Postdoctoral Fellowship: EAR-PF: Investigating magma storage and ascent through space and time at the Potrillo Volcanic Field, New Mexico

Dr. Jisoo Kim has been awarded an EAR Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research and professional development activities under the mentorship of Dr. Emily Johnson at USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory and Dr.

Elisabeth Widom at the Miami University of Ohio. Distributed volcanism is a type of volcanism that is characterized by the presence of multiple volcanic centers or vents that are similar to each other in age and location. A particular region of distributed volcanism is called a distributed volcanic field.

According to a recent study, nine distributed volcanic fields have been the most active in the Quaternary Period (the present geologic period) in the U.S. Southwest. In the proposed work, the PI will focus on Potrillo Volcanic Field (PVF), the southeasternmost of the nine volcanic fields.

It is located just 30 miles from El Paso, TX, and its youngest eruptions may have occurred just 16 thousand years ago. Thus, the proposed research on the PVF may be useful to decision makers like the U.S. Geological Survey.

Furthermore, the PI will partner with the Las Cruces Museum of Nature & Science and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science to host public talks and update online exhibits about the PVF. She will also work with the Bureau of Land Management to update storyboards about the PVF. In addition, she will mentor an undergraduate student in conducting field work and laboratory analyses together.

The PI will seek to identify petrological and geophysical trends in a 1000 km-long band of high-activity Quaternary distributed volcanism identified in the U.S. Southwest. While the scale of this band is large, it comprises nine individual volcanic fields, including the PVF.

Each volcanic field has variable physical and petrologic characteristics and spatio-temporal trends in activity. She will use the PVF as a case study to (1) evaluate magmatic volatile contents, ascent rates, and controls on mantle xenolith transport; (2) determine the magma storage conditions and nature of the plumbing system beneath the PVF; and (3) conduct age-dating at targeted vents to inform cluster analyses and models of spatio-temporal trends.

In the proposed work, fine scale petrological data are collected on the µm to hand sample scale to inform processes operating on the km to 10s of km scale in the subsurface, while driving eruptive processes that have a m to km aerial spread. Geochronologic analyses are similarly done on the sub-m scale but can capture ages describing spatio-temporal trends across a whole volcanic field.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.