Rishya Owen-smith

Biography

Trishya Owen-Smith is an igneous petrologist and geochemist. She completed her PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2014, on the petrogenesis of the Doros layered mafic intrusion in Namibia. Subsequently, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam, Germany. She joined the Department of Geology at UJ in 2016.   Her previous research has centred on examining the magmatic products of Large Igneous Provinces—in the case of the Deccan Traps, alkaline intrusive magmatism in the Seychelles; in the Paraná-Etendeka Province, dyke swarms, intrusions and flood basalts in Namibia—to interpret their emplacement and evolution, as well as implications for mantle dynamics and continental break-up.

Research Interest

Mantle geochemistry and dynamics; magma differentiation and emplacement processes; early Earth evolution and tectonics; palaeoclimate and mass extinction events; planetary geology/cosmochemistry