Adam Kent is the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Faculty Advancement. Working closely with CEOAS leadership and faculty, Kent oversees graduate academic programs, identifies and coordinates faculty advancement and mentoring opportunities, and assists with long‐range planning, including new faculty hires. He also coordinates activities associated with promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within the college. Kent studies the behavior and evolution of magmatic and volcanic systems. He earned his Ph.D. in geology and geochemistry from the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Specialty

High temperature geochemistry, Igneous petrology, In-situ elemental and isotopic analysis

Research Interests

Behavior and evolution of magmatic and volcanic systems. Studies of silicate melt inclusions. Development and application of in-situ trace element and isotopic measurement techniques in the Earth Sciences.

Education

B.Sc. (Hons) Geology , University of New England, Australia, 1989
Ph.D. Geology and Geochemistry, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 1995

Courses

GEO 203 - Evolution of Planet Earth
GEO 412/512 - Igneous Petrology
GEO 430/530 - Geochemistry
GEO 535 - Geochemical Analysis Techniques
GEO 622 - Advanced Petrology

Graduate Students

Completed

Jeremiah Oxford, MS, 2006: Early Oligocene Intrusions in the Central Coast Range of Oregon: Petrography, Geochemistry, Geochronology and Implications for the Tertiary Magmatic Evolution of the Cascadia Forearc (Lecturer at Western Oregon University)

Cristina Darr, MS, 2006: Magma Chamber Processes Over the Past 475,000 Years at Mount Hood, Oregon: Insights From Crystal Zoning and Crystal Size Distribution Studies

Dr. Michael Rowe, PhD, 2006: Microanalytical and experimental techniques for interpreting magma genesis in the Cascadia Subduction Zone (Associate Professor, University of Auckland)

Ashley Hatfield, MS, 2008: The age and origin of Snow Peak, Oregon

Dr. Allison Weinsteiger, Ph.D. 2010: MORB and ocean crust formation processes, Melt inclusion formation

Dr. Alison Koleszar, Ph.D. 2011: Volatile contents, eruptive controls and petrology of Mount Hood andesites (Senior Lecturer in Geology, Colgate University)

Dr. Morgan Salisbury, Ph.D. 2011: Ignimbrite correlation in the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex; Tunupa Volcano, Bolivia; Sumatran tephras (Earth Science Instructor, Lower Columbia College)

Matt Loewen, M.S. 2011: Measurement of volatile metals using LA-ICP-MS, Mobility of volatile metals in volcanic systems (Research Geologist, Alaska Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey)

Daniel Eungard, M.S. 2012: Early high Cascade silicic volcanism : analysis of the McKenzie Canyon and Lower Bridge tuff 

Dr. Matthew Loewen, Ph.D. 2013: Volatile Mobility of Trace Metals in Volcanic Systems. (Research Geologist, Alaska Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey)

Christine Chan, M.S., 2012: Constructing a sheeted magmatic complex within the lower arc crust: insights from the Tenpeak pluton, North Cascades, Washington. (Research Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

Allan Lerner, M.S. 2015: Insights into the Geochemical Evolution of the Youngest Toba Tuff (Sumatra, Indonesia) Magma Chamber Through the Lens of Zircon-hosted Melt Inclusions (Research Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey)

Jenny DiGiulio, M.S. 2015, Reconstructing the Physical Record of a Four-Million-Year Volcanic System: Geochemistry, Thermobarometry, and Geologic Map of the Mount Jefferson Area, Oregon 

Dr. Richard Bradshaw, Ph.D. 2017, Crystal Records of the Origin, Evolution, and Thermal Histories of Magmas.

Dr. Brad Pitcher, Ph.D. 2017, The Deschutes Formation: evidence of extension-enhanced explosivity in the early High Cascades. (Lecturer, Columbia University).

Shyam das Toké, M.S. 2019, Age-morphology relations in Central Oregon cinder cones.

Suhail Alhejji, M.S. 2019, Origin of magmas from Harrat Ithnayn, Saudi Arabia

Nicole Rocco, M.S. 2020, Heterogeneity of magma supply over a single caldera cycle, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand (Analyst, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

Dr. Jordan Lubbers, Ph.D. 2021, Thermochemical Storage Conditions of Caldera Forming Magmatic Systems Revealed by Diffusion Chronometry. (USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow, Alaska Volcano Observatory)

Dr. Thi Truong, Ph.D. 2023, Revisiting Lo‘ihi: Geochemistry of Kama‘ehuakanaloa lavas reveals complexities in the pre-shield to shield transition and Hawaiian mantle plume source (postdoctoral fellow, University of California at Riverside)

Current

Suhail Alhejji, Ph.D. current, Origin of volcanism in the Saudi Harrats.

Jennifer McCleod, Ph.D. current, The Tumalo Volcanic Center, Oregon.

