¡Bienvenidos!
I lead a petrology research group in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago. We study what happens to rocks as they are buried, heated, and melted inside planets, and how those processes shape the world around us: how copper deposits form, where subduction-zone earthquakes come from, how Earth grew its first continents, and why Mars never developed plate tectonics.
Our approach pairs thermodynamic modeling, which lets us predict how rocks and magmas behave under conditions we cannot observe directly, with fieldwork and laboratory analyses that put those predictions to the test.
Prospective graduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in joining the group are encouraged to contact me by email.
What we study
Porphyry Cu deposits
Porphyry copper deposits supply most of the world's copper and are linked to oxidized, water-rich arc magmas. We investigate where and when magmas acquire these characteristics and what distinguishes fertile systems from barren ones, combining thermodynamic modeling with field and analytical studies in Sonora, Mexico, and the Andes.
How Earth built its first continents
Zircons in Archean rocks record oxidized and wet magmas, a signature often used to argue for early subduction. Our work shows that such magmas can also form by melting of overthickened mafic crust without subduction, with implications for how Earth's first continents formed.
Beyond Earth
Mars never developed subduction-driven plate tectonics, and our work points to early water as a key reason. Our models show that even small amounts of water made the Martian crust too light to sink.
News
2026
October 2026
I received the Donath Medal at the GSA Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony in Denver on October 11 and give the Donath Medal lecture at the meeting. I also gave an invited seminar at the University of Utah.
September 2026
I am honored to receive the Geological Society of America's Donath Medal (Young Scientist Award), now announced in GSA Today. Thank you to my nominators, collaborators, and, above all, the students I have had the chance to work with.
September 2026
I talked about earthquakes on Univision's Buenos DÃas América.
Fall 2026
Welcome to our newest group members! Damián Donoso-Tapia joins as a postdoctoral researcher after his Ph.D. at UNC Chapel Hill, Morgan DiDomizio starts an M.S. after working with us as an undergraduate, and Isa Sagat joins as an undergraduate researcher.
August 2026
New paper! Subhendu Pramanik's paper is out in JGR: Planets. We show that early water on Mars kept its crust too light to sink, which helps explain why Mars never developed subduction-driven plate tectonics. Read the paper.
June–July 2026
A great summer for student funding! Santiago Ramos-Galarza received a GSA Graduate Student Research Grant (Lipman Award), an SEG Student Research Grant, and SEG and GSA travel grants. Dylan Enwia received a GSA Graduate Student Research Grant (Lipman Award) and an SEG travel award. Congratulations to both!
May 2026
New paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, led by my friend Santiago Tassara, tracing how the magmas that built the El Teniente supergiant copper deposit in Chile changed their redox state and volatile content over time. Read the paper.
April 2026
New paper in Tectonics, led by Jordan Wang, on the metamorphism, exhumation, and recycling of subduction-zone rocks on Cedros Island, Baja California. Read the paper.
April 2026
I gave an online seminar at Loma Linda University on the magmatic controls on copper ore fertility.
2025
November 2025
I visited the University of Wisconsin–Madison and gave a seminar on how crustal magmas generate porphyry copper deposits.
October 2025
Congratulations to Oscar Torres-Alarcon, who defended his M.S. thesis on October 29! Oscar studied the magmas behind porphyry copper deposits in Sonora, Mexico, received SEG travel funding to present his research, and now works at Freeport-McMoRan.
October 2025
Congratulations to Subhendu Pramanik, who defended his M.S. thesis on October 17! Subhendu studied why early water on Mars prevented subduction.
October 2025
Busy October: an invited talk at the GSA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, and a seminar at the University of Oklahoma.
September 2025
My new paper in Geology, co-authored with my friend Santiago Tassara, is out! Using thermodynamic modeling, we show that oxidized mantle sources and very wet magmas explain the chemical signals used to find fertile porphyry copper systems. Read the paper.
2025
Our 2023 paper was among the top 10 most-cited papers published in the Journal of Metamorphic Geology that year.
Fall 2025
Welcome to Santiago Ramos-Galarza (Ph.D.) and Dylan Enwia (M.S.), who joined the group to work on ore-forming magmas.
June 2025
We hosted the IEC14/GSA Penrose Conference Eclogites in Space and Time, which I co-organized with C. Mattinson, K. Flores, and S. Baldwin.
March 2025
New paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, led by Damián Donoso-Tapia (then a Ph.D. student at UNC), on the dehydration and re-hydration of a slab fragment and what it tells us about fluids in subduction zones. Read the paper.
2024
October 2024
I gave a seminar at Northern Illinois University on subduction zones from a metamorphic petrology perspective.
August 2024
New paper in Nature Geoscience! I show that the wet, oxidized magmas recorded in Earth's oldest continents can form when very thick crust melts, without subduction. The work was covered by UIC Today, WBEZ Chicago radio, and Univision. Read the paper.
August 2024
Goldschmidt came to Chicago! I served on the local organizing committee and co-led the "Career Paths" and "Grant Proposal" workshops.
Summer 2024
Our first NSF grant is funded! The project traces the origins of fertile magmas in the porphyry copper systems of Sonora, Mexico.
June 2024
Subhendu Pramanik received a GSA Graduate Student Research Grant. Congratulations!
June 2024
I joined the editorial team of Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G3) as an Editor.
2024
Undergraduate researchers Brian Liberato and Chris Serrano (2023–24) and Maria Garcia-Kinzig (2024–25) each received a UIC Chancellor's Undergraduate Research Award. Brian is now a graduate student at the University of Alabama.
April 2024
Outreach: I spoke on Telemundo's Noticiero Chicago, and worked with Mexico's CONANP on geology outreach at the Islas del PacÃfico Biosphere Reserve.
February 2024
Rocks and minerals, in two languages: a bilingual classroom visit at the Academy for Global Citizenship (Chicago Public Schools).
2023
November 2023
I gave a seminar at the University of Minnesota on global-scale processes in subduction zones.
September 2023
New paper in the Journal of Metamorphic Geology with R. Holder and J. D. Hernández-Montenegro, comparing conventional eclogite thermobarometry with phase-equilibrium modeling. Read the paper.
August 2023
I started as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UIC, and the research group is officially up and running!
August 2023
New paper in G3, led by P. Lindquist, on talc production and slow slip along the flat subduction interface beneath Guerrero, Mexico. Read the paper.
May 2023
New paper in Geology with Tatsuki Tsujimori, showing that lawsonite eclogite, a key carrier of water deep into the mantle, forms only in mature, cold subduction zones. Read the paper.
March 2023
New paper in Lithos, led by Richard Palin, on unusual amphibolite-facies minerals in the Wet Mountains, Colorado. Read the paper.
January 2023
New paper in the Journal of Metamorphic Geology with Chris Mattinson and colleagues on long-lived eclogite-facies metamorphism in the Dulan area, North Qaidam, China. Read the paper.