My research primarily focuses on using elemental and isotopic data on volcanic rocks and minerals to understand: (a) details of melt generation in different tectonic environments, (b) details of magma transport/storage/modification in the crust.

Research areas have included continental flood basalts (Paraná-Etendeka, East Greenland), subduction zones (Izu-Bonin-Marianas, Vanuatu, Lau Basin), and ocean islands (Iceland, Cape Verde). Recent work has focused on the off-axis alkaline magmatism of western Iceland, the post-spreading magmatism and rifted margin of the South China Sea, the magmatic plumbing system of Mt Taranaki (New Zealand), and the Precambrian basement rocks of Iowa.

I am also interested in applications of geochemistry to addressing research problems in a broader range of subjects, such as impact cratering, sedimentary geochemistry, geoarchaeology, and environmental lead pollution. I use various analytical techniques available in the department and in the MATFab facility:

• (LA)-ICP-MS
• SEM
• EPMA
• pXRF
• XRF
• Petrographic microscope

Awards

• Distinguished Lecturer – Ocean Discovery Lecture Series, 2021. https://usoceandiscovery.org/david-peate
• Collegiate Teaching Award, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Iowa, 2014. https://clas.uiowa.edu/news/clas-announces-2013-2014-collegiate-teaching-awards#Peate
• Dean’s Scholar, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Iowa, 2009
• Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, University of Iowa – Scholar, Fall, 2007

Recent papers

McCarthy et al. (2023). The effect of variations in cooling rates on mineral compositions in mid-ocean ridge basalts. Chemical Geology 625, #121415.

Pearce JA, Ernst RE, Peate DW, Rogers C (2021). LIP printing: use of immobile element proxies to characterize Large Igneous Provinces in the geologic record. Lithos 392-393, #106068.

Burney D, Peate DW, Riishuus MR, Ukstins IA (2020). Reconstructing the plumbing system of an off-rift primtive alkaline tuya (Vatnafell, Iceland) using geothemobarometry and CSDs. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 399, #106914.

Halldorsson et al. (2018). Petrology and geochemistry of the 2014-2015 Holuhraun eruption, central Iceland: compositional and mineralogical characteristics, temporal variability, and magma storage. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 173, paper#64.

Larsen et al. (2018). South China Sea rifted margin records rapid transition from continental breakup to ocean crust formation. Nature Geoscience 11, 782-789.

Research interests

• Geochemistry
• Paleoenvironments
• Petrology