Rock Coring Koolau Volcano, Hawaii: Implications for Deep Mantle Recycling of the Crust

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Basalts from mantle plumes provide fundamental information on the composition and history of the Earth's mantle. The Hawaiian plume is the classic example of a mantle plume and its basalts are unquestionably the best studied suite from any plume. The lavas of Koolau Volcano in Hawaii belong to a distinct compositional endmember of ocean island basalts and appear to provide the strong evidence for deep mantle recycling of crust (sediment and basalt), although this interpretation remain controversial and is based on sampling only the uppermost veneer of the volcano. This proposal requests funding to obtain ~300 m of rock core from the base of a ~245 m deep, water observation hole. The rocks from this well will extend below any surface exposures of the volcano and it is expected that the rocks obtained will have experienced less tropical weathering than surface rocks. We will systematically describe the chips and cores from the well following procedures we have developed for the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Program and make an initial petrographic and geochemical characterization of the core and chips for this one year project.