Alan Cooper staff page, Our people, Department of Geology, University of Otago, New Zealand

Alan Cooper BSc(Sheff) PhD(Otago)

Office - Geology Gn8
alan.cooper@otago.ac.nz

Professor Alan F Cooper's Inaugural Professorial Lecture 2002

Research Interests

Metamorphic mineralogy & petrology of the Haast Schists
Petrogenesis of carbonatites
N.Z. lamprophyre dyke swarms
Alpine Fault structure and activity
Mantle petrology
Ross Orogen, Antarctica

Recent Postgraduate Student Supervision

Nathalie Lefebvre (2013) - Volcanological Factors Controlling the Diamond Distribution within Kimberlite Pipes Using Drill Core Information and Modern Analogues From Selected Pipes in the Attawapiskat Kimberlite Field, Northern Ontario, Canada and Hopi Buttes, Arizona, USA. (PhD)
Andreas Auer (2013)– Sedimentary response to debris avalanche and eruption at Mt Ruapehu (PhD)
Nic Barth (2013)- Comparative fault mechanics in quartzofeldspathic, mafic and ultramafic protoliths: a study of the Alpine Fault Zone in South Westland (PhD
Anne Ford (2012)- Pleistocene stone tool use at Kosipe, Papua New Guinea (PhD)
Nick Hogg (2011) On the edge: studying colonization and mobility in the Western Pacific (MSc)
Ben Teele (2011)- Chemical analysis of Lapita and Polynesian Plainware ceramics from Samoa in order to determine settlement mobility and changes that occur to Samoan settlement strategies over the first 1,000 years of occupation. (MA)
Sophie Briggs - Geology, petrology and geochemistry of the Alpine Dike Swarm north of the Haast River (BSc(Hons))
Giulia Airoldi - Magma transport and propagation of intrusive sheets, Ferrar Dolerite, Allan Hills and Solitary Rocks, Antarctica. (PhD)
Campbell Ryland - Geology, mineralisation, and structural evolution of the Bald Hill-Maori Saddle Region, South Westland, New Zealand (MSc)
Stephen Read – Koettlitz Glacier Alkaline Province: Late Neoproterozoic extension in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. (PhD)
Ake Fagereng - Subduction-related fault processes: Ancient and active. (PhD)
Adam Martin - Mount Morning volcanism, Antarctica (PhD)
Hanne-Kristen Paulsen - Volcanology, Mount Morning, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. (MSc)
Tim Popham - Pounamu and Scott Basin. (MSc)
James Scott- Petrology of Eastern Fiordland. (PhD)
Virginia Toy - Mylonites and pseudotachylytes found adjacent to the central Alpine Fault. (PhD)
Heather Campbell - The Alpine Fault at Jackson River, South Westland. (PhD)
Stefan Olsson - The dykes of the Dunedin Volcano; structural and petrological implications. (PhD)
Mark Walrond - Alpine Fault Structure. (PhD)
Anton Barber - Felsic magmatism and host metasediments of the Ross Orogeny at Reeves Bluff, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. (MSc)
John Cottle -Mafic magmatism in the Carlyon Glacier region, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. (MSc)
Doc Richardson - Metasediments and mafic intrusions of the Ross Orogeny, Mulock Glacier, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. (MSc)
Matthew Wynyard - Skelton Group metamorphism: structure and petrology. (MSc)

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Publications

Martin, A. P., Cooper, A. F., Price, R. C., Doherty, C. L., & Gamble, J. A. (2023). A review of mantle xenoliths in volcanic rocks from southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. In A. P. Martin & W. van der Wal (Eds.), The geochemistry and geophysics of the Antarctic mantle (Geological Society Memoir no. 56). (pp. 33-56). Bath, UK: Geological Society. doi: 10.1144/M56-2019-42

