Project highlights

  • Explore a newly discovered active magma chamber, only the third yet found beneath a slow spreading mid-ocean ridge.  
  • Develop new model for formation and rifting of axial volcanic ridges under the influence of oblique plate spreading.  
  • Work within major Birmingham-led international collaborative project, visit partners in UK, Iceland and USA, and undertake an industrial placement with a geothermal energy company. 

Overview

The Mid Atlantic Ridge to the south of Iceland – called the Reykjanes Ridge – has an unusually high concentration of volcanoes compared to other slow spreading mid-ocean ridges, owing to unusually high magma production in the vicinity of the Icelandic hotspot.  Yet in common with other slow spreading ridges, almost all of these volcanic features are extinct, or at least dormant.  Only three active magma chambers have been discovered along the entire Mid Atlantic Ridge, and two of them occur along the Reykjanes Ridge.  One was discovered in the early 1990s.  The other was discovered in summer 2024 by the IMPULSE expedition, a Birmingham-led project that has collected a huge new geophysical imaging dataset along the entire length of the Reykjanes Ridge and its flanks.  Several potential new hydrothermal fields were also discovered.   

Whilst the discovery of a new magma chamber and potential hydrothermal fields was a headline success of this summer’s data acquisition expedition, the IMPULSE project did not actually set out to search for these features.  Its primary aim is to produce seismic images of the entire oceanic crust in order test the thermal plume pulsing hypothesis for the Icelandic Mantle Plume.  This leaves a window of opportunity for a PhD project to work up the new dataset with a focus on surface volcanic features, related hydrothermal activity, and their relationship to the underlying magmatic plumbing system beneath the mid-ocean ridge, working closely alongside and augmenting the whole-crustal imaging work being done by the core IMPULSE research team.   Coloured image showing topography of a volcanic cone with prominent crater and caption "Come discover a volcano with us".

Figure 1:  Swath bathymetric image of an axial volcano on the Reykjanes Ridge (IMPULSE Science Party, 2024a). 

Host

University of Birmingham

Theme

  • Climate and Environmental Sustainability
  • Dynamic Earth

Supervisors

Project investigator

Co-investigators

How to apply

Methodology

First, we will interpret the large new IMPULSE dataset of seabed mapping data to produce new maps of features including axial volcanoes, axial volcanic ridges, associated lava fields, faults etc.  Mapping will cover both axial (i.e. along the active mid-ocean ridge) and inactive, off-axis regions on the ridge flanks.   

Secondly, we will ask what happens to these volcanic features as the two plates separate and drift apart.  Mid-ocean ridges are composed of segments 20 to 30 km long and a few kilometres wide.  Depending on where the line of plate separation occurs, a segment could end up entirely attached to the European Plate, the North American+Greenland Plate, or parts of the segment could end up on both plates.  Along the Reykjanes Ridge this plate separation process was asymmetric, and the preferred side of accretion flipped episodically.  We will develop a model for this asymmetric accretion based on surface observations and IMPULSE deep crustal images.   

Training and skills

DRs will be awarded CENTA Training Credits (CTCs) for participation in CENTA-provided and ‘free choice’ external training. One CTC can be earned per 3 hours training, and DRs must accrue 100 CTCs across the three and a half years of their PhD.  

  • Training in all project-specific skills provided by the IMPULSE consortium: 
  • Multi-beam bathymetric data processing and interpretation; 
  • Mid-ocean ridge tectonic processes, including fieldwork in Iceland, the onshore continuation of the project work area; 
  • Expert knowledge of mid-ocean ridge/mantle plume interaction in the North Atlantic and elsewhere. 
  • Opportunity for industrial placement on geothermal potential of mid-ocean ridges. 
  • Opportunity to join a ship-based research expedition run by project partners. 
  • Mentorship by an early career researcher who recently completed his PhD (working with Tim Henstock in Southampton). 
  • Training in more general scientific skills and horizon-broadening activities are available via CENTA. 

Partners and collaboration

The IMPULSE consortium is Steve Jones (Leader, University of Birmingham), Tim Henstock (University of Southampton) and Nicky White (University of Cambridge)Partners include Ármann Höskuldsson (Nordic Volcanological Institute, Reykjavík, Iceland) and Ross Parnell Turner (Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California, USA).     

Further details

Prospective applicants are positively encouraged to contact Steve Jones ([email protected]) in advance of applying to ask questions about the project, discuss whether working with us on this project at the University of Birmingham is a good fit for you, or to ask questions about putting together a strong applicationWe are also happy to put you in contact with current and former students to ask questions about their experiences. 

To apply to this project: 

  • You must include a CV with the names of at least two referees (preferably three) who can comment on your academic abilities.  
  • Please submit your application and complete the host institution application process via: https://sits.bham.ac.uk/lpages/LES068.htm.   Please select the PhD Geography and Environmental Science (CENTA) 2025/26 Apply Now button. The CENTA Studentship Application Form 2025 and CV can be uploaded to the Application Information section of the online form.  Please quote CENTA 2025-B17 when completing the application form.  

 Applications must be submitted by 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 8th January 2025. 

Possible timeline

Year 1

Interpret IMPULSE swath bathymetry data and sub-bottom profiling imagery to make maps of volcanic and tectonic features along the axis and flanks of the Reykjanes Ridge, building on and expanding the mapping begun by Parnell Turner et al. (2013) Get to know the wider IMPULSE team and datasetPlan fieldwork and collaboration visits to academic and industrial partners.  

Year 2

Write up mapping work into paper and submitBegin to develop asymmetric crustal accretion model, working closely with crustal modelling work in SouthamptonFieldwork to compare the new maps with the onshore extension of the Reykjanes Ridge in Iceland.  

Year 3

Write up asymmetric crustal accretion model into paper and submitExpand on aspects of earlier work that caught your particular interest: opportunities for more onshore fieldwork, taking part in ship-based expeditions run by project partners, further project work with industry partnerWrite up PhD dissertation for submission in Year 3.5.   

Further reading

IMPULSE Science Party (2024a) ‘Come discover a volcano with us’.  Available at: https://www.tiktok.com/@impulse_cruise/video/7402601758125559073 (accessed 17 September 2024). 

IMPULSE Science Party (2024b) ‘Watching underwater volcanoes erupt’.  Available at: https://www.tiktok.com/@impulse_cruise/video/7406725598363585824 (accessed 17 September 2024). 

[Public science communication videos produced by the IMPULSE early career researcher team; although these are not peer-reviewed scientific results, they do show some of the data that will be analyzed in this project.] 

Parnell-Turner, R.E., White, N.J., Maclennan, J., Henstock, T.J., Murton, B.J., Jones, S.M., (2013)  ‘Crustal Manifestations of a Hot Transient Pulse Beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 363, 109–120, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.12.030. 

[See Figure 2 for an example of the mapping products this project will produce in Year 1]. 

Jones, S.M., White, N.J., and Maclennan, J.C. (2002) ‘V-shaped ridges around Iceland: implications for spatial and temporal patterns of mantle convection’,  G3 Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 3, http://doi.org/10.1029/2002GC000361 .   

[Background to the IMPULSE project target: the whole-crustal structure of the V-Shaped Ridges.]