Dr. Paul Starr authors new paper on subduction zone processes

In a newly published paper in the journal Lithos, Dr. Paul Starr and an international team of researchers, use metamorphic rocks from the Voltri Ophiolite, Western Alps, to examine how dense oceanic crust may be subducted and exhumed from deep within an ancient subduction zone. By coupling garnet geochronology conducted at the Boston College Centre for Isotope Geochemistry, with detailed field work, petrography and modelling, the authors suggest that the Voltri Ophiolite consists of a number of different large blocks of oceanic lithosphere subducted and exhumed at different times. This study provides insights into the structure of material within subduction zones, with implications for the nature of mass and chemical transfer that occurs between the Earth’s surface and mantle.