Matthew Leybourne

Background

About Matthew Leybourne

My research focus in my career to date has been directed primarily at the geochemistry of igneous rocks, hydrothermal fluids and groundwater and water-rock interactions. My research is based on fieldwork, laboratory analyses (including petrography, major and trace elements, mineral chemistry, stable [Se, O, H, S, C, B] and radiogenic [Sr, Nd, Pb, tritium] isotopes), and geochemical modeling. More specifically, I use geochemistry to increase our understanding of igneous petrogenesis, the controls on water composition (water-rock reaction, weathering and supergene oxidation of mineral deposits), mobility and transport of trace metals and metalloids in solution (both hydrothermal and low temperature), and mechanisms of species attenuation in both ground and surface water environments. Most of my research has focused on volcanic, hydrothermal and groundwater systems associated with undisturbed ore deposits. Ultimately, the composition of hydrothermal fluids and groundwaters are controlled by the rocks they interact with, which in turn controls the style of mineralization during ore formation and how ore deposits weather and are expressed in the surrounding environment.