Investigating the 3-D effects of mantle flow, melt production and melt transport in the Eastern Lau Spreading Center: Slab Dominated Flow

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This program will support a RIDGE2000 postdoctoral researcher to develop site-specific, two- and three-dimensional numerical models of the Eastern Lau Spreading Center, one of the RIDGE2000 focus sites. The research will provide quantitative and qualitative tests for proposed models for the interaction of the subducting slab, mantle flow, and the spreading center and will make possibly testable predictions about seismic anisotropy, lattice preferred orientation, and melt migration and composition. The models will be constrained by the large amounts of existing observational data previously collected at this spreading center. The work is also linked to a potential OBS experiment in the same area in the coming years. The program will serve overall RIDGE2000 goals, enhance understanding of back arc spreading processes in general, and train a young Ph.D. in areas complementary to his doctoral research.