Geodynamic modeling of plume capture and release by a migrating mid-ocean ridge

长期以来，人们一直希望像夏威夷和黄石这样的火山活动的持续来源可能会有一个固定的参考框架，这样它们产生的火山中心和海底山的尾部可能会记录下铺设地球的构造板块的运动。年代的表面。然而，有相当多的证据与此相反。特别是，夏威夷的热点似乎在8100万到4700万年前迅速向南移动。从那以后，它的纬度基本上是固定的。令人困惑的问题是为什么？答案可能与地球的流动有很大关系？它与表面板块的运动有关。一种可能性是，支撑火山活动的物质羽流被东太平洋隆起（一个形成新海底的洋中脊）捕获了一段时间。本项目将使用数值模型和实验室模型相结合的方法来研究这种可能性。除了这项工作对理解地球上重要的大规模流动过程的可能贡献之外，该项目相对强大的更广泛的影响包括支持初级研究员和研究生，实验室实验提供了一个极好的机会，揭示了潜在的物理学，是建议的本科生参与的理想选择，以及将在网上分享的模型视频；SERC网站是一个将这些材料提供给更广泛的社区的好地方。

It has long been hoped that persistent sources of volcanism such as Hawaii and Yellowstone might for a fixed frame of reference, so that the tails of volcanic centers and seamounts they produce might record the motions of tectonic plates that pave the Earth?s surface. However, there is considerable evidence to the contrary. In particular, the Hawaiian hot spot appears to have moved very rapidly southward between 81 and 47 million years ago ? and remained more-or-less fixed latitude thereafter. The perplexing question is why? The answer may have much to say about flow in the Earth?s interior as it related to the motions of its surface plates. One possibility is the plume of material that feeds the volcanism was captured for a time by the East Pacific Rise, a mid-ocean ridge where new seafloor is created. This project will use a combination numerical models and laboratory models to investigate this possibility. In addition to the likely contribution of this work to understanding important large-scale flow processes in the Earth, the comparatively strong broader impacts of this project include support for a junior researcher and a graduate student, laboratory experiments that provide an excellent opportunity reveal the underlying physics and are ideal for the proposed undergraduate involvement, and videos from the models that will be shared on line; the SERC site is a good place for making these materials available to the broader community.