Melt Migration in the Skaergaard Intrusion

By Victoria Honour, University of Cambridge 

This summer I was part of a team of petrologists who camped for a month on the Skaergaard Intrusion. Skaergaard is so interesting because it is a dissected magma chamber, which allowed us to observe and investigate a range of magma chamber processes. My PhD specifically looks at late-stage interstitial liquid in the magma chamber mush. The fieldwork was a real adventure: ice-covered fjords, dramatic mountains and near 100% rock exposure. This was my first time on Skaergaard and the geology is fantastic. During the field season I studied melt migration structures ranging from gabbroic pegmatites to immiscible melts; the long field season giving time to test and refine hypotheses. It was a spectacular summer of science!

Victoria Honour is a PhD student at Cambridge (vch28@cam.ac.uk), supervised by Marian Holness. Her research focus is on the movement of immiscible Fe- and Si-rich fluid phases through a crystal mush, a process which has significant implications for ore-bearing layered intrusions. Follow Victoria to find out more about her exciting fieldwork and research: @victoria_honour #Skaergaard17 #NERCengage