MARZ project studies the origins and evolution of the largest lava eruptions on Earth. Our research concentrates especially on African and Antarctic continental flood basalt formations that erupted during the initial stages of the break up of the Gondwana supercontinent in Jurassic times ~180 million years ago, during the golden age of the dinosaurs.

The project is funded for 2012–2015 by the Academy of Finland (project number 252652). The Finnish team consists of the principal investigator and senior curator Arto Luttinen and postdoctoral researchers Jussi Heinonen and Matti Kurhila. In addition, the project involves BSc students Sanni Turunen and Riina Puttonen, who are studying recently collected samples from Africa for their Master's Theses. Our most important collaborators are Carnegie Institution of Washington, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, British Antarctic Survey, University of Cape Town, Eduardo Mondlane University, and Geological Survey of Finland.

More detailed information about the project can be found from here!

Latest publications of the MARZ project:

Heinonen, J.S., Kurz, M.D. 2015. Low-³He/⁴He sublithospheric mantle source for the most magnesian magmas of the Karoo large igneous province. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 426:305–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.06.030

Heinonen, J.S., Jennings, E.S., Riley, T.R. 2015. Crystallisation temperatures of the most Mg-rich magmas of the Karoo LIP on the basis of Al-in-olivine thermometry. Chemical Geology 411, 26-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2015.06.015

Luttinen, A.V., Heinonen, J.S., Kurhila, M., Jourdan, F., Mänttäri, I., Vuori, S.K., Huhma, H. 2015. Depleted Mantle-sourced CFB Magmatism in the Jurassic Africa–Antarctica Rift: Petrology and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar and U/Pb Chronology of the Vestfjella Dyke Swarm, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Journal of Petrology 56, 919-952. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/petrology/egv022

Heinonen, J.S., Carlson, R.W., Riley, T.R., Luttinen, A.V., Horan, M.F. 2014. Subduction-modified oceanic crust mixed with a depleted mantle reservoir in the sources of the Karoo continental flood basalt province. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 394, 229-241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.03.012

Heinonen, J.S., Luttinen, A.V., Riley, T.R., Michallik, R.M. 2013. Mixed pyroxenite–peridotite sources for mafic and ultramafic dikes from the Antarctic segment of the Karoo continental flood basalt province. Lithos 177, 366–380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2013.05.015