Tracing the deep sources of mantle plumes

Last updated: August 2026

About

Mantle plumes can form broad, short-lived heads that generate flood basalts and narrow, long-lived tails that feed volcanic island chains. Isotope observations indicate that plume heads and tails can sample different material, but the pathways that connect these surface signatures to the deep mantle remain poorly constrained.

This project will use Lagrangian coherent structures to identify material-transport boundaries in three-dimensional mantle-flow models. It will connect those transport histories with melting and isotope observations, allowing plume dynamics to be tested against the chemical differences between flood basalts and ocean-island basalts.

Research questions

• Which regions of the deep mantle feed a plume head, and which feed its tail?
• How are chemical domains entrained, stretched, mixed, and sampled by plumes?
• Can plume dynamics explain isotope differences without treating each isotope signal as a fixed reservoir?

Methods and data

Projects can use particle tracking, Lagrangian coherent structures, mantle-convection models, isotope systematics, and melting models. A project can focus on a particular plume system or investigate generic plume behaviour.

Possible projects

Possible directions include implementing transport diagnostics in a mantle model, tracing source pathways for plume heads and tails, or comparing modelled transport histories with tungsten, xenon, or vanadium isotope observations.

Essential background

Useful preparation includes geodynamics, geochemistry, physics, applied mathematics, programming, or scientific computing.