Antoniette G. Grima

GD Geodynamics

The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Antoniette G. Grima for the poster/PICO entitled:

Mid-Mantle Orphan Slabs (Grima, A. G.; Lithgow-Bertelloni, C.; Crameri, F.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Antoniette Greta Grima is reading for a PhD in Earth Sciences at the University College London (UCL) under the supervision of Prof. Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni and the mentorship of Dr. Fabio Crameri. Her research focuses on the relationship between the subducted slab, the mantle transition zone and the resulting surface deformation.
For the 2018 EGU general assembly meeting, Antoniette presented a poster on Orphan Slabs. This new term describes a process whereby slab break-off occurs directly at mid-mantle depths, as opposed to the shallow break-off generally proposed for the slab fragments seen in tomography. Slab orphaning allows for deep fragmentation without the need of subduction cessation and/or complex surface kinematics. This has direct implications for plate tectonic reconstruction models and for the tectonic interpretation of complex systems such as the Tonga and Farallon subductions.