Subduction Factory Studies in the Southern Mariana Convergent Margin: Side-Scan, Geophysical and Petrologic Investigations

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

The PIs will undertake a field program of HMR-1 sonar mapping, magnetics, gravity measurements, and dredging in the Mariana arc region to enlarge the existing database in area. The mapping is justified as a necessary first step toward sorting out the complex nature and sequence of subduction-related processes and critical to the goals of the Subduction Factory initiative within MARGINS program. The survey will be conducted in two regions of the southern Mariana subduction system - in the forearc and the backarc. The work will complete and complement similar geophysical data (side scan sonar, magnetics) already obtained from the arc. The samples collected by dredging will be used for geochemical analyses by other workers.