Biography
I completed my BSc and MSc degrees at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. I received by PhD from the University of Manchester, where I studied the chemical composition of basalts for the island of El Hierro. Prior to coming to Cambridge, I was employed as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford.
Research
I'm an igneous petrologist and geochemist who primarily studies the chemical composition of basaltic magmas that erupt in various geodynamic settings on Earth, including ocean islands and subduction zones. Much of my work focusses on determining the concentration of volatile elements, particularly sulfur and carbon, in magmas prior to volcanic eruptions. I use these data to infer the volatile content of the Earth's mantle and gain a better understanding on the long-term geochemical cycling of volatiles in the Earth's mantle; the latter has fundamental importance to Earth’s climate and for the formation of critical metal deposits. Most of my research relies on the microanalyses of small droplets of glass often found in silicate crystals called melt inclusions.
Publications
Taracsák Z., Mather, T. A., Ding, S., Plank, T., Brounce, M., Pyle, D. M., & Aiuppa, A. (2023): Sulfur from the subducted slab dominates the sulfur budget of the mantle wedge under volcanic arcs. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 602:117948, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117948
Taracsák, Z., Longpré, M. A., Tartèse, R., Burgess, R., Edmonds, M., & Hartley, M. E. (2022): Highly oxidising conditions in volatile-rich El Hierro magmas: implications for ocean island magmatism. Journal of Petrology, 63(3):egac011, https://doi.org/10.1093/petrology/egac011
Taracsák Z., Neave D., Beaudry P., Gunnarson-Robin J., Burgess R., Edmonds M., Halldórsson S.A., Longpré M-A., Ono S., Ranta E., Stefánsson A., Turchyn A.V., EIMF, Hartley M.E (2021): Instrumental mass fractionation during sulfur isotope analysis by secondary ion mass spectrometry in natural and volcanic glasses. Chemical Geology, 578:120318, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2021.120318
Taracsák Z., Hartley M.E., Burgess R., Edmonds M., Iddon F., Longpré M-A. (2019): High fluxes of deep volatiles from ocean island volcanoes: Insights from El Hierro, Canary Islands. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 258:19-36, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.05.020
Kovács I., Patkó L., Liptai N., Lange. T, Taracsák Z., Cloetingh S.A.P.L., Török K., Király E., Karátson D., Biró T., Kiss J., Pálos Zs., Aradi L., Falus Gy., Hidas K., Berkesi M., Koptev A., Novák A., Wesztergom V., Fancsik T., Szabó Cs. (2020) The role of water and compression in the genesis of alkaline basalts: Inferences from the Carpathian-Pannonian Region. Lithos, 354-355:105323, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2019.105323
Jankovics M. E., Taracsák Z., Dobosi G., Embey-Isztin A., Batki A., Harangi S., Hauzenberger C.A. (2016): Clinopyroxene with diverse origins in alkaline basalts from the western Pannonian Basin: Implications from trace element characteristics. Lithos, 262:120-134, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2016.06.030
