This year, 2022, the Goldschmidt conference moves to Hawaii! This is really terrific! As a geologist, Hawaii has been a dream place for me to visit and explore: it just has breathtaking sceneries and has been the research "hotspot" due to the presence of Hawaii hotspot beneath the islands. 

The themes and sessions of Goldschmidt 2022 cover various aspects of Earth and planetary sciences. In particular, sessions regarding in-situ technical development, mineral and melt chemistry in Earth’s components, and magmatism (volcanism) and metamorphism during lithosphere (mantle and crust) formation and evolution are closely related with my PhD projects and are all quite appealing. It will be a fantastic conference to attend! 

As a contribution to this exciting conference, we several conveners propose a session geared towards "oceanic crust formation", entitled "The Formation, Dynamics, and Influence of Magmatic Systems in the Oceanic Crust". Check it out via the link: https://conf.goldschmidt.info/goldschmidt/2022/meetingapp.cgi/Symposium/288. This session has attracted a significant number of abstract submissions. Really looking forward to the conference in July 10-15!

Finally back to Gainesville! The in-person AGU 2021 held at New Orleans on 12/13-12/17 during the pandemic has been a great challenge but turned out to be very successful! The wise "colored (green, yellow, red) bands" for the badges made the interaction among colleagues much easier. Traditional New Orleans food, classic Jazz, French architecture, all made the trip awesome and unforgettable!

I also challenged myself in this AGU meeting by having two presentations, one for my monazite petrochronology work in Damara Orogen (poster) and one for my olivine work in East Pacific Rise (oral, highlighted). There are not as many people stopping by my poster or oral presentation as before due to the pandemic, but the colleagues who attended my presentations did ask great questions and we had nice communications afterwards. These are all so valuable and important for improving my research perspectives. 

Another big challenge but also a great opportunity and experience for me was to chair an AGU session: "The Dynamics of Magmatic Plumbing Systems".  Even though the session was in the mid-afternoon of the last day (12/17, Friday), there were still 20-30 people on site, and over 30 people online. It was really a great experience to handle both online and onsite presentations and questions. There was also a heated discussion after the last talk, lasting over 30mins until the technicians "stopped" us.

So grateful for the meeting! Really unforgettable! Go gators!

Excited! My two submitted AGU abstracts (one for monazite petrochronology, one for olivine geochemistry) were both accepted. One is highlighted as an oral talk (olivine study) and one for poster (monazite study). 

Can't wait to attend in-person meetings after one year and a half pandemic quarantine. 

After a few trials, the LA-ICP-MS olivine work has been established successfully! The data were corrected using LADR software.

Over 20 EPR and Siqueiros Transform olivine-bearing samples were analyzed, with > 400 LA spots. The data look pretty good, with some interesting findings! 

After three days EPMA parameters setting, data calibration and quantification. I was able to obtain high precision EPMA olivine minor and trace elements for EPR 8°20' seamount and Siqueiros Transform lava samples. 

The data is very promising. They record different variation patterns for some key petrogenetic elements such as Ca, Ti, Ni, Mn, Al, etc. Olivine with mantle and igneous origins are also identified, which can help unravel mantle and magma history. More info will be explored!

Thanks to the newly implemented third-generation Nu-Plasma MC-ICPMS with a new LIBS laser system, I was able to date monazite grains with growth zones <10μm using a laser spot size at 5μm. By utilizing the multiple monazite age reference, such as Bananeira, Diamantina, Itambé, Moacyr, and applying the analytical protocols developed back in 2019 September (see the development work), I successfully dated 13 representative monazite-bearing samples, including garnet aplite sill, garnet-cordierite migmatite, and amphibolite-granulite facies metapelites at different structural levels, in the central zone of Damara Orogen. 

The results are interesting though quite complex. Monazite seem to preserve a long period of growth (over 100 Myrs), and multiple monazite growth and breakdown took place as response to polyphase metamorphic events in the Damara Orogen.