Tarling, M. S., Smith, S. A. F., Negrini, M., Kuo, L.-W., Wu, W.-H., & Cooper, A. F. (2022). An evolutionary model and classification scheme for nephrite jade based on veining, fabric development, and the role of dissolution-precipitation. Scientific Reports, 12, 7823. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-11560-7

Cooper, A. F. (2022). Origin and evolution of nephrites, diopsidites and giant diopside crystals from the contact zones of the Pounamu Ultramafics, Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2022.2050771

Scott, J. M., Pearson, D. G., Liu, J., Auer, A., Cooper, A. F., Li, D., Palmer, M. C., Read, S. E., Reid, M. R., & Woodland, S. J. (2021). Osmium isotopes in peridotite xenoliths reveal major mid-Proterozoic lithosphere formation under the Transantarctic Mountains. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 312, 25-43. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2021.08.009

Cooper, A. F., Reay, A., Ireland, T. R., & Norman, M. D. (2020). Cretaceous molybdenite in metasomatic epidosite associated with the Pounamu ophiolite, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 63(2), 227-236. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2019.1691018

Graham, I. J., Skinner, D. N. B., Isaac, M. J., Cooper, R. A., Mortimer, N., Cooper, A. F., … Carter, L., Fordyce, R. E., … Johnston, M. R. (Eds.). (2008). A continent on the move: New Zealand geoscience into the 21st century. Wellington, New Zealand: Geological Society of New Zealand and GNS Science, 377p.

Edited Book - Research

Chapter in Book - Research

Eberhart-Phillips, D., Sutherland, R., Eberhart-Phillips, D., Harris, R. A., Stern, T., Beavan, J., … Cox, S., Norris, R. J., … Cooper, A. F., … Stirling, M. (2007). Do great earthquakes occur on the Alpine fault in central South Island, New Zealand. In D. Okaya, T. Stern & F. Davey (Eds.), A continental plate boundary: Tectonics at South Island, New Zealand. (pp. 235-251). Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union. doi: 10.1029/175GM12

Chapter in Book - Research

Norris, R. J., & Cooper, A. F. (2007). The Alpine Fault, New Zealand: Surface geology and field relationships. In D. Okaya, T. Stern & F. Davey (Eds.), A continental plate boundary: Tectonics at South Island, New Zealand. (pp. 157-175). Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union.

Chapter in Book - Research

Cooper, A. F., Worley, B. A., Armstrong, R., & Price, R. C. (1997). Synorogenic Alkaline and Carbonatitic Magmatism in the Transantarctic Mountains of South Victoria Land, Antarctica. In C. A. Ricci (Ed.), The Antarctic Region: Geological Evolution and Processes. (pp. 245-252). Siena: Terra Antartica Publication.

Chapter in Book - Research

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F. (2020). Petrology and petrogenesis of an intraplate alkaline lamprophyre-phonolite-carbonatite association in the Alpine Dyke Swarm, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 63(4), 469-488. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2019.1684324

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., & Palin, J. M. (2018). Two-sided accretion and polyphase metamorphism in the Haast Schist belt, New Zealand: Constraints from detrital zircon geochronology. GSA Bulletin, 130(9-10), 1501-1518. doi: 10.1130/b31826.1

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., Price, R. C., & Reay, A. (2018). Geochemistry and origin of a Mesozoic ophiolite: The Pounamu Ultramafics, Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 61(4), 444-460. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2018.1494005

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., & Norris, R. J. (2017). Structural evolution of the semischist–schist transition in an accretionary complex: The Otago Schist section at Lake Hāwea, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 60(3), 296-313. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2017.1331916

Journal - Research Article

Sutherland, R., Townend, J., Toy, V., Upton, P., Coussens, J., Allen, M., … Becroft, L., … Cooper, A., … Cox, S., Craw, L., … Grieve, J., … Kirilova, M., … Lukacs, A., … Mathewson, L., … Prior, D., Sauer, K., … Williams, J., … Zimmer, M. (2017). Extreme hydrothermal conditions at an active plate-bounding fault. Nature, 546, 137-140. doi: 10.1038/nature22355

