Carlson overlooking a newly discovered volcanic cone at the head of the Gitchigan River valley (photo by Dmitri Ionov).

Staff scientist Richard Carlson, along with Dmitri Ionov of the Université Jean Monnet, spent two weeks in Mongolia in late July sampling mantle xenoliths and the many thick sequences of young basalts in the Hangay Plateau. At altitudes exceeding 3000 m and with abundant recent faulting and volcanism, the Hangay Plateau stands out within the large Asian continent as a region of unusual geological activity far removed from any plate boundary. Carlson’s fieldwork was part of an NSF-supported collaborative project to understand why this region is so active.

Carrying 100 kg of mantle peridotites recovered from the Shavaryn-Tsaram volcano at an altitude of 2400 m proved to be challenging. Those samples will provide Carlson and Ionov with abundant research material.

Carlson packing the rock collection in the hotel parking lot in Ulaanbaatar (photo by Dmitri Ionov).