|
Professor:
|
 |
| My research as a marine geophysicist has focused
primarily on the mid-ocean ridge,
the most active geologic feature on the planet, using whatever geophysical
or geological tools I could employ to study the tectonics of this complex
system. Some the areas I see as promising for future research include: the
fundamental segmentation
of mid-ocean ridges and the significance of ridge-axis discontinuities including
overlapping spreading centers to the creation of oceanic crust, the processes
responsible for the creation and deformation
of oceanic crust particularly through the study of marine magnetic anomalies
and quantitative geomorphology, and the importance of hydrothermal vent
systems to the heat balance of the ridge. So much is still not known that
I look forward to many more exciting discoveries and insights in the future
as we continue to explore the mid-ocean ridge. The mid-ocean ridge offers extraordinary opportunities for interdisciplinary research. The supply of magma to the ridge controls the geochemistry of erupted lavas, the magnetization of the crust and the location of seafloor hydrothermal systems; which in turn control the distribution of exotic benthic faunal communities. For example, if one plots the occurrence of hydrothermal vents versus axial depth, cross-sectional area or even crustal magnetization, there is an excellent correlation! These linkages provide rich opportunities for cross-disciplinary research. |
|
|
|
|
Macdonald, K.C. and P.J. Fox,
The mid-ocean ridge
,
Scientific American 262:72-79, 1990.
Macdonald, K.C., P.J. Fox, R.T. Alexander, R. Pockalny, and P. Gente, Volcanic growth faults and the origin of Pacific abyssal hills , Nature 380:125-129, 1996. Macdonald, Ken C., Mid-Ocean Ridge Tectonics, Volcanism and Geomorphology ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCEAN SCIENCES (eds. J. Steele, S. Thorpe, K. Turekian), Academic Press, p. 1798-1813, 2001. The Deep , Esquire, p. 104-110, April 1994. |
|
 animated GIf by Phil Sharfstein |
| Ken
Macdonald's [Home] [Research] [Movies] [CV][Pubs] UCSB Dept. Earth Science |
|
[People]
[Research]
[Resources]
[Alumni] [Life] [Graduate] [Undergrad] [Outreach] [IntraWeb] University of California, Santa Barbara—Department of Earth Science Copyright © 2006 Regents of the University of California Send your comments to the Web Page Editor |