Journal - Research Article

Townend, J., Sutherland, R., Toy, V. G., Doan, M.-L., Célérier, B., Massiot, C., … Williams, J., … Cooper, A., … Craw, L., … Kirilova, M., … Lukacs, A., … Prior, D. J., Sauer, K., … Zimmer, M. (2017). Petrophysical, geochemical, and hydrological evidence for extensive fracture-mediated fluid and heat transport in the Alpine Fault's hanging-wall damage zone. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 18(12), 4709-4732. doi: 10.1002/2017GC007202

Journal - Research Article

Toy, V. G., Sutherland, R., Townend, J., Allen, M. J., Becroft, L., Boles, A., … Cooper, A., … Kirilova, M., … Norris, R., Prior, D., Sauer, K., … Williams, J., Yeo, S., … Craw, L., … Marx, R., … Pooley, B., … & DFDP-2 Science Team. (2017). Bedrock geology of DFDP-2B, central Alpine Fault, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 60(4), 497-518. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2017.1375533

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., Palin, J. M., & Collins, A. K. (2016). Fenitization of metabasic rocks by ferrocarbonatites at Haast River, New Zealand. Lithos, 244, 109-121. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2015.11.035

Journal - Research Article

Hagen-Peter, G., Cottle, J. M., Smit, M., & Cooper, A. F. (2016). Coupled garnet Lu–Hf and monazite U–Pb geochronology constrain early convergent margin dynamics in the Ross orogen, Antarctica. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 34(4), 293-319. doi: 10.1111/jmg.12182

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Brenna, M., Crase, J. A., Waight, T. E., van der Meer, Q., Cooper, A. F., Palin, J. M., … Münker, C. (2016). Peridotitic lithosphere metasomatized by volatile-bearing melts, and its association with intraplate alkaline HIMU-like magmatism. Journal of Petrology, 57(10), 2053-2078. doi: 10.1093/petrology/egw069

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., & Ireland, T. R. (2015). The Pounamu terrane, a new Cretaceous exotic terrane within the Alpine Schist, New Zealand: Tectonically emplaced, deformed and metamorphosed during collision of the LIP Hikurangi Plateau with Zealandia. Gondwana Research, 27(3), 1255-1269. doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2013.11.011

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., Collins, A. K., Palin, J. M., & Spratt, J. (2015). Mineralogical evolution and REE mobility during crystallisation of ancylite-bearing ferrocarbonatite, Haast River, New Zealand. Lithos, 216-217, 324-337. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2015.01.005

Journal - Research Article

Martin, A. P., Cooper, A. F., Price, R. C., Turnbull, R. E., & Roberts, N. M. W. (2015). The petrology, geochronology and significance of Granite Harbour Intrusive Complex xenoliths and outcrop sampled in western McMurdo Sound, Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 58(1), 33-51. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2014.982660

Journal - Research Article

Martin, A. P., Price, R. C., Cooper, A. F., & McCammon, C. A. (2015). Petrogenesis of the rifted Southern Victoria land lithospheric mantle, Antarctica, inferred from petrography, geochemistry, thermobarometry and oxybarometry of peridotite and pyroxenite xenoliths from the Mount Morning eruptive centre. Journal of Petrology, 56(1), 193-226. doi: 10.1093/petrology/egu075

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Auer, A., Czertowicz, T. A., Cooper, A. F., Billia, M. A., & Kennedy, A. K. (2015). New P–T and U–Pb constraints on Alpine Schist metamorphism in south Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 58(4), 385-397. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2015.1093005

Journal - Research Article

Martin, A. P., Cooper, A. F., & Price, R. C. (2014). Increased mantle heat flow with on-going rifting of the West Antarctic rift system inferred from characterisation of plagioclase peridotite in the shallow Antarctic mantle. Lithos, 190-191, 173-190. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2013.12.012

