RAPID: Archiving of Drill Core from the Humuula Saddle Region, Hawaii Island

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

This RAPID award will support the collection and storage of a rock core to be extracted during a U.S. Army-funded drilling project that is scheduled to start in February-March. Two, 2 km deep boreholes, will be drilled into the Army's Pohakuloa Training Area - located near the center of the Big Island of Hawaii in the Humu'ula Saddle region between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes. One year of continuous rock coring is anticipated. The core itself promises to hold important insight into outstanding scientific problems related to mantle melting, and the internal structure and evolution of Hawaiian volcanoes. The U.S Army's interest is in finding a potable water source for the region and they are willing to allow the team of geologists access to the rock core. This RAPID will support the infrastructure needed to properly clean, label, describe, and store the rock core that will be extracted in the drilling process, providing the greater geological community access to these unique samples that will be responsibly archived for future scientific analyses. The opportunity to analyze 2 km of continuous stratigraphy of a Hawaiian volcano is certainly rare, yet presents a fundamental way by which to gather information about processes that occur from the Earth's mantle to the surface. The location of this core is distinct from any previous drill site in Hawaii, which will enable a more complete regional sampling to address questions specifically related to the internal structure of Mauna Kea volcano. The rationale for the RAPID is to ensure that the core is properly archived so that this unique opportunity to obtain these samples is not lost.