Research Teams

The Synergy

The team consists of four internationally recognized scientists and their respective teams, each bringing essential marine experience and expertise to this project.

Prof. Heidrun Kopp (Principle Investigator), a leading marine geophysicist, offers the expertise needed for geophysical studies, essential for site selection and determining crustal age and thickness.

Prof. Martin Frank (Principle Investigator), an expert paleo-oceanographer, has pioneered research on past seawater chemistry and hydrothermal input. His team’s proficiency in sediment core recovery and age model establishment will be vital for the project.

Prof. Charlie Langmuir (Principle Investigator) is a leading igneous petrologist focused on MOR processes, having established state-of-the-art facilities at Harvard for major and trace element analysis of glasses, contributing foundational studies to this research.

Prof. Kaj Hoernle (Corresponding Principle Investigator), a renowned isotope geochemist with a strong background in volcanology, has developed a leading radiogenic isotope facility. His work will be key in reconstructing the MOR time series with Langmuir.

Geophysics

Prof. Heidrun Kopp

Principle Investigator - GEOMAR

Heidrun Kopp is a marine geophysicist specializing in seafloor geodesy and crustal studies of active plate margins, rifts, and ocean basins. As head of GEOMAR’s ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) group, which manages one of Europe’s largest OBS pools, she has overseen over 6000 OBS deployments across global oceans for both active and earthquake seismology. Kopp has led twelve research cruises, serving as chief scientist on eight. Her research focuses on deep crustal and lithospheric investigations of subduction zones and rift systems, with an emphasis on marine geohazards.

Team Members (funded through ERC)

[Translate to English:] Dr. Michael Riedel — **Dr. Michael Riedel**

Focuses on tomographic inversion of OBS data from the geophysics cruises; integration of the different geophysical data sets from acquisition to final interpretation.

[Translate to English:] Benedikt Bauer — **Benedikt Bauer**, PhD-Student

Task: OBS data processing, seismic modeling and full waveform inversion

[Translate to English:] cf — **Christian Filbrandt**, Scientist equipment specialist

Responsible for instrument deployment and maintenance.Oversees onboard QC and data archiving.

Associated Team Members

[Translate to English:] Dr. Anke Dannowski — **Dr. Anke Dannowski**

Refraction Reismics

[Translate to English:] Dr. Jörg Bialas — **Dr. Jörg Bialas**

OBS and OBH systems

[Translate to English:] Ingo Klaucke — **Dr. Ingo Klaucke**

Geoacoustic seafloor imaging (bathymetry, backscatter and sediment echosounding)

[Translate to English:] Dr. Dietrich Lange — **Dr. Dietrich Lange**

Seismic inversion and tomography

Hydrothermalism

Prof. Martin Frank

Principle Investigator - GEOMAR

Martin Frank's research focuses on chemical paleoceanography, particularly reconstructing past ocean circulation and seawater chemistry to understand climate interactions over time. His work examines the link between past climate, continental erosion, nutrient utilization, and biological productivity. His lab develops and refines geochemical and isotopic proxies, including radiogenic (Nd, Pb, Hf, Sr), stable (Si, Fe, Ba, Cd, Mo), cosmogenic (^10Be) isotopes, and element distributions like REEs. A key aspect of his research is understanding the processes that influence these proxies in present-day marine environments, including water columns, surface sediments, and pore waters.

Team Members (funded through ERC)

[Translate to English:] Jacek — **Dr. Jacek Raddatz**

Overlooks the stable oxygen isotope (δ18O) analyses and the results of various logging and scanning techniques to correlate the cores and establish their age models.

[Translate to English:] N.N., PhD-Student — **N.N.**, PhD-Student

Analyses of Nd-Pb isotope compositions and hydrothermal metal concentrations in the down-core authigenic fraction of various sediment cores, including the use of XRF scanning techniques, are conducted to reconstruct hydrothermal element supply and support the stratigraphy of sediment cores from the East Pacific Rise (Pacific).

[Translate to English:] N.N. Technician — **N.N.**, Technician

Supports the coring program at sea.

Associated Team Members

[Translate to English:] Dr. Dirk Nürnberg — **Prof. Dirk Nürnberg**

Paleo-oceanography, expert in sediment coring and oxygen isotope analysis/stratigraphy. Operates an isotope ratio mass spectrometer for the routine measurements of stable oxygen and carbon isotope compositions of marine carbonates

[Translate to English:] Dr. Edmund Hathorne — **Dr. Edmund Hathorne**

Radiogenic isotopes and elemental ratios)

[Translate to English:] Dr. Chris Siebert — **Dr. Chris Siebert**

Development and application of heavy stable isotopes as proxies. Management of the cleanroom and MC-ICP-MS facilities in RD1.

Igneous Petrology

Prof. Charles Langmuir

Principal Investigator - Harvard University

Charles Langmuir is a petrologist focused on the geochemical cycle within plate tectonics, exploring chemical exchanges between Earth’s layers and their underlying physical processes. His work on ocean ridges includes identifying mantle temperature as a key factor in ridge depth and composition, discovering the impact of small offsets on the East Pacific Rise, and revealing the limitations of magma chambers on slow-spreading ridges. Recent studies link glacial cycles to ocean ridge activity and highlight a widespread subduction influence on ocean ridges beyond the Pacific 'subduction shield.'