Journal - Research Article

Martin, A. P., Price, R. C., & Cooper, A. F. (2014). Constraints on the composition, source and petrogenesis of plagioclase-bearing mantle peridotite. Earth-Science Reviews, 138, 89-101. doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2014.08.006

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Hodgkinson, A., Palin, J. M., Waight, T. E., Van der Meer, Q. H. A., & Cooper, A. F. (2014). Ancient melt depletion overprinted by young carbonatitic metasomatism in the New Zealand lithospheric mantle. Contributions to Mineralogy & Petrology, 167, 963. doi: 10.1007/s00410-014-0963-0

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Waight, T. E., van der Meer, Q. H. A., Palin, J. M., Cooper, A. F., & Münker, C. (2014). Metasomatized ancient lithospheric mantle beneath the young Zealandia microcontinent and its role in HIMU-like intraplate magmatism. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 15(9), 3477-3501. doi: 10.1002/2014GC005300

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., & Ireland, T. R. (2013). Cretaceous sedimentation and metamorphism of the western Alpine Schist protoliths associated with the Pounamu Ultramafic Belt, Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 56(4), 188-199. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2013.809776

Journal - Research Article

Martin, A. P., Cooper, A. F., & Price, R. C. (2013). Petrogenesis of Cenozoic, alkalic volcanic lineages at Mount Morning, West Antarctica and their entrained lithospheric mantle xenoliths: Lithospheric versus asthenospheric mantle sources. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 122, 127-152. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2013.08.025

Journal - Research Article

Mortimer, N., Nathan, S., Jongens, R., Kawachi, Y., Ryland, C., Cooper, A. F., … Randall, S. (2013). Regional metamorphism of the early Palaeozoic Greenland Group, South Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 56(1), 1-15. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2012.734830

Journal - Research Article

Toy, V. G., Norris, R. J., Prior, D. J., Walrond, M., & Cooper, A. F. (2013). How do lineations reflect the strain history of transpressive shear zones? The example of the active Alpine Fault zone, New Zealand. Journal of Structural Geology, 50, 187-198. doi: 10.1016/j.jsg.2012.06.006

Journal - Research Article

Van der Meer, Q. H. A., Scott, J. M., Waight, T. E., Sudo, M., Scherstén, A., Cooper, A. F., & Spell, T. L. (2013). Magmatism during Gondwana break-up: New geochronological data from Westland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 56(4), 229-242. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2013.826699

Journal - Research Article

Berryman, K., Cooper, A., Norris, R., Villamor, P., Sutherland, R., Wright, T., … Biasi, G. (2012). Late Holocene rupture history of the alpine fault in South Westland, New Zealand. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 102(2), 620-638. doi: 10.1785/0120110177

Journal - Research Article

Toy, V. G., Prior, D. J., Norris, R. J., Cooper, A. F., & Walrond, M. (2012). Relationships between kinematic indicators and strain during syn-deformational exhumation of an oblique slip, transpressive, plate boundary shear zone: The Alpine Fault, New Zealand. Earth & Planetary Science Letters, 333-334, 282-292. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.04.037

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., & Norris, R. J. (2011). Inverted metamorphic sequences in Alpine fault mylonites produced by oblique shear within a plate boundary fault zone, New Zealand. Geology, 39(11), 1023-1026. doi: 10.1130/G32273.1

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., Boztuğ, D., Palin, J. M., Martin, C. E., & Numata, M. (2011). Petrology and petrogenesis of carbonatitic rocks in syenites from central Anatolia, Turkey. Contributions to Mineralogy & Petrology, 161(5), 811-828. doi: 10.1007/s00410-010-0566-3

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., Maas, R., Scott, J. M., & Barber, A. J. W. (2011). Dating of volcanism and sedimentation in the Skelton Group, Transantarctic Mountains: Implications for the Rodinia-Gondwana transition in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 123(3/4), 681-702. doi: 10.1130/B30237.1

