Philipp Ruprecht: Explosive volcanic activity in Southern Chile – Comparing eruptions through mineral chemistry
Title
Explosive volcanic activity in Southern Chile – Comparing eruptions through mineral chemistry
Mentor
Department
Geological sciences and engineering
Biosketch
Philipp Ruprecht, Ph.D., is a native German, and received his bachelor’s degree in geological sciences from Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany, in 2001. After a year abroad at UCLA, he finished his diplom degree in geological sciences (master of science equivalent) at Georg-August University in 2004. Ruprecht received his doctoral degree in geological sciences from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2009. His dissertation explored the time and length scale of magma mixing in natural systems and by numerical modeling in general, and focused on the historic eruptions in 1846 and 1932 of Volcán Quizapu in Chile. Following a three-year post-doctoral appointment at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Columbia University), including a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship from the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, he joined the research faculty at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as a Lamont Assistant Research Professor in 2012. Ruprecht is part of the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering at the Â鶹ӳ», currently as an associate professor.
Ruprecht combines fieldwork with petrologic and geochemical studies on volcanic areas to understand how Earth differentiates, what the inner workings of volcanoes are as well as how volatiles condition the atmosphere, generate pathways for ore formation, and provide real-time insights into volcanic hazards and eruption forecasting. While having a focus on the natural systems and their geochemical fingerprints, his research ties in constraints from the physical processes and fluid dynamics. Ruprecht has worked in volcanic areas in the entire Americas as well as the Western Pacific and the European volcanoes, but most of his focus has been on Andean volcanoes through the years.
Project overview
The PREP student would be part of a large team of scientists that work on volcanism in Chile. The student will join a multi-disciplinary project that explores how the 2011-12 eruption of Cordón Caulle (Chile) was triggered and emplaced into the landscape. The team involves geophysicists, geochemists, geomorphologists, and modelers, with the student being able to participate in and learn from our bi-monthly meetings. While most of the research efforts are focused on the 2011-12 eruption links and comparison to early eruptions also need to be developed, specifically the 1960 eruption of the same system.
The PREP mentee is ideally interested in volcanism and the rocks that are produced during eruptions. No background in rocks and geochemistry is needed, however a basic interest and enthusiasm for chemistry and how the Earth works in its interior is required. Minerals forming in the volcano prior to eruption are the record keepers of what happens in a magma chamber and the notes are “written” in the chemistry of the minerals. The mentee will work on products from the 1960 eruption and compare and contrast these erupted products to the 2011-12 eruption. The student will learn basic skill in rock descriptions and the use of electron beam techniques (SEM, microprobe) to obtain chemical information from crystals that grew in the magma that erupted. By participation in the research group activities the student will also gain an overview of other research fields in the Earth Sciences and how those connect to our work that focuses on the chemistry of magmas.
Pack Research Experience Program information and application