GD
Geodynamics

edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda

She is a postdoctoral researcher at University of Plymouth (UK). Her research interests span from the role of fault networks with complex geometries in earthquake processes to the link of the lithospheric structure with observed seismic deformation. She is co-editor-in-chief of the GD blog team.

What’s the role of hotspot and oceanic transform faults at ultraslow spreading ridge?

and October 4, 2024
What’s the role of hotspot and oceanic transform faults at ultraslow spreading ridge?
Figure 1. Topographic map of the Mohns Ridge. The white double lines denote the axis of 17 ridge segments. (modified from Zhang et al., 2023)  

  Mid-ocean ridges (MOR) and hotspots are two types of magmatic activity occurring in the ocean. The MORs are typically associated with another tectonic feature—oceanic transform faults. While numerous studies have focused on the interactions within MORs, hotspots, and transform faults, there has been limited research on cases where a hotspot and a transform fault are located at the same end ...[Read More]

Ice Ice Baby! Modelling the thermal evolution within the ice shell of Ganymede, Jupiter’s moon.

and August 7, 2024
Ice Ice Baby! Modelling the thermal evolution within the ice shell of Ganymede, Jupiter’s moon.
Thermal convection within the outer ice shell of Ganymede. Credit: Katherine Villavicencio.

Ganymede, one of the Galilean moons of Jupiter and the largest in the Solar System, has caught the scientists’ attention due to its potential for hosting life. The JUICE mission, launched from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on 14 April 2023, is on its way to orbit and conduct experiments on the Galilean moons (Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto), with  particular emphasis on characterizing G ...[Read More]

An Arctic enigma: Can a single plume explain a massive and long-lived ancient volcanic eruption?

and July 17, 2024
An Arctic enigma: Can a single plume explain a massive and long-lived ancient volcanic eruption?
Volcanic eruption in Iceland from 2014. The mantle plume responsible for present-day Icelandic volcanism may also have caused the massive and wide-spread HALIP in the Arctic. Credit: Jamie Farquharson (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu).

  Across the Arctic lies evidence for a massive past volcanic event, called the High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP). This ancient volcanic event is particularly unusual in that it appears to have lasted for over 50 million years. Could a single deep-seated mantle plume cause such wide-spread and long-lived volcanism? In a recent study published in the journal G-cubed (Heyn et al., 2024 ...[Read More]

The uncertain tomographic lenses

and July 3, 2024
The uncertain tomographic lenses
The SOLASW3D model (credit: author)

Geodynamicists often try to answer scientific questions related to the Earth interior, but direct observations of such depths are rather limited–unless you are character in a Jules Verne’s novel or a prominent scientist in the movie The Core–. A way to deal with this issue is to rely on indirect methods, with seismic tomography being one of the most widely used by geoscientists. Howeve ...[Read More]