Conferences Archive


Geological Society of America (GSA) South-Central Section 51-st Annual Meeting

Date: Monday, March 13, 2017 — Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Location: San Antonio, Texas, USA

Web: https://www.geosociety.org/sc-mtg

Includes the following session:

T1. Advances in understanding Precambrian to Cenozoic magmatic and metamorphic processes and their bearing on lithospheric evolution of Southern Laurentia

Convenors: Elizabeth Catlos (ejcatlos@gmail.com), Michael DeAngelis (mtdeangelis@ualr.edu), Richard Hansen (r.hanson@tcu.edu)

The south-central U.S. is host to numerous exposures of igneous and metamorphic rocks that provide insight into lithospheric development and continental assembly. This broad session provides a forum for discussion of igneous and metamorphic petrology topics, including the connections between petrogenesis, geochemistry, and tectonics in the south-central region.



Geological Society of America (GSA) Northeastern (52-nd)/North-Central (51-st) Joint Section Meeting

Date: Sunday, March 19, 2017 — Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Web: https://www.geosociety.org/ne-mtg

Includes the following session:

27. Precambrian assembly of a continent from the northeast to the mid-continent to the southwest: modern approaches to study ancient crust

Convenors: Benjamin Hallett (hallettb@uwosh.edu), Christopher Daniel (cdaniel@bucknell.edu)

Observations from Precambrian rocks across North America emphasize the roles of tectonism and magmatism in the evolution of continental crust. We invite studies that utilize geochemical, geophysical, structural, petrologic, and geochronologic tools to examine Precambrian crustal evolution and craton assembly. Student presentations are welcomed.



European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly

Date: Sunday, April 23, 2017 — Friday, April 28, 2017

Location: Vienna, Austria

Web: http://www.egu2017.eu/

Includes the following session:

SSP2.4/GMPV1.5 Mass extinctions, volcanism, impacts, and catastrophic environmental changes: observations and processes

Convenors: Sverre Planke (planke@vbpr.no), Thierry Adatte (thierry.adatte@unil.ch), Eric Font (font_eric@hotmail.com), Morgan Jones (m.t.jones@geo.uio.no), David Bond (d.bond@hull.ac.uk), Yadong Sun (sydlion@hotmail.com), Stephen Grasby (steve.grasby@canada.ca)

This session will investigate how massive volcanism and meteorite impacts may have caused mass extinctions and global environmental crises. We hope to bring together researchers across the geological, geophysical, and biological disciplines to present new and exciting research. The session will focus on the six main Phanerozoic mass extinctions (end Ordovician, end Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, end-Cretaceous), but contributions from theoretical studies or from other environmental crises (e.g. PETM) are also welcome.



Institute on Lake Superior Geology (ILSG) Annual Meeting

Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2017 — Thursday, May 11, 2017

Location: Wawa, Ontario, Canada

Web: http://www.lakesuperiorgeology.org/



Geological Association of Canada-Mineralogical Association of Canada (GAC-MAC) Joint Annual Meeting

Date: Sunday, May 14, 2017 — Thursday, May 18, 2017

Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Web: http://www.kingstongacmac.ca/en/

Includes the following sessions:

GS1: Magmatic and metallogenic processes associated with large igneous provinces

Convenors: Marie-Claude Williamson (marie-claude.williamson@canada.ca), Christopher Lawley (christopher.lawley@canada.ca), Danielle Giovenazzo (dgio@sympatico.ca), Richard Ernst (richard.ernst@ernstgeosciences.com), Sverre Planke (planke@vbpr.no), Steven Bergman (steven.bergman@shell.com)

Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) are characterized by the catastrophic emplacement of large volumes of mafic magma in the continental and oceanic domains. LIPs include continental flood basalts and associated feeder sills and dykes; volcanic rifted margins; oceanic plateaus and ocean basin flood basalts; submarine ridges; ocean islands; and seamount chains. We invite contributions that link magmatic processes to ore deposit genesis in LIPs, and that inform our understanding of tectonostratigraphic, structural, and geochemical controls on these processes. We also welcome contributions on the environmental impact of continental flood basalt magmatism through time. This session is sponsored by the Geological Association of Canada’s Volcanology and Igneous Petrology (VIP) Division and the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI).

