Damon Teagle is a Professor of Geochemistry in the School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton at the University of Southampton and Director of the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute. He is also the chair of the NERC UK-IODP Programme Advisory Group, Co-Lead PI ICDP Oman Drilling Project and Chair of the OmanDP Sample Allocation Committee. He completed his graduate studies on Geology at the University of Otago, where he also obtained his postgraduate degree with dissertation on the topic “The structural controls of Gold Mineralisation in the Hyde-Macraes Shear-zone, East Otago, New Zealand”. He completed his PhD on Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge with thesis “A study of hydrothermal alteration of the Troodos ophiolite, Cyprus”.
Professor Teagle’s research principally involves the role of fluids in geological and environmental processes with emphasis on the formation and evolution of the ocean crust, sea floor hydrothermal systems and their influence on global geochemical cycles, fluid flow during metamorphism and mountain building, ore mineralization, and unconventional approaches to carbon sequestration, including carbonation of mine wastes. In addition to the on-going Oman Drilling Project, Damon has been heavily involved in the IODP Superfast Campaign to drill a complete section of upper oceanic crust in ODP Hole 1256D (ODP Leg 206, IODP Expeditions 309/312, 335), the MoHole to Mantle project (M2M), and the Deep Fault Drilling Project to penetrate, sample and instrument the Alpine Fault, the highly active fault zone that forms the boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates in the South Island of New Zealand. He is heavily involved in scientific ocean drilling, and was part of the team that co-wrote the current IODP Science Plan “Illuminating Earth’s past, present and future” (2013-2023).
He has growing interest in the public understanding of science, especially major environmental challenges such as climate change and technological responses. He works with colleagues from Medicine and Engineering in the monitoring of air pollution and the use of sensors and geochemistry to identify pollution sources.