Sophia Wang, PhD. current. Magmatic processes at Crater Lake, Oregon

Bennet Van Horn, PhD. Radiogenic isotope variations along the Aleutian Arc

Selected Recent Publications

1. KENT, A.J.R. (2008) Melt inclusions in basaltic and associated volcanic rocks. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 69,173-231.
2. KENT, A.J.R., DARR, C., KOLESZAR, A.K., SALISBURY, M.J. & COOPER, K.M. (2010) Preferential eruption of andesite magmas through recharge filtering. Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/NGEO924.
3. KENT, A.J.R. (2014) Preferential eruption of andesitic magmas: Implications for volcanic magma fluxes at convergent margins. Geological Society of London, Special Publication 385, doi:10.1144/SP385.10.
4. COOPER, K.M. & KENT, A.J.R. (2014) Rapid remobilisation of magmatic crystals kept in cold storage. Nature doi:10.1038/nature12991.
5. BRADSHAW, R. & KENT, A.J.R. (2017) The analytical limits of modeling short diffusion timescales Chemical Geology, doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2017.07.018.
6. RUBIN, A.E., COOPER, K.M., TILL, C.B., KENT, A.J.R., COSTA, F, GRAVLEY, D., DEERING, C., & COLE, J. (2017) Rapid cooling and cold storage in a silicic magma reservoir recorded within individual crystals Science, 356, 1154-1156
7. KENT, A.J.R. & COOPER, K.M. (2018) How well do zircons record the thermal histories of magmatic systems? Geology, doi:10.1130/G39690.1
8. TILL, C.B, KENT, A.J.R., ABERS, G., JANISZEWSKI, H., GAHERTY, J., PITCHER, B (2019) Towards Assessing the Causes of Volcanic Diversity at the Arc Scale. Nature Communications 10, 1350.
9. PITCHER, B. & KENT, A.J.R. (2019) Statistics and segmentation: Using Big Data to assess Cascades Arc compositional variability. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 265, 443-467, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2019.08.035.
10. LUBBERS, J.E., KENT, A.J.R., & DE SILVA, S. (2022) Thermal budgets of magma storage constrained by diffusion chronometry: the Cerro Galán ignimbrite. Journal of Petrology 63, doi:10.1093/petrology/egac048.
11. WIESER,, P.E., PETRELLI, M., LUBBERS, J.E., WIESER, E., KENT, A.J.R., TILL, C.B. (2022) Thermobar: An Open-Source Python3 Tool for Thermobarometry and Hygrometry. Volcanica, 5, 349–384. doi.org/10.30909/vol.05.02.349384.
12. KENT, A.J.R. (2022) Quaternary volcanism in the Cascades. Elements 18, 232-228. doi:10.2138/gselements.18.4.232
    WIESER,, P.E., KENT, A.J.R., TILL, C.B., DONOVAN, J., NEAVE, D.A., BLATTER, D., & KRAWCZYNSKI, M.J. (2023) Barometers behaving badly I: Assessing the influence of analytical and experimental uncertainty on clinopyroxene thermobarometry calculations at crustal conditions. Journal of Petrology 64. doi:10.1093/petrology/egac126.
13. LUBBER, J.E., KENT, A.J.R., MEIESENHEIMER, D. & WILDENSCHILD, D. (2023) 3D zoning of barium in alkali feldspar. American Mineralogist 108, 297–311. doi:10.2138/am-2022-8139.
14. PITCHER, B., KENT, A.J.R., & GRUNDER, A.L. (2023) Geochemical Evidence for an Extension-driven Ignimbrite Flare-up recorded in the Deschutes Formation, Central Oregon. Journal of Petrology, 64, 1–30. doi:10.1093/petrology/egad058.
15. WIESER,, P.E., KENT, A.J.R., & TILL, C.B. (2023) Barometers behaving badly II: A critical evaluation of Cpx-only and Cpx-Liq thermobarometry in variably-hydrous arc magmas. Journal of Petrology, 64, 1-25. doi:10.1093/petrology/egad050.
16. KENT, A.J.R., TILL, C.B., & COOPER, K.M. (2023) Start me up: The relationship between volcanic eruption characteristics and eruption initiation mechanisms. Volcanica, 6, 161–172. doi:10.30909/vol.06.02.161172.
17. WIESER, P.E., KENT, A.J.R., TiILL, C.B., & ABERS, G.A. (2023) Geophysical and Geochemical Constraints on Magma Storage Depths along the Cascade Arc: Knowns and Unknowns. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24, e2023GC011025. doi:10.1029/2023GC011025
18. LUBBERS, J.E., KENT, A.J.R., & DE SILVA, S. (2024) Constraining magma storage conditions of the Toba magmatic system: a plagioclase and amphibole perspective. (in press, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology).

OSU VIPER (Volcanology, Igneous Petrology and Economic geology Research) Website

W.M. Keck Collaboratory for Plasma Spectrometry Website