Rate My Professor Jasmine Mawson

Jasmine Mawson completed her academic training in the Department of Geology at the University of Otago. In 2016, she earned a BSc (Hons) through research on the paleomagnetism of the Waipiata Volcanics at Mt Mackenzie, conducted at the Paleomagnetic Research Facility. She then obtained her Master of Science degree in 2018 with a thesis titled 'Submarine Eruptive Processes in the Brook St Terrane at Colac Bay, Southland, New Zealand.' This work focused on volcaniclastic and coherent volcanic rocks of the Permian island arc Brook Street Terrane cropping out along the Southland coast near Riverton. Extensive along-strike exposures revealed lateral variations in submarine deposits, providing insights into arc environments within a thin slice of time.

Mawson's research resulted in the lead-authored publication 'Contemporaneously emplaced submarine volcaniclastic deposits and pillow lavas from multiple sources in the island arc Brook Street Terrane, Southland, New Zealand' in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics in 2020. The study described pillow lavas, dikes, hydroclastic breccias, tuffs, lapilli tuffs, and argillites, all hydrothermally altered and metamorphosed to prehnite-pumpellyite facies. Trace element geochemical data indicated multiple primitive island arc to MORB-like magma sources from separate volcanic centres tapping different mantle domains transitional between arc and back-arc. Tuff and lapilli tuff formed as hyaloclastite during pillow lava eruptions and were redeposited by subaqueous mass flows. Peperitic contacts showed lavas intruding unconsolidated volcaniclastic deposits, with hydroclastic debris intruded by later pillows leading to local peperite formation as eruptions persisted. Periodic turbidity currents delivered fine-grained material from the main volcano vent. Mawson also compiled geological data for the Transantarctic Mountains and northern Victoria Land in the GeoMAP project, contributing to the 2023 Scientific Data publication 'A continent-wide detailed geological map dataset of Antarctica.' She currently holds the position of Knowledgebase Administrator at AskOtago, University of Otago.