David Hilton, Ph.D.

scripps institution of oceanography

My research career to date has focused on rare gas isotopes and their application to a wide range of topics in Oceanography and the Earth Sciences. These topics include igneous petrology, mantle geodynamics (principally relating to hotspots), arc-related tectonics and volcanism, earthquake monitoring, hydrogeology and natural gas provenance.

In detail, my research involves exploiting a variety of natural media (hot springs, hydrothermal vents, fumaroles, groundwaters, natural gases, mineral separates, whole rocks) to establish temporal and spatial patterns in naturally-occurring isotopes. For the most part, I have concentrated on the chemically-inert rare gas isotopes because of their utility to discern physical processes (such as melting, partitioning, mixing, fractionation) occurring within the Earth's mantle and/or crust. However, co-variations (or lack thereof) between rare gases and other species (e.g. CO2, H2O, Sr isotopes) have also been major part of my research as they provide additional information on a variety of issues. In the following sections, I give more detail on my various research interests and activities.