Welcome to the Petrology lab at the University of Victoria

Petrology is the "materials science of the earth" that threads the fabric of geochemistry and geophysics. Our research is mainly directed at knowing and understanding the mantle, Earth’s largest physical entity and chemical reservoir. From field to experiment, we study mantle-derived magmas and rocks using many different tools and approaches. Our science addresses questions ranging in time and scale: the formation of earth’s oldest mantle lithosphere, the speed of a kimberlite eruption, the temperature-time history of a diamond, the exhumation of mantle during orogeny, or the chemical potential of oxygen in the mantle and its relation to atmospheric oxygen in the Precambrian. We apply phase equilibria, element partitioning and kinetics to estimate the conditions which rocks experience on their journey in many different igneous and metamorphic environments.