Speaker – Adam Curry, NCState, MEAS

Seminar Title – Large-volume silicic magmatism and ignimbrites in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Abstract – Large crustal silicic magma reservoirs and their associated ignimbrite eruptions are important because of their hazards, effects on global climate, role in volatile transport, and role in development of the continental crust. At one of the world’s most rapid and voluminous ignimbrite flare-ups in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, alternating zoned and unzoned ignimbrites yield new insights into magma petrogenesis. Geochemistry and thermobarometry inform the architecture of magma reservoirs in the crust, showing vertically extensive and distinct magma reservoirs. Zircon geochronology and chemistry, combined with modelling, reveal decreasing age dispersion with younger eruptions and low magmatic fluxes necessary to build these magma reservoirs, which is contrary to the hypothesis that high-flux magmatism is required for an ignimbrite flare-up. These results have implications for the causes of ignimbrite eruptions and the precursory signals and timeframes that might indicate an impending ignimbrite eruption.

Bio – Adam is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at North Carolina State University, studying igneous petrology. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Geneva in 2020 and his M.S. at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2013. He finished his Bachelor’s degree at Pomona College in 2010. He also worked in the environmental industry in Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas, and he is currently a licensed Professional Geologist in North Carolina. His research focuses on the journey of magma from the mantle to the crust to the Earth’s surface. He is interested in the chemical, physical, and thermal evolution of magmatic systems. He integrates geochemistry, thermobarometry, zircon geochronology, modelling, and data-driven approaches to understand the assembly of magma reservoirs and why they erupt.

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