T3: Archean cratons and their rifted margins: stratigraphic systems, tectonics, secular evolution and metallogeny

Convenors: Wouter Bleeker (wouter.bleeker@canada.ca), Mike Hamilton (mahamilton@es.utoronto.ca)

The Archean cratons of North America formed as part of larger late Archean continental landmasses (supercratons). Rifting and eventual breakup of these ancestral supercratons isolated the Archean cratons (cratons sensu stricto such as the Superior, Wyoming, Hearne or Slave), a subset of which later reassembled into supercontinent Nuna during the latter part of the Paleoproterozoic­ era—an evolution that represents a full Wilson Cycle. This session will focus on this entire early Wilson Cycle, across a time span (ca. 2.50-1.75 Ga) that saw dramatic secular evolution of the planet. Special emphasis is on the stratigraphic and magmatic systems of the rifted margins of cratons such as the Superior, the various tectonic processes (from early extension and rifting, to breakup and dispersal, to final collision), and the full range of associated mineral systems. In particular, we seek contributions presenting new data on the various margins of the Superior craton (i.e. “Circum-Superior” belts sensu lato), but contributions on the evolution of other well-studied Archean craton margins and on global syntheses are equally encouraged. This session is sponsored by the Precambrian division of the Geological Association of Canada and the Canadian Tectonics Group.



Japan Geosciences Union-American Geophysical Union (JpGU-AGU) Joint Meeting

Date: Saturday, May 20, 2017 — Thursday, May 25, 2017

Location: Chiba, Japan

Web: http://www.jpgu.org/meeting_e2017/

Includes the following session:

S-IT21: Do plumes exist?

Convenors: Hidehisa Mashima (hmashima@meiji.ac.jp), Gillian Foulger (g.r.foulger@durham.ac.uk), Dapeng Zhao (zhao@aob.gp.tohoko.ac.jp)

The debate regarding whether anomalous volcanic areas on Earth's surface are fed by deep-mantle plumes is widely considered to be the most significant debate currently ongoing in Earth science. Not only does the debate touch on a fundamental aspect of how Earth works dynamically, but the subject is extraordinarily cross-disciplinary to an extent that probably few scientists fully realize. Sub-disciplines that can contribute to efforts to resolve the debate include sedimentology, palaeontology, tectonophysics, geochronology, volcanology, petrology, geochemistry, geothermal research, seismology, geodesy, electromagnetics and many others. In addition to the disciplines of Earth science, the plume debate provides a remarkable and thought-provoking subject for scientific philosophy and reflections on correct scientific methodology: (1) What exactly is a plume? People often change their definition of a plume a posteriori in order to fit their observations. (2) How can the plume- or the plate hypothesis be falsified? (3) Do Earth scientists tend to present only one possible interpretation of their data, or do papers reflect all possible interpretations? Unfortunately, the former is often the case. (4) Are published interpretations consistent with other data from the subject field area? Often they are not, and the inconsistencies are not sufficiently highlighted nor discussed. These issues are particularly useful for inducting students into correct scientific working. In summary, the debate provides enormously fertile ground for new, fundamental questions and cross-disciplinary research. This session welcomes studies of melting anomalies on Earth from the point of view of any sub-discipline. We also welcomes studies of geological phenomena which are attributed to mantle plumes, such as back-arc extension, plate motion, sedimentary basin formation and lithospheric uplift, and any other work that bears on this fascinating and challenging geological debate.



Geological Society of America (GSA) Cordilleran Section 113-th Annual Meeting

Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 — Thursday, May 25, 2017

Location: Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA

Includes the following sessions:

T6. Magmatic processes and sources for hotspot volcanoes

Convenors: Michael Garcia (mogarcia@hawaii.edu), Jasper Konter (jkonter@hawaii.edu)

Contributions that address the nature of the sources and the processes that create and modify magmas erupted at hotspot volcanoes are encouraged.



Geological Society of America (GSA) Rocky Mountain Section 69-th Annual Meeting

Date: Friday, June 9, 2017 — Saturday, June 10, 2017

Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Web: https://www.geosociety.org/rm-mtg

Includes the following session:

T2. Proterozoic evolution of western North America

Convenor: Brian Pratt (brian.pratt@usask.ca)

The enormously thick Meso- and Neoproterozoic successions of the Rocky Mountain region represent a critical interval in Earth history, with shallow- to deep-water deposition, igneous activity, and syntectonic mineralization. This session welcomes presentations on the sedimentology, paleogeography, paleontology, and structural history.



