Prof. Jason Phipps-Morgan, Ph.D.

Jason Phipps-Morgan is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

He is one of today's most well-known geophysicists. His specialist area is geodynamics, i.e. the investigation of natural movement processes in the Earth's inner mantle through surface observations, seismic methods and numeric stimulations. He is particularly interested in so-called mantle plumes, highly concentrated thermal upwellings, the warmth and material of which reach all the way to the surface directly from the innermost mantle, from a depth of ca. 2900 km. They cause an unusual and strong form of volcanism which is not connected to the edges of plates, known as hotspot volcanism. Examples of “hotspots” include Hawaii, Iceland and the Cape Verde Islands.

Jason Phipps-Morgan will be at the CAS as a visiting fellow from June until mid July 2011 following an invitation from Professor Hans-Peter Bunge of the Department of Geo- and Environmental Sciences, and, in cooperation with his chair, will prepare the largest experiment to date involving the direct geophysical imaging of an oceanic plume.