Current Research Interests

My research interests are experimental mineralogy and petrology of the Earth’s upper mantle, in particular the effects of volatiles on production of magmas, redox problems, and magmatism in island arcs. My high-pressure experiments, over a period dating from 1968, have included solubility of CO 2 and CO in silicate melts, the effect of CO 2 on peridotite phase relations, the solubility of silicate materials in high-pressure H 2O and CO 2 fluids, and mantle decarbonation and decarbonation melting. I am currently working with Jim Kasting of Penn State on carbon buffering of mantle redox and the evolution of the presently-oxidized atmosphere-crust-mantle system, and with Peter Deines on high-pressure experimental determination of carbon isotope partitioning between calcite and graphite.