite-bearing) andesitic magmas that resemble the products of modern arcs, and which may have been the source of sulfur for some large ore deposits of the San Juan Mountains.

4. Ophiolites and ancient oceanic volcanism (2 PhD students). Projects organized by Professors Delaloye and Bertrand include: (1) determining the timing and implications of ophiolite genesis and emplacement in Tethyan orogenic belts from the western Alps to Anatolia, and (2) comparative studies of submarine volcanism and related plutonic facies in a variety of tectonic settings through time, from the Archean of South Africa and Alpine ophiolites to modern ridge systems.

B. Geologic risk assessment and response

C. Ore deposits

Circulation of fluids is the principal control on the formation of hydrothermal base metal and gold deposits at different levels of the continental crust. The general aim of the Geneva Ore Deposits Group led by Lluís Fontboté and Robert Moritz, in collaboration with Massimo Chiaradia and graduate students, is to investigate the geochemistry and role of fluids in the formation of ore deposits. Several projects are coordinated in the frame of the GEODE-ESF initiative. Main current projects, most including at least one PhD or MSc project are the following.

- Base metal and gold mineralization related to calcalkaline magmatism: A) High-temperature, carbonate-hosted replacement massive sulfide ore deposits (Domo de Yauli-Morococha, Central Peru), B) Carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb±(Ag,Cu,Bi)-alunite-kaolinite mineralization as the product of a high-sulfidation epithermal system (Colquijirca District, central Peru), C) High-sulphidation gold-enargite (Smelter, Peru; Chelopech, Bulgaria).
- Relationships among geodynamics, magmatism, and high- and low-sulfidation epithermal deposits in the Cretaceous Srednegorie and Tertiary Rhodope tectonic zones of Bulgaria.
- Volcanic-hosted massive sulfides (Perubar, Peru; La Plata, Ecuador).
- The gold mineralization of Nambija, Ecuador.
- Iron-oxide Cu-Au deposits (Salobo, Brasil; Candelaria-Punta del Cobre, Chile; Raúl-Condestable, Peru).
- Orogenic (mesothermal) gold deposits (Pataz, Peru).
- Mississippi Valley-type ore deposits (San Vicente, Peru; Touissit-Bou Beker, Morocco).
- Vein-type, thrust-related, and karst-hosted barite and fluorite deposits in Morocco, Iran and Brazil.
- Genesis of columbite-tantalite bearing beryllium-rich pegmatites in the Serido pegmatitic Province of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
- Lead isotope survey for the identification of metal sources in ore deposits of the Andean Cordillera between latitudes 0° and 15° S.

Other pages of this web site give information concerning the teaching programs and internet resources related to ore deposits research.

October 2000

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