34-th International Conference on Magmatism of the Earth and Related Strategic Metal Deposits

Date: Friday, August 4, 2017 — Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Location: Miass, Russia

Web: http://magmas-and-metals.ru/

Organising chairs: Lia Kogarko (kogarko@geokhi.ru), Valery Vladimirovich Maslennikov, Valery Nikolaevich Udachin



Goldschmidt

Date: Sunday, August 13, 2017 — Friday, August 18, 2017

Location: Paris, France

Web: https://goldschmidt.info/2017/

Includes the following sessions:

03e: Large igneous provinces in the Precambrian and Phanerozoic and their environmental impacts

Convenors: Richard Ernst (richard.ernst@ernstgeosciences.com), Andrey Bekker (andrey.bekker@ucr.edu)

Rapidly accelerating research focused on environmental and climatic change in the Earth System is revealing many robust links with the timing of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs). Some LIPs with the highest precision U-Pb ages are precisely matched to mass-extinction events. Many LIPs are implicated in a variety of kill and climate change scenarios, including global warming, global cooling (glaciations), anoxia events, acid rain, ocean acidification, toxic gas or metal release, deposition of iron formations, and stepwise oxygenation of the atmosphere. The environmental linkages are becoming particularly clear in the Phanerozoic record but equally extend to the Precambrian, which also has a robust LIP record (with events averaging every 20-30 myr at least through the Proterozoic). This session welcomes contributions that use the sedimentary record to characterize environmental changes that can be linked to LIPs, both in the Phanerozoic and Precambrian. From a complementary perspective, we welcome cutting-edge studies that further our understanding of LIPs generally in terms of temporal distributions, controls, magnitudes, environmental impacts, etc.

03f: Komatiites: witnesses to Earth's history

Convenor: Nicholas Arndt (nicholas.arndt@ujf-grenoble.fr)

Komatiites are a family of ultramafic volcanic/volcaniclastic or subvolcanic rocks that have crystallized from ultra-hot magmas containing between 18 and 31% MgO. Komatiites feature spinifex, a unique and arguably the most beautiful terrestrial rock texture known, comprising elongated skeletal crystals of olivine set in a glassy matrix. Due to high degrees of partial melting, the chemical composition of komatiites resembles that of mantle peridotite. Typical komatiite habitats are Archean greenstone belts; post-Archean komatiite occurrences are rare and usually characterized by lower MgO contents, an observation that has been taken as evidence for secular cooling of the mantle. Komatiites have been widely used to explore how Earth operated from very early on in its existence. They provide unique evidence pertinent to (i) Earth’s thermal history, (ii) the evolution of the oxidation state of the mantle, (iii) the timing of onset of inner core crystallization and mechanisms of core-mantle exchange, (iv) the history of planetary accretion and differentiation, and (v) mixing times of the mantle and evolution of mantle dynamics on Earth. Komatiites also host economically significant magmatic Ni-Cu-HSE ore deposits. This session invites abstracts dedicated to these and related topics across all disciplines of Earth Sciences.

05d: The geochemistry of hotspots and intraplate magmas: mantle sources, metasomatism, magmatic processes and xenolith cargoes

Convenors: Andrea Giuliani (andrea.giuliani@mq.edu.au), Matthew Jackson (jackson@geol.ucsb.edu)

Understanding the composition of the Earth’s interior away from convergent margins is fundamental to constrain the long-term lithosphere recycling as well as the survival of early-formed reservoirs in the modern mantle. Tracing the composition of the deep Earth, including the recycling of surface components, requires investigation of mantle-derived magmas and the xenoliths they entrain during ascent. Partial melting processes in intraplate settings generate a variety of magma compositions, which testifies to the heterogeneous nature of the Earth’s mantle and the complex processes affecting magmas during ascent and emplacement (melt differentiation, mixing, assimilation, degassing, etc). Therefore, the volcanic products observed at the surface commonly require complex – and often model-dependant – deconvolution of the contributions from these processes, to unravel the source signature. This session invites contributions that explore the geochemistry and petrology of hotspot lavas and mantle xenoliths at both oceanic and continental settings. We welcome studies which aim at providing insights into the lithological and geochemical (including stable and radiogenic isotope) composition of mantle sources that are sampled by, and the processes that operate on, intraplate volcanics. We particularly invite research that explores the geochemistry of bulk lavas, melt inclusions, single phases or xenoliths from intraplate volcanic settings including ocean island basalts (OIBs), petit spots, monogenetic basaltic fields, kimberlites and related rocks.

