RESEARCH GROUPS

Massimo Chiaradia

Senior Lecturer (MER, Maître d'Enseignement et Recherche)

rue des Maraîchers 13, office B44

+41 (0)22 379 66 34

Massimo.Chiaradia@unige.ch

Highlights

 

 

Current research directions

• Relationships between arc magma chemistry, geodynamics and genesis of porphyry-type deposits.
• Rates of magmatic processes and their influence on the genesis of prophyry-type deposits.
• Petrogenesis of andesites and implications for crustal growth processes.
• Cu and Zn isotope systematics of magmatic rocks.
• Various projects in collaboration with researchers of the Section of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Geneva, University of Padova and UNIL on petrogenesis of magmatic rocks and Sr isotope stratigraphy.

 

currently funded projectS

As Main applicant

• Magmas, ore deposits and geodynamic evolution at a convergent margin (Project N. 200020_162415, continuation of SNF Projects N. 200020_149147, 200020-137663, 200021-109636, 200020-117616, 200020-126896).

As Co-applicant

• Sea-level and climate events during the past 30 million years: the record from fossil reefs, coastal deposits and dolostones from Mayaguana, Great Inagua, Crooked and Acklins Islands, SE Bahamas (Project N. 200020_140420).
• The Miocene Mariño Formation (Central Argentinian foreland, Mendoza region) : a high-resolution integrated study of sedimentary and palaeoenvironmental responses to tectonic and climatic forcing (Project N. 200021_146736).
• Climate history of the Indo-Pacific region and subsurface biosphere of Lake Towuti: The Swiss contribution to the ICDP Towuti Drilling Project (research part) (Project N. 200021_153053).
• Climate history of the Indo-Pacific region and subsurface biosphere of Lake Towuti: The Swiss contribution to the ICDP Towuti Drilling Project (drilling part) (Project N. 20FI21_153054).

 

 

 

Laboratories and instruments under my supervision

• Clean laboratory for the separation of Sr, Nd, Pb, Cu, Zn from various materials (mostly rocks and minerals).
• Neptune Plus MC-ICPMS, equipped with wet and dry (Aridus) aspirating systems and a Photon Machines G2 Analyte UV laser, ArF Excimer 192 nm.
• Merchantek micromill for microsampling of minerals/fossils for isotope analyses (together with Elias Samankassou).
• Thermo-Finnigan TRITON thermal ionization mass spectrometer.

 

Current and former students

• PhD Thesis of Maria Teresa Bellver-Baca "Magmatic and time-scale factors controlling the association of porphyry-type deposits with high Sr/Y magma", SNF funded project (2014-ongoing).
• PhD Thesis of Cyril Chelle-Michou “Geochronological and petrologic evolution of the Coroccohuayco (Tintaya district, southern Peru), magmatic system and its role in the formation of the associated Cu-Au mineralization", SNF funded project (2010-2013).
• PhD thesis of Philip Schütte “Magmas, ore deposits and geodynamic evolution at a convergent margin: the case of Ecuador”, SNF funded Project (2006-2009).
• MSc Júlia Farré de Pablo "Cu and Zn isotope compositions of magmatic-hydrothermal fumaroles of Vulcano (Aeolian Islands, Italy)-Part 1" (2015-ongoing).
• MSc Núria Pujol Solà "Cu and Zn isotope compositions of magmatic-hydrothermal fumaroles of Vulcano (Aeolian Islands, Italy)-Part 2" (2015-ongoing).
• MSc Elisa Tamagnone Cosmelli "Petrography and geochemistry of Cusin volcano (Ecuador)" (2014-ongoing).
• MSc Ariadni-Afroditi Georgatu "The P-T-H2O-fO2 conditions of magmatic sulfide saturation in Quaternary Ecuadorian arc magmas" (2014-ongoing).
• MSc Paul Beguelin "Yanaurcu volcano (Western Cordillera, Ecuador): a field, petrographic, geochemical and geochronologic study" (2012-2014).
• MSc Jérémy Gonus "Open-system magmatic evolution in subvolcanic chambers (Western Cordillera, Ecuador): an isotopic, geochronological and geochemical study" (2012-2013).
• MSc José Pérez Lutgardo "Chlorine isotopic compositions of magmatic fluids associated with porphyry-type deposits: a latitudinal along-arc study of porphyry-systems of the Chilean, Peruvian and Ecuadorian Andes" (2012).
• MSc Sabine Cadet-Voisin “Lead and chlorine isotope variations in environmental and geological samples”(2012).
• MSc Miguel Ponce “Chronostratigraphy of the volcanic sequence of the Rio Blanco deposit, Ecuador” (2010).
• MSc Daniel Merino “Petrology, geochemistry and geochronology of intrusive rocks from the Yanacocha gold district, northern Peru” (2009).
• MSc Thierry Bineli “The low sulfidation epithermal deposit of Rio Blanco, Ecuador” (2006).
• MSc Agnes Markowski “The gold-skarn of Fortuna, Nambija district, Ecuador” (2002)
• MSc David Tripodi “The Early-Tertiary gold-rich VHMS of La Plata, Western Cordillera, Ecuador” (2001).

TEACHING

 

Administrative duties

• Editor of SGA News, the newsletter of SGA (since 1999).
• Associate Editor of Economic Geology, ther scientific publication of the Society of Economic Geologists (since 2011).
• member of the Executive Committee of the “Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits” (SGA).

 

Collaborations

	University of Padova (Italy): Petrogenesis in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP)
	University of Kocaeli (Turkey): petrogenesis of ophiolitic rocks of the Pontides
	Damghan University (Iran): petrogenesis of Tethyan ophiolites and arc magmas in Iran
	University of Lausanne (Switzerland): various collaborations on Sr isotope stratigraphy and petrogenesis
	University of Texas (USA): chlorine isotopes in arc magmas and ore fluids

MY RESEARCH

I investigate reservoir interactions and their timing in different spheres of the Earth’s system including atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and the Earth’s crust. In particular during the last years I have developed a strong interest in the associations among geodynamic setting, petrogenesis of magmas and the formation of porphyry-type deposits at convergent margins. I also work on technical developments in the field of lead isotope analyses of whole rocks and on ore minerals dating using Pb-Pb stepwise leaching and Re-Os techniques. Recently I have started to work on the application of unconventional stable isotopes (Cl, Cu, Zn) to the petrogenesis of arc magmas.

 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

 

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