Collaborative Research: The Samoan Hotspot, Past and Present

University Of California-San Diego Scripps Inst Of Oceanography, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Based on recent detailed studies of the eastern Samoan province, and key reconnaissance in the western province, the PIs will undertake 20-day dredging cruise that will illuminate and test the generality of existing (Hawaiian) models for hotspot chains. The PIs will dredge 15 volcanic edifices spaced along 1040 km of the chain, to elucidate the age progression model, to expand and fill in the Pb-isotope correlation, to explore the limits of the globally extreme enriched Sr isotope signature found at many of the volcanoes, and will map and characterize the en echelon lineaments that knit Samoan volcanoes together. In addition, the PIs will, under this award, carry out a number of educational and outreach programs involving school children in Samoa and contribute to ideas of how the earth has differentiated over its long history.