Dr Trishya Owen-Smith

Lecturer
Name: Trishya Owen-Smith
Location: C1 Lab 422 Auckland Park Kingsway Campus
Department of Geology Staff  Staff Members

Contact Details:
Tel: +27 (0)11 559 2677

Email: trishyaos@uj.ac.za

About Dr Trishya Owen-Smith

Trishya Owen-Smith is an igneous petrologist and geochemist. She completed her PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2014, and subsequently worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam, Germany. She joined the Department of Geology at UJ in 2016. Her previous research has centred on examining the magmatic products of Large Igneous Provinces—in the case of the Deccan Traps, alkaline intrusive magmatism in the Seychelles; in the Paraná-Etendeka Province, dyke swarms, intrusions and flood basalts in Namibia—to interpret their emplacement and evolution, as well as implications for mantle dynamics and continental break-up. Her more recent focus is on the petrogenesis of massif-type anorthosite complexes—specifically the Kunene Complex of Angola/Namibia—and the insights they give into Proterozoic crust-forming processes.

Research Interests

Mantle geochemistry and dynamics; magma differentiation and emplacement processes; early Earth evolution and tectonics; palaeoclimate and mass extinction events; planetary geology/cosmochemistry

Teaching

• Optical Mineralogy (1st year)
• Environmental Isotope Geochemistry (Honours)
• 3rd year and Honours field schools

Recent publications

• Tau, G.L.*, Hofmann, A., Lehmann, J., Owen-Smith, T., Pellerin, A., Thomazo, C., Reinke, C., Wilson, A.H. (2024). The Lanseria palaeosol: Implications for palaeoweathering and terrestrial life at ∼2.6 Ga on the Kaapvaal Craton. Precambrian Research, 405, 107352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2024.107352

• ​Lehmann, J., Brower, A., Owen-Smith, T.M., Bybee, G.M. & Hayes, B. (2023). Integrated geology and remote sensing reveal the architecture of the giant Mesoproterozoic Kunene Complex anorthosites (Angola/Namibia). Geoscience Frontiers, 14(5), 101620. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2023.101620

• Ncube, S.*, Wabo, H., Owen-Smith, T.M., Gumsley, A.P. & Beukes, N.J. (2023). The Puduhush gabbro in Griqualand West, South Africa: extending ca. 1.89 to 1.83 Ga intraplate magmatism across the proto-Kalahari Craton. South African Journal of Geology, 126(1), 75–92. https://doi.org/10.25131/sajg.126.0006

• Milani, L., Lehmann, J., Bybee, G.M., Hayes, B., Owen-Smith, T.M., Oosthuizen, L.*, Delport, P.W.J., Ueckermann, H. (2022). Geochemical and geochronological constraints on the Mesoproterozoic Red Granite Suite, Kunene AMCG Complex of Angola and Namibia. Precambrian Research, 379, 106821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2022.106821

• Hayes, B., Lehmann, J., Bybee, G.M., Owen-Smith, T.M (2022). Crystal transfer from magma to wallrock during syntectonic granite emplacement. Journal of the Geological Society. http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/jgs2020-125

• Owen-Smith, T.M., Trumbull, R.B., Bauer, K., Keiding, J.K. & Will, T.M. (2021). A neural network application to assess magma diversity in the Etendeka igneous province, Namibia. South African Journal of Geology, 124(2), 481-498. https://doi.org/10.25131/sajg.124.0034

• Lehmann, J., Bybee, G.M., Hayes, B., Owen-Smith, T.M. & Belyanin, G. (2020). Emplacement of the giant Kunene AMCG complex into a contractional ductile shear zone and implications for the Mesoproterozoic tectonic evolution of SW Angola. International Journal of Earth Sciences, 109, 1463–1485. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-020-01837-5

• Bybee, G.M., Hayes, B., Owen-Smith, T.M., Lehmann, J., Ashwal, L.D., Brower, A.M, Hill, C.M., Corfu, F. Manga, M. (2019). Proterozoic massif-type anorthosites as the archetypes of long-lived (≥100 Myr) magmatic systems—New evidence from the Kunene Anorthosite Complex (Angola). Precambrian Research, 332, 105393. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2019.105393

• Owen-Smith, T.M., Ganerød, M., van Hinsbergen, D.J.J., Gaina, C., Ashwal, L.D. & Torsvik, T.H. (2019). Testing Early Cretaceous Africa–South America fits with new palaeomagnetic data from the Etendeka Magmatic Province (Namibia). Tectonophysics, 760, 23-35. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2017.11.010

*MSc and PhD students