05f: Carbonatites, alkaline magmatism and associated mineral resources

Convenors: Lyderic France (lyde@crpg.cnrs-nancy.fr), Hannes Mattsson (hannes.mattsson@erdw.ethz.ch), Sam Broom-Fendley (s.l.broom-fendley@exeter.ac.uk), Wei Chen (wchencug@163.com)

This session is devoted to the understanding of the origin and evolution of carbonatites and alkaline magmatism in its widest sense, and to related mineral deposits. Contributions focused on the quantification of the igneous and hydrothermal parameters (P, T, X, Xvolatiles, fO2, partition coefficients) are encouraged. Research relying on elemental and isotopic geochemical, petrological, or experimental data connected to the geodynamic context are particularly welcome. Many of the elements of related deposits (e.g., REE, Sr, Nb, Ta, P) are considered as ‘critical metals’ by some governments. Although carbonatites and alkaline rocks are associated with the main REE-deposits on Earth, the origin and evolution of these magmatic/hydrothermal systems remain poorly constrained. This is partly due to their rare occurrence in active igneous systems, and to the lack of relation with geodynamic setting in most of the exhumed fossil systems. Nevertheless, through recent advances in igneous petrology, collaboration with exploration projects, and analytical developments, significant recent advances of our understanding of such systems have been achieved. This session offers an opportunity to discuss these new findings.

06e: Evolution of the continental crust and mantle lithosphere

Convenors: Roberta Rudnick (rudnick@geol.ucsb.edu), Nicholas Arndt nicholas.arndt@ujf-grenoble.fr), Sarah Brownlee (s.brownlee@eri.ucsb.edu)

This session invites contributions related to the composition and evolution of the continental crust and underlying mantle lithosphere. How and when did the continental crust and underlying lithospheric mantle form? Was growth continuous or episodic? Has the composition of the continental crust and mantle lithosphere changed over time? How different were Archean continents to those we have today and by what processes did they form? What is the relationship between the lithospheric mantle and overlying crust? We welcome contributions to the session from geochemists, petrologists, geophysicists and modelers.



International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) Scientific Assembly

Date: Monday, August 14, 2017 — Friday, August 18, 2017

Location: Portland, Oregon, USA

Web: http://iavcei2017.org/

Includes the following session:

II.9. Continental large igneous provinces: understanding processes of magma formation, storage, evolution, and eruption

Convenors: Dylan Colon (dcolon@uoregon.edu), Anita Grunder (grundera@geo.oregonstate.edu), Stephen Self (sself@berkeley.edu), Wendy Bohrson (bohrson@geology.cwu.edu), Paul Renne (prenne@bgc.org), Erika Rader (erika.rader@nasa.gov), John Wolff (jawolff@wsu.edu)

Large igneous provinces are characterized by extreme volumes (~106 km3) of magma erupted in geologically short time periods. These include the well-known flood basalt provinces and the associated evolved magmas that accompany nearly all such systems. In most cases, there are also hotspot tracks that are temporally and spatially connected to the flood basalt (e.g., Yellowstone-Columbia River Basalt province). We seek contributions that will help to better understand large igneous provinces and their associated hotspot tracks, with an emphasis on those that occur in continental crust. Relevant questions include: Where are the melts produced, including both the initial basalts and the most evolved rhyolites? What are the primary sources of chemical diversity in magmas, and what are the relative contributions of crustal melting, magma recharge, and fractional crystallization to this diversity? How does crustal composition influence the style of volcanism and the composition of erupted magmas? What role does tectonics play? What are the timescales of magma formation, differentiation, and eruption in these systems? What are the environmental impacts of these eruptions? We encourage submissions from a range of disciplines, including volcanology, petrology, geochemistry, computational modeling, and geophysics. Interdisciplinary studies are particularly encouraged.