Muriel Laubier

Main Page | Research Projects | Curriculum Vitae

Muriel Laubier Associate Petrology-Geochemistry Email: laubier@eps.harvard.edu Mailing Address: Earth and Planetary Sciences Department 20, Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138

Research Interests My primary research interests include petrogenetic processes at mid-ocean ridges, oceanic islands and convergent settings. I am interested in the physical and chemical conditions of partial melting, magma extraction and segregation processes and the geochemical heterogeneity of the Earth's mantle. My work is focused on the characterization of near-primary magmas, using melt inclusions trapped in early phenocrysts, as melt inclusions may record chemical information which is totally or partially obliterated in the whole rock compositions by differenciation and mixing processes. I use major, volatile and trace element compositions of the melt inclusions to constrain petrogenetic processes. I also work on a project of experimental determination of melt/mineral trace element partition coefficients between the minerals plagioclase, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, olivine and basalt and basaltic andesite melts (in collaboration with T.L. Grove at MIT). This data is fundamental to the modeling of crystallization processes and the determination of the pressure, temperature and oxygen fugacity conditions of formation and equilibration of natural samples.