Xuefei Fan

Xuefei Fan completed her BSc in geology at the University of Toronto (Canada) in 2021, where she was awarded the Wesley Tate scholarship and Coleman gold medal for the top GPA of her graduating class. During her time as an undergrad, she worked on high-grade metamorphic rocks from the Grenville Province under the guidance of Dr. Xu Chu. This project naturally led to her MSc studies co-advised by Drs. Xu Chu and Corliss Sio at the University of Toronto, where she carried on her studies on the Grenville and branched out to method development and applications of non-traditional isotopes.

In January 2023, Xuefei started her PhD in the Non-Traditional Isotope Laboratory at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) with Dr. Fang-Zhen Teng. Her PhD work focuses on using metal stable isotopes such as Mg and K to trace subduction zone processes. Her first project is a survey of Mg isotopic compositions of global subduction zone lavas. This work revealed that the common occurrence of high δ²⁶Mg arc lavas is likely a result of flux melting of the mantle wedge triggered by hydrous mineral breakdown in the mantle wedge. While Mg isotopes record the source mineralogy and melting reaction of the mantle wedge, her ongoing project will use K isotopes to study the mechanisms of subducting slab input to the mantle, zooming into the Central America Volcanic Arc. Understanding the petrogenesis of arc lavas is a critical step to decipher the enigmatic origin of the continental crust.