Professor Simon Kohn

Summary

My research is aimed at understanding the materials that control large scale processes in the Earth’s mantle and crust. Most of my work involves a combination of high-pressure and temperature experiments and analytical or spectroscopic measurements.

I have a long-standing interest in understanding the interactions between volatile components and silicate minerals and melts. Such work has wide application to understanding the degassing and eruptive style of volcanoes, the physical properties (e.g. density and viscosity) of magmas and mantle melting. Similarly small amounts of volatile components can have a disproportionately large effect on the properties of the mantle, so knowledge of their concentration and distribution in the mantle is crucial for understanding global geodynamics.

Most recently I have become fascinated by the potential of diamonds and their inclusions to elucidate the structure and composition of the deep Earth. I am particularly interested in integrating measurements of defect concentrations in diamonds with data on inclusion compositions, isotopic ratios, diamond internal morphologies and age determinations.

Teaching

I currently teach two units, have tutorial groups and run a 1-day field trip to the Mendips.

Keywords

• minerals
• melts
• fluids
• the Earth
• magma
• Volcanology

Memberships

Organisations

School of Earth Sciences

Earth Sciences staff

• Earth Sciences academic staff including research fellows

Research groups

• Petrology

Research themes

• Dynamics and Architecture of the Solid Earth

Recent publications

• Kemppinen, LI, Kohn, SC, Parkinson, IJ, Bulanova, GP, Howell, D & Smith, CB, 2018, ‘Identification of molybdenite in diamond-hosted sulphide inclusions: Implications for Re–Os radiometric dating’. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol 495., pp. 101-111
• Speich, L, Kohn, SC, Bulanova, GP & Smith, CB, 2018, ‘The behaviour of platelets in natural diamonds and the development of a new mantle thermometer’. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, vol 173.
• Gress, MU, Howell, D, Chinn, IL, Speich, L, Kohn, SC, Heuvel, QvD, Schulten, E, Pals, AS & Davies, GR, 2018, ‘Episodic diamond growth beneath the Kaapvaal Craton at Jwaneng Mine, Botswana’. Mineralogy and Petrology.
• Grützner, T, Kohn, SC, Bromiley, DW, Rohrbach, A, Berndt, J & Klemme, S, 2017, ‘The storage capacity of fluorine in olivine and pyroxene under upper mantle conditions’. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol 208., pp. 160-170
• Bromiley, GD, Brooke, J & Kohn, SC, 2017, ‘Hydrogen and deuterium diffusion in non-stoichiometric spinel’. High Pressure Research, vol 37., pp. 360-376
• Jiang, B, Zhao, T, Regnault, S, Edwards, NP, Kohn, SC, Li, Z, Wogelius, RA, Benton, MJ & Hutchinson, JR, 2017, ‘Cellular preservation of musculoskeletal specializations in the Cretaceous bird Confuciusornis’. Nature Communications, vol 8.
• Speich, L, Kohn, S, Wirth, R, Bulanova, G & Smith, C, 2017, ‘The relationship between platelet size and the B′ infrared peak of natural diamonds revisited’. Lithos, vol 278-281., pp. 419?426
• Drewitt, J, Barnes, A, Jahn, S, Kohn, S, Walter, M, Novikov, A, Neuville, DR, Fischer, HE & Hennet, L, 2017, ‘Structure of liquid tricalcium aluminate’. Physical Review B, vol 95.
• Burnham, A, Bulanova, G, Smith, C, Whitehead, S, Kohn, S, Gobbo, L & Walter, M, 2016, ‘Diamonds from the Machado River alluvial deposit, Rondônia, Brazil, derived from both lithospheric and sublithospheric mantle’. Lithos, vol 265., pp. 199-213
• Thomson, AR, Walter, MJ, Kohn, SC & Brooker, RA, 2016, ‘Slab melting as a barrier to deep carbon subduction’. Nature, vol 529., pp. 76-79

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

Courses

Professor Kohn currently teaches 2 courses: