Lithospheric mantle deformation
Deformation in the mantle controls the mechanical behavior of lithospheric plates, hence has fundamental impact on plate tectonics.
I investigated and continue research on deformation in mantle rocks in high strain tectonic settings such as shear zones and detachments, for example in ophiolites of New Caledonia and the eponymous Lherz Massif in France.
Oblique dike cutting through foliated harzburgite in the Bogota Peninsula, New Caledonia (Titus et al., 2011)
Contact between Jurassic carbonates (above spelunker) and lherzolites in the Gouffre Georges, France. This contact is a major detachment formed along a stretched passive continental margin (Asti et al., 2023).
Team of geoscientists from left to right (Michel de Saint Blanquat, Riccardo Asti and Eric Ferré) in Gouffre Georges, French Pyrenees at ~400 m depth (Asti et al., 2023).
Folded pyroxenite dike in foliated Twin Sisters dunite massif, WA, USA (Ferré et al., 2005)