Cascade21: A workshop to catalyze and synthesize understanding of the role of magmatism in an archetype continental arc

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

The volcanoes of the Cascade Range represent significant hazards to the population of the Pacific Northwest region. These same volcanoes have also played an important role for geologists that seek to understand how subduction – the pushing of one tectonic plate beneath another – produces magma and volcanic activity. To promote greater understanding of volcanism and related processes in the Cascade Range, we plan to hold Cascade22, a workshop synthesizing recent data and discoveries of the important role of magmatism in subduction zones, with a specific focus on the Cascadia Subduction zone. The conference is planned to be held over five days in summer 2022, in the city of Bend, Oregon, and will include an early career scientist day and a field trip. The conference will provide students and early career researchers with a range of training, mentoring and research opportunities. The workshop will be a multidisciplinary examination of critical aspects of magmatism in subduction zones from the perspective of the canonical Cascade Arc system, from the deep mantle to the surface, and will serve as a forum for synthesizing a broad range of geophysical, geochemical, volcanological, geological, cultural and other observations relative to understanding the complex roles played by magmatic processes in subduction zone systems. In some sense the conference will reprise the 1968 Andesite conference, famously organized by Alexander McBirney and others (McBirney, 1969) in Eugene and Bend, Oregon. However, we will also highlight the scientific and cultural changes of the last five decades, as well as focusing attention on challenges that lie ahead. The conference is also designed to have a field component, and Bend provides unsurpassed access to volcanic areas, and is an excellent stepping off point for further exploration of the Cascade arc and other nearby regions. The workshop will be small to medium-sized (~80 people) and be held over five days – with the first being focused on early career attendees and one day dedicated to a mid-conference field trip. There will be three days of oral and poster sessions. Rather than focus sessions on individual research disciplines, the sessions will be designed around issues that require a multidisciplinary approach and that directly promote synthesis. Keynote speakers will be assigned to provide input from different disciplinary perspectives, and there will be ample time for group discussions and shorter presentations, as well as separate poster sessions. Each of these topics will then become the basis for a synthesis paper in subsequent journal special issues. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.