NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute for FY 2012 in China

Juda Natalie A, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Natalie Juda of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego to conduct a research project, entitled "Evaluating the mantle source composition of Antarctic oceanic and continental lavas" during the summer of 2012 at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. The host scientist is Jifeng Xu. The Intellectual Merit lies in isotopic analysis of samples collected along a transect from oceanic to continental crust in the northern Ross Sea, Antarctica. Combining petrographic, geochronologic, geochemical, and isotopic analyses of samples provides estimates of age and composition of intraplate magmatism in the Adare basin of the northern Ross Sea. These geochemical data are fundamental to a full appreciation of regional and local scale patterns in mantle composition, mantle geodynamics and crustal production in Antarctica. The proposed characterization of the Adare Basin Seamount lavas is a necessary first-order constraint for modeling the mantle source and origin of Cenozoic magmatism in West Antarctica and SW Pacific region, as well as the tectono-magmatic processes associated with continental rifting as a whole. Broader Impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce.