Helen Williams
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About
Research Area
My research uses novel isotope tools to fingerprint geological and planetary processes including mantle heterogeneity, magma ocean crystallisation, core-mantle reactions and the mineral breakdown and fluid transport processes relevant to a wide range of settings including subduction zones, ore deposits and subglacial environments. I’m particularly interested in the relationship between the chemistry of a planet’s mantle to both its surface and central metal core, and how interactions between these reservoirs over billions of years may have shaped planetary habitability. In my research group we analyse a wide range of isotope systems using high-precision plasma mass spectrometry and we apply these isotope tracing tools to natural samples such as igneous rocks (ranging in age from nearly 4 billion years old to newly erupted volcanics), meteorites, experimental products, waters and sediments. We take a multidisciplinary team-focused approach to research and collaborate with geophysicists, volcanologists, petrologists, geobiologists and planetary scientists. Collaborations and fieldwork, as well as laboratory work, mass spectrometry and other complementary analytical tools, all play an important role in our research.
Project Interests
I am enthusiastic about training and introducing students to isotope mass spectrometry and developing projects where isotope tracers may help us resolve fundamental questions, for example how ore deposits of metals critical to the energy transition form, how volatile elements and transition metals are cycled in subduction zones, if major changes in the redox state of the Earth’s surface and oceans can be linked to mantle chemistry, how the chemistry of the Earth’s interior has evolved over the last ~ 4 billion years and how this links with early plate tectonics, and whether the products of early tectonic recycling can be traced in volcanic rocks from the Archean to the present day.