Team Members (funded through ERC)

**Dr. Siyu Zhao**, PostDoc

Petrology and geochemistry of SHGs, focusing on major and trace element analysis, integrating data to reconstruct time-series variations in ridge magmatism and source compositions.

[Translate to English:] Mingzhen — **Mingzhen Yu**, PhD-student

focuses on major and trace element analysis on sediment hosted glasses from cruises; acquisition to final interpretation of the geochemical data sets.

Associated Team Members

[Translate to English:] Dr. Chen — **Dr. Zhongxing Chen,** Senior staff scientist

Management of the ICP-MS lab and analysis of the chemical composition of sediment-hosted glass samples.

Igneous Geochemistry

Prof. Kaj Hoernle

Corresponding Principle Investigator - GEOMAR

Kaj Hoernle is a distinguished igneous geochemist with a focus on intraplate (hotspots and their tracks and large igneous provinces), subduction zone and mid-ocean ridge volcanism. He leads the Petrology and Geochemistry Working Group at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, where he oversees isotope laboratories for high-precision analyses of Sr, Nd, Pb and Hf isotope systems. His interdisciplinary approach integrates fieldwork (at sea and on land), laboratory analyses, and geophysical data to elucidate Earth's geological processes.

Team Members (funded through ERC)

[Translate to English:] Dr. Jonas Schneider — **Dr. Jonas Schneider**, PostDoc

Isotope geochemistry of SHGs and analytical development/commissioning of the new ICP-MS lab

[Translate to English:] Pauline Verdurme — **Dr. Pauline Verdurme**, PostDoc

Performing geochemical and petrographic analysis on SHG and discrete tephra samples recovered from sediment gravity cores and seabed drilling

[Translate to English:] Person 3 — **N.N.**, PhD Student

Analysis Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotope of glass shards and whole rocks from cruises, interpretation of the data and publishing of the results

[Translate to English:] Jannes Hoffmann — **Jannes Hoffmann**, Lab Technician

Sample preparation and analysis of Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotope ratios and concentrations using ICP-MS

Associated Team Members

[Translate to English:] Dr. Julie Belo — **Dr. Julie Belo**

Addresses the volcanology of sediment-hosted glass and discrete ash layers throughout the sediment cores from all three study areas

[Translate to English:] Dr. Folkmar Hauff — **Dr. Folkmar Hauff**

Specialized in isotope chemistry of igneous rocks, manages operation of the T-SECTOR ICP instruments, clean labs, and TIMS

[Translate to English:] Dr. Christian Timm — **Dr. Christian Timm**

Focusses on igneous geochemistry (major and trace elements and radiogenic isotopes) of recovered glass and rock samples. Manages preparations, logistics and realisation of seagoing expeditions.

[Translate to English:] Dr. Maxim Portnyagin — **Dr. Maxim Portnyagin**

melt inclusions, mineral chemistry and in-situ micro-analytics

[Translate to English:] PD Dr. Jörg Geldmacher — **PD Dr. Jörg Geldmacher**

Magmatic geochemistry

[Translate to English:] Dr. Steffen Kutterolf — **Dr. Steffen Kutterolf**

Volcanology

External collaborations

Dr. Frauke Klingelhoefer (IFREMER): expert on oceanic crust and lithosphere with a vast expertise in ocean bottom seismology. F. Klingelhoefer is a well-known marine seismologist who has led several marine research campaigns in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Prof. Richard Katz (Oxford University): renowned specialist for dynamics of fluid–solid systems. Particular aspects of his research contributing to the project are his expertise on reactive flow of magma through the mantle; geochemical predictions versus geochemical observations; ice-sheets and sub-glacial hydrology.

Prof. Peter Huybers (Harvard University): world-famous specialist on climate cycles in terms of periodicity, triggers and the effects of glaciation, de-glaciations on the atmospheric CO2 budget and the possible role of volcanism. He will carry out statistical analyses of the geochemical data sets.

Prof. James DL White (Otago University, New Zealand): one of the world’s leading volcanologists with expertise on explosive subaqueous and subglacial eruptions, volcanic magma plumbing systems, magma-water interaction and fragmentation, experimental volcanology and primary and secondary volcaniclastic sedimentation.

Prof. Ralph Schneider (Kiel University): renowned chemical paleo-oceanographer, paleo-climatologist and stratigrapher. Developed and applied quantitative proxy methods to reconstruct paleoenvironmental parameters such as seawater temperatures. Will contribute to the interpretation of stable oxygen isotope data and especially the XRF scanning results to implement a chronostratigraphic framework of the sediment cores. We will use his XRF core scanning facility for selected core sections to determine the elemental composition of the sediments at high temporal resolution.

Prof. Tilo von Dobeneck (Bremen University): head of the Department Marine Geophysics; combines methods of enviro-magnetics, magneto-stratigraphy, electromagnetics and sediment physics to analyze the composition, age and provenance of marine sediments, and to reconstruct changes of ocean and climate and variations in paleomagnetism. Together with Dr. Thomas Frederichs will provide and operate a GEOTEK scanner during the cruises.

Prof. Dr. Christian Hübscher (Hamburg University): head of Marine Geophysics Section; focuses on near-surface geophysical studies by combining marine seismics, hydroacoustics and potential field measurements to crustal processes and structures that form the relief of the seafloor.

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RD4

Dynamics of the Ocean Floor