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Research project

Rift Volcanism: Past, Present and Future

Project overview

RiftVolc is built around a NERC funded large grant which aims to research past, present and future volcanic and seismic activity in different sectors of the East African rift system. The project also draws on several NERC funded PhD studentships (SPITFIRE and INSPIRE). Project partners include the BGS, the Universities of Edinburgh, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Imperial, Florence, Pisa, Strasbourg, Sorbonne, Addis Ababa, the Geological Survey of Ethiopia, and Reykjavik Geothermal.

The team at the University of Southampton primarily focus on using passive seismology, structural geology, volcanology, and geochemistry to understand tectonics, magmatic, and hydrothermal processes during extension.

Staff

Lead researchers

Dr Derek Keir

Associate Professor
Connect with Derek

Email: [email protected]

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

Use of a high-precision gravity survey to understand the formation of oceanic crust and the role of melt at the southern Red Sea rift in Afar, Ethiopia
E. Lewi, D. Keir, Y. Birhanu, J. Blundy, G. Stuart, T. Wright, E. Calais, T.J. Wright, A. Ayele, D.J. Ferguson, T. Kidane & C. Vye-Brown, 2015, Geological Society London Special Publications, 420, 165-180
DOI: 10.1144/SP420.13
Type: article
First recorded eruption of Nabro volcano, Eritrea, 2011
B. Goitom, C. Oppenheimer, J.O.S. Hammond, R. Grandin, T. Barnie, A. Donovan, G. Ogubazghi, E. Yohannes, G. Kibrom, J-M. Kendall, S.A. Carn, D. Fee, C. Sealing, D. Keir, A. Ayele, J. Blundy, J. Hamlyn, T. Wright & S. Berhe, 2015, Bulletin of Volcanology, 77(10), Art.85
DOI: 10.1007/s00445-015-0966-3
Type: article
Introduction: Anatomy of rifting: Tectonics and magmatism in continental rifts, oceanic spreading centers, and transforms
Carolina Pagli, Francesco Mazzarini, Derek Keir, Eleonora Rivalta & Tyrone O. Rooney, 2015, Geosphere, 11(5), 1256-1261
DOI: 10.1130/GES01082.1
Type: article
Upper mantle structure of the southern Arabian margin: Insights from teleseismic tomography
Félicie Korostelev, Sylvie Leroy, Derek Keir, Abdulhakim Ahmed, Lapo Boschi, Frédérique Rolandone, Graham W. Stuart, Mathias Obrebski, Khaled Khanbari & Issa El-Hussain, 2015, Geosphere, 11(5), 1262-1278
DOI: 10.1130/GES01159.1
Type: article
Multiple mantle upwellings in the transition zone beneath the northern East-African Rift system from relative P-wave travel-time tomography
C. Civiero, J.O.S. Hammond, S. Goes, S. Fishwick, A. Ahmed, A. Ayele, C. Doubre, B. Goitom, D. Keir, J. Michael, S. Leroy, G. Ogubazghi, G. Rumpker & G.W. Stuart, 2015, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 16(9), 2949-2968
DOI: 10.1002/2015GC005948
Type: article