Events & Courses

Understanding Invasive Lava Flows

Under the right conditions (large volume coastal lava flows, active margins) lavas will burrow or invade into underlying wet sediments.  This can occur on a massive scale, as has been recorded in the Columbia River flood basalts over a 400 x 100km area of coastal Oregon and Washington. 

Dr Ian has also recently interpreted the enigmatic Sida Formation in SE Iceland as representing repeated invasion of large volume lava flows into fans of nearshore glaciofluvial sediments (sandur plains).  Such invasion of lavas into coastal sediments is likely to be a common occurrence during continental break-up and offers, for example, one explanation for seaward dipping units with strong reflection on seismic profiles of the continental margins of the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP)

Speaker

Dr Ian Skilling (University of South Wales)

Venue

LT1.40
School of Earth and Ocean Sciences
Cardiff University
Main Building
Park Place
Cardiff, CF10 3AT