A section of the American Geophysical Union.

VGP News and Announcements

Congratulations to 2011 Hess Medalist and VGP member Henry Dick

Congratulations to new AGU Fellows in 2011:

Catherine Chauvel, Marc Hirschmann, Suzanne Kay, Craig Manning, William McDonough, William Seyfried, Takehiko Yagi

Have you made VGP one of your affiliations at AGU?

Did you know that you can make the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section your primary affiliation at AGU? Choosing VGP as one of your affiliations means you will receive all VGP-related email messages and announcements and strengthens the voice of your section within AGU.
To change your affiliation today, go to AGU member services, enter the AGU Online Membership Directory and click on View / Update my own entry.

Breaking News

Dynamics of a lava fountain revealed by geophysical, geochemical and thermal satellite measurements: The case of the 10 April 2011 Mt Etna eruption (Geophysical Research Letters )
Sedimentological and geochemical evidence for multistage failure of volcanic island landslides: A case study from Icod landslide on north Tenerife, Canary Islands (G-Cubed )
Tranquillityite: The last lunar mineral comes down to Earth (Geology )
Fearmongering Gets Started in 2012: Laacher See is Not “Ready to Blow” (Eruptions Blog )
Congratulations to the 2011 Hisashi Kuno awardee, Katherine Kelley.
Congratulations to the 2011 N.L. Bowen awardees, Jamie Connolly and Marc Hirschmann.

Section Overview

The chemical and physical evolution of rocks and minerals, particularly igneous and metamorphic rocks, falls under the purview of the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology Section. Because of the Section's interest in studying and mitigating the hazards of volcanoes, its work has a direct bearing on public safety and the preservation of life.

Research topics that dominate the Section include isotope and trace element geochemistry, the origin of igneous rocks, metamorphism, volcanology, magma dynamics, and new geochemical methods of research. Though the research interests of VGP members are diverse, they strive to solve cross-disciplinary problems within an effective framework and to make the results of that research widely available.

An important focus is the study of the compositional evolution of the Earth in time and space in relation to the plate tectonic cycle. This includes determining mass exchange rates of chemicals between the various reservoirs of the Earth, such as the atmosphere, the ocean, the continental and oceanic crust, the mantle, and the core, as well as determining their residence times and the mixing scales involved. The development of new experimental techniques is also an issue of ongoing interest. VGP overlaps strongly with other sections, such as Planetary Sciences, Tectonophysics, Seismology, Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism, Hydrology and Biogeosciences.