Collaborative Research: Re-Assessing Hotspot Models in the Pacific Basin With High Resolution 40Ar/39Ar Dating of Volcanic Activity in the Line Islands & Louisville Seamount Trail

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

To do a basin-wide test of the fixed hotspot model requires accurate and precise radiometric ages that only now have become possible through improvement in Ar40/Ar39 dating of altered submarine basalts. By re-dating existing samples the investigators will generate a state-of-the-art Ar40/Ar39 age database. This project will re-date 37 seamounts that fall within the 30-100 MA age range in the Line Islands and the Louisville seamounts incremental heating Ar40/Ar39 dating, and measure Hf-Sr-Nd-Pb isotopes and major/trace element abundances to characterize these basalts in terms of mantle source and stage of volcanic activity. These data will be used to assess the fixed and moving hotspot models.