Julie Boyce

Qualifications

MGeoscience(Hons) Keele University, UK

University Certificate and University Advanced Certificate in Astronomy University of Central Lancashire, UK

Project title

Stratigraphy, geochemistry and origin of products of complex volcanic centres, Newer Volcanics basaltic field, Victoria

Project Information

Intraplate basaltic volcanism (occurring away from the edges of plates) in eastern Australia has a history stretching back at least to Jurassic times. One of the two most recent groups of occurrences is the Newer Volcanic Province (NVP) of the state of Victoria, active from 4.6 Ma to approximately 4000 BP. The NVP is thought to be composed of short-lived monogenetic centres featuring single magma batches and simple evolutions. However, recent research indicates that centres are more complex in terms of evolution, as centres such as Mt. Rouse (Boyce, in prep), Mt. Gambier (van Otterloo, in prep) and Red Rock (Piganis, unpublished) are actually polygenetic in the sense of containing multiple magma batches with complex deposits. Mt. Rouse is an excellent example of such an eruption centre. Situated in Penshurst, Victoria, it is a composite volcano of lava and scoria, rising 120 m above the surrounding lava plains. Measuring approximately 1.2 km N-S and 0.75 km E-W, the complex has at least six eruption points. Mt. Rouse’s lava flows are more than triple the size of other NVP volcanoes in terms of both area covered and volume erupted, extending 60 km to the coast at Port Fairy (Sutalo & Joyce, 2004), covering >535 km2 (Boyce et al., in prep.).
This project attempts to combine detailed stratigraphic and geochemical analysis of the products of Mt. Rouse in order to determine its eruption history and geochemical nature, and clarify its mono- or polygenetic nature. Recent results indicate that one explanation for the alternating eruption styles from explosive to effusive is that they define two separate magma batches with similar degrees of partial melting from similar source regions. Techniques to be utilised alongside geochemical analysis include grain-size analysis of pyroclastic deposits, SEM analysis of eruption products and volatile analysis of glass and phenocryst compositions and olivine-hosted melt inclusions.

Supervisors

Dr. Ian Nicholls' Prof Reid Keays and Dr Pat Hayman

Research Interests

• Physical volcanology
  • Geochemistry

Professional Affiliations

Geological Society of Australia, Victorian Division; Geoscience Society of New Zealand; IAVCEI - International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior; Australian Institution of Geoscientists; Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Mineralogical Society of America; AIV - Associazione Italiana di Vulcanologia; MONVOLC.

Awards

• Best Poster award, VUEESC conference, November 2010. “Volcanology of Mt. Rouse, Newer Volcanics Province, Australia.”
• $700 GSAV scholarship to attend the 2010 AIV International School of Volcanology short-course, Catania, Italy, September 2010.
• North Staffordshire Geologists’ Association (NSGGA) John Myers medal 2009 and £150 for best 4-year MGeoscience course project, entitled ‘The welded air-fall tuff of the Middle Pumice eruption, Santorini, Greece’.