TAPP
TAPP research group
Terrestrial and Planetary Petrology
University of Cape Town
Welcome ● Wamkelekile ● Welkom
Our research group focuses on the petrology and economic geology of a wide range of rock types and tectonic settings from kimberlites to continental flood basalts to magmatism on Mars and the Moon. We are primarily interested in constraining the evolution of primitive mantle-derived magmas en route to the surface from their mantle source.
TAPP group news
Chad graduates with a PhD
Congratulations to Dr. Chad Peel who graduated with a PhD at the April 2025 graduation ceremony.
Superdeep diamond morphology
Using the John J. Gurney Diamond collection at UCT, we have recently developed a new project using diamond morphology and surface etch features to constrain the origin of 'superdeep' diamonds. This project is being development with our collaborators Yana Fedortchouk and Ingrid Chinn who recently visited our lab.
Image right: Superdeep diamonds from Brazil mounted on a glass slide covered by carbon tap being loaded into the SEM for high magnification imaging.
New group members in 2025
Sihle and Anele join the team in 2025. They are working on projects characterising diamond morphology and breakage features.
Here they are sorting diamonds for their projects.