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Cooper, A. F., Tulloch, A. J., & Spell, T. L. (2011). Crustal thickening of the Early Cretaceous paleo-Pacific Gondwana margin. Gondwana Research, 20(2-3), 380-394. doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2010.10.008

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Palin, J. M., Cooper, A. F., Sagar, M. W., Allibone, A. H., & Tulloch, A. J. (2011). From richer to poorer: Zircon inheritance in Pomona Island Granite, New Zealand. Contributions to Mineralogy & Petrology, 161(5), 667-681. doi: 10.1007/s00410-010-0556-5

Journal - Research Article

Fagereng, Å., & Cooper, A. F. (2010). Petrology of metabasalts from the Chrystalls Beach accretionary melange: Implications for tectonic setting and terrane origin. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 53(1), 57-70. doi: 10.1080/00288301003631806

Journal - Research Article

Fagereng, Å., & Cooper, A. F. (2010). The metamorphic history of rocks buried, accreted and exhumed in an accretionary prism: An example from the Otago Schist, New Zealand. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 28(9), 935-954. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1314.2010.00900.x

Journal - Research Article

Martin, A. P., & Cooper, A. F. (2010). Post 3.9 Ma fault activity within the West Antarctic rift system: Onshore evidence from Gandalf Ridge, Mount Morning eruptive centre, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 22(5), 513-521. doi: 10.1017/S095410201000026X

Journal - Research Article

Martin, A. P., Cooper, A. F., & Dunlap, W. J. (2010). Geochronology of Mount Morning, Antarctica: Two-phase evolution of a long-lived trachyte-basanite-phonolite eruptive center. Bulletin of Volcanology, 72(3), 357-371. doi: 10.1007/s00445-009-0319-1

Journal - Research Article

Toy, V. G., Craw, D., Cooper, A. F., & Norris, R. J. (2010). Thermal regime in the central Alpine Fault zone, New Zealand: Constraints from microstructures, biotite chemistry and fluid inclusion data. Tectonophysics, 485, 178-192. doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2009.12.013

Journal - Research Article

Allibone, A. H., Jongens, R., Scott, J. M., Tulloch, A. J., Turnbull, I. M., Cooper, A. F., Powell, N. G., Ladley, E. B., … Rattenbury, M. S. (2009). Plutonic rocks of the Median Batholith in eastern and central Fiordland, New Zealand: Field relations, geochemistry, correlation, and nomenclature. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 52(2), 101-148. doi: 10.1080/00288300909509882

Journal - Research Article

Cooper, A. F., & Beck, R. J. (2009). River capture and Main Divide migration in the Haast River catchment assessed from the fluvial distribution of sodalite-bearing dike rocks and fenites. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 52(1), 27-36. doi: 10.1080/00288300909509875

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Cooper, A. F., & Palin, J. M. (2009). Beehive Diorite: A Late Jurassic two-pyroxene pluton at Lake Manapouri, Fiordland. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 52(2), 59-65. doi: 10.1080/00288300809509852

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Cooper, A. F., Palin, J. M., Tulloch, A. J., Kula, J., Jongens, R., … Pearson, N. J. (2009). Tracking the influence of a continental margin on growth of a magmatic arc, Fiordland, New Zealand, using thermobarometry, thermochronology, and zircon U-Pb and Hf isotopes. Tectonics, 28, TC6007. doi: 10.1029/2009tc002489

Journal - Research Article

Scott, J. M., Palin, J. M., & Cooper, A. F. (2009). A younger age constraint on high-grade metamorphism near George Sound in Fiordland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 52(2), 67-71. doi: 10.1080/00288300909509879

Journal - Research Article

More publications...

Emeritus Professor Alan F Cooper

Research Interests

Recent Postgraduate Student Supervision

Publications