Geochemical Stratigraphy of Volcanic Evolution, La Palma, Canary Islands

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Nelson9909423The aim of the project is to obtain a time-series data set that will be used to understand the processes that control the physical and chemical character of ocean-island volcanoes and their evolution through time. The project will concentrate on intermediate hundred thousand to million year time scales, which is on the order of the lifetime of volcanoes erupted in the intra-plate oceanic setting. The proposed work will focus on five carefully chosen volcanic sections from La Palma and El Hierro, the two westernmost islands on the Canary Island archipelago. The sections have been recovered from drill-core in exceptionally thick sections that traverse the entire history of the volcanoes (100-300,000 years before present). Some of the samples have been characterized through field mapping, paleomagnetic studies and K-Ar dating by Dr. Juan Carlos Carracedo, director of the Estacion Volcanogica de Canarias. The geochemical data to be obtained in this study will be used to address several issues fundamental to understanding ocean island volcanism. The Canary Islands data set will be compared with similar data from Hawaii. Because these two volcanic chains have distinct contrasts in age, compositions, fluxes and physical evolution, this comparison will provide additional insights into the range of processes that control planetary volcanism.