I manage Experimental Petrology Facilities in the Department.
My area of research is igneous and experimental petrology. I relate high-temperature, high-pressure experiments to natural igneous rocks through studies of lavas, crustal xenoliths and melt inclusions.
One of my main interests is the role of water in production and differentiation of magma under volcanic arcs. This covers not only evolution of melt as it rises to the surface through partially solidified crust leaving residual solid assemblages behind (brought to the surface with magma as crustal xenoliths), but also thermal structure and composition of underlying mantle.
My second main interest is evolution of the continental crust. To evaluate development and growth of crust through time I bring together geophysics, petrography, geochemistry, and phase diagrams which help us to contrarian temperatures and pressures of different crustal mineral assemblages. My research projects have been mainly focused on Lesser Antilles volcanic arc but I also have projects on Kamchatka, Vanuatu and Mexico.
View Selected Publications
Blundy J., Melekhova E., Ziberna L., Humphreys M.C.S., Brooker R., Cerantola V., McCammon C., Pichavant M., Ulmer P. (2020). Olivine-melt Fe-Mg-Mn partitioning and redox equilibria in hydrous basalts. Contribution to Mineralogy Petrology 175, 103 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-020-01736-7
Becerra-Torres E., Melekhova E., Blundy J. (2020). Experimental evidence for heterogeneous mantle beneath the Colima Volcanic Complex, Mexico. Contribution to Mineralogy Petrology 175, 101 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-020-01740-x
Melekhova E., Schlaphorst D, Blundy J., Kendall J.M. (2019). Lateral variation in crustal structure along the Lesser Antilles arc from petrology of crustal xenolith and seismic receiver functions. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 530, 15 January 2020, Pages 115982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.03.030
Camejo-Harry M., Melekhova E., Blundy J., Attrige W., Robertson R., Christopher T. (2018). Magma evolution beneath Bequia, Lesser Antilles, deduced from petrology of lavas and plutonic xenoliths. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 173:77, DOI:10.1007/s00410-018-1504-z
Melekhova E., Blundy J., Martin R., Arculus R., Pichavant M. (2017). Petrological and experimental evidence for differentiation of H2O-rich magmas beneath St. Kitts, Lesser Antilles. Contribution to Mineralogy and Petrology, DOI: 10.1007/s00410-017-1416-3
Plechov P., Blundy J., Nekrylov N., Melekhova E., Scsherbakov V., Tichonova M. (2015). Petrology and magma degassing path of Tolbachik 2012-2013 eruption. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 307:182–199.
Walter M., Thomson A.R., Wang W., Lord O.T., Ross J., McMahon Z.C., Baron M.A., Melekhova E., Kleppe A.K., Kohn S.C. (2015). The Stability of Hydrous Silicates in Earth’s Lower Mantle: Experimental constraints from the Systems MgO-SiO2-H2O and MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O. Chemical Geology, 418:16–29.
Melekhova E., Blundy J., Robertson R., Humphreys M. (2015). Experimental evidence for polybaric intracrustal differentiation of primitive arc basalts beneath St. Vincent, Lesser Antilles. Journal of Petrology, 56(1):161–192.
Stamper C.C., Melekhova E., Blundy J.D., Arculus R.J., Humphreys M.C.S., Brooker R.A. (2014). Oxidised phase relations of a primitive basalt from Grenada, Lesser Antilles. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 167.1:1–20.
Melekhova E., Annen C., Blundy J. (2013). Compositional gaps in igneous rock suites controlled by magma system heat and water content. Nature Geosciences, 6:385–390.
Melekhova E. Schmidt M.W., Ulmer P., Pettke T. (2007). Composition of aquesius fluid and second critical endpoint in The MgO-SiO2-H2O system. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 71:3348–3360.
Dorogokupets P.I. Ponomarev E.M., Melekhova E.A. (1999). Optimisation of experimental data on the heat capacity, volume, and bulk module of minerals. Petrology, 7:611–630.