seafloor spreading

Chris MacLeod is Professor of Geology in the School of Earth & Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University.

 

He has spent more than 30 years studying the ocean crust, at sea (13 expeditions - leading five - so far, in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans) but also working on land, in ‘ophiolites’: relict fragments of the basement of vanished oceans caught up in mountain belts such as the Sultanate of Oman and Cyprus.

 

He has published 80 scientific papers, written one book and edited two more on the formation of ocean crust at submarine ocean ridges.

 

He has been heavily involved in the management of scientific ocean drilling for a consortium of European countries. He is co-leader of an ongoing project that has commenced drilling of an ultra-deep borehole beneath the Indian Ocean floor, aiming ultimately to drill through the ‘Moho’ seismic boundary into the Earth’s mantle.