iGoM - Igneous Rocks Of The Gulf of Mexico Region

Principle Investigators

The iGoM consortium is directed by three University of Houston, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Principle Investigators (PI).

Dr. Michael Murphy

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I conduct research on the origin, development, and structural evolution of the continental crust. My research on the fundamental processes operating in the continental crust is driven by my deep interest in, and the challenges of, unraveling the architecture of the Earth in complexly deformed regions. I am currently working on two processes that have and continue to shape the history of the Earth, Intercontinental collision and Continental break-up. These events generate first-order changes in the distribution, size, and connectivity of continents and ocean basins and are therefore essential to our understanding of how the Earth works.

Dr. Jonathan Snow

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Snow is an igneous petrologist with a Ph.D. from the MIT/Woods Hole Joint Program in Oceanography in 1993. He worked for 11 years at the Max-Planck Institute for chemistry in Mainz, Germany before joining the University of Houston faculty in 2005. He studies the igneous petrology of plate divergence including mantle petrogenesis and melt evolution in oceanic and margin environments. He has active field programs in all the world’s oceans including the Arctic Ocean, and is a recent Co-Chief scientist in the International Ocean Drilling Program. He has authored over 70 scientific publications including 9 in Science and Nature.

Dr. Stuart Hall

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Stuart Hall received his B.Sc in Physics from the University of Birmingham, UK and his PhD in Geophysics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He joined the faculty at the University of Houston in 1977. His research interests include the early history and develop-ment of small ocean basins, the tectonic evolution of oceanic plateaus, and the structure of both active and extinct mid-ocean spreading centers. He has worked on gravity, magnetic and paleomagnetic projects in various part of the world including the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt), Asia (Nepal and India), North America (Canada, US and Mexico) and various ocean basins (Indian, Pacific, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Caribbean, and more recently in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico). He has extensive administrative experience as a Department Chairman, Associate Dean and Associate VP for Graduate & Professional Studies.

Dr. Jolante van Wijk

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Van Wijk received her MS (1998) and PhD (2002) in Geophysics from Utrecht University and the Vrije University Amsterdam, respectively. Before coming to University of Houston she worked at Scripp`s Institute of Oceanography and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Her group works on geodynamic modeling of rifted margins and continental rifts, and basin and petroleum system analyses for basins worldwide. She has served as AGU program committee chair and Geoprisms science writer, and organized numerous workshops and topical sessions on rifts and rifted margins.