Tracing the passage of fluids in rocks in not a trivial matter. Fluids commonly escape the rock leaving behind chemical traces or minute inclusions in the minerals they interacted with. Variations in the isotopic composition of water-soluble elements (such as oxygen and boron) can be used to trace the passage of aqueous fluids. Importantly, using an ion microprobe, isotopes in minerals can be analysed at the same micro scale as chemical zoning and age, making it possible to reconstruct P-T-time-fluid path from complex metamorphic evolutions.
As a group we are working on the measurements of oxygen isotopes in-situ in a range of minerals commonly found in metamorphic rocks. By combining isotopic signals with petrology, geochronology and modelling, we aim to reconstruct and quantify the dynamic of fluids in the crust.
