Institute: University of Calcutta
Title: Postdoctoral researcher
Country/Region: INDIA
Period: 2023/09/04-2024/06/30
Theme: Evolution of lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary from mid-ocean ridge to continental margin: an integrated petrological-geophysical approach
Host: Hikaru IWAMORI
Introduction: I am a Petrologist and geochemist from India and working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Calcutta, India. Prior to that, during my post-doc at Niigata University, Japan, I studied lower crustal gabbros from Oman ophiolite [collected during International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Oman Drilling project (OmanDP) in 2017-18] in order to understand the lower crustal formation at the fast-spreading oceanic crust. I received my Ph.D. in geology from Hokkaido University, Japan in 2017, where my work was mainly focused on the genesis of lower crustal primitive gabbroic rocks that formed at the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise (EPR) at Hess Deep Rift [sampled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 345]. The goal of my ongoing research is to understand the full spectrum of processes that create and modify the fast-spreading oceanic crust and shallow mantle, involving fractional crystallization, assimilation-fractionation process, oxidation process, and ultimately the tectonic settings of spreading ridges.
I participated in the IODP expedition 396: Mid-Norwegian Margin Magmatism and Paleoclimate Implications as an onboard scientist (inorganic geochemist) at JOIDES Resolution (August-October, 2021). My main focus of this project with Prof. Hikaru Iwamori is to shed some light upon the formation of the Lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) which remains a mysterious transition to describe, between stronger and weaker mantle. While the classical view attributes it to gradual cooling, new geophysical evidence suggests other factors like melt, anelasticity, or water content play a role. This link between mantle conditions, basalt geochemistry, and lithospheric thickness is not yet firmly established. In the Mid-Norwegian Continental Margin, we're conducting a petrological-geophysical study to explore this boundary, focusing on basaltic geochemistry from the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP). Our research includes traditional geochemical analyses, mineral phase examination, and isotopic ratio assessments to estimate formation conditions using multivariate statistics and unsupervised machine learning.



Fiscal Year: 2023