Rift Propagation, Transform Migration, and Microplate Tectonics in Iceland

两个特别重要的地球过程是“热点”火山作用，即来自地球深处的物质羽流产生火山岛和火山链，如夏威夷、加拉帕戈斯、亚速尔群岛和冰岛，以及洋中脊的岩浆和构造过程（熔体的侵入和喷发以及断层）产生洋壳。对这些过程的了解仍然很少，因为它们发生在海洋表面以下。冰岛是一个特殊的地方，冰岛热点与大西洋中脊的重合产生了特别厚的地壳（25公里），并将海底带到表面，在那里它作为一个天然实验室，可以详细检查其构造和地质特征。该项目的目的是通过直接观测，改进已知在大洋中脊发生的一些无法直接观测的过程，其中包括扩大的裂谷带、迁移断层和大规模块体旋转。除了提高我们对全球裂谷过程的理解外，该项目还具有一些教育和其他更广泛的影响：对研究生和本科生的培训，国际合作（与冰岛的科学家），以及对锡拉丘兹大学LAVA项目的广泛参与，以及教育和推广活动。

Two particularly important Earth processes are "hot spot" volcanism, where plumes of material from deep in the earth produce volcanic islands and chains such as Hawaii, Galapagos, Azores and Iceland, and the production of oceanic crust by magmatic and tectonic processes (the intrusion and eruption of melts and faulting) at mid-ocean ridges. Much about these processes remains poorly understood because they occur well below the ocean surface. Iceland is an exceptional locality where the coincidence of the Iceland Hot Spot with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge has produced exceptionally thick (25 km) crust, and brought the seafloor to the surface, where it serves as a natural laboratory, and its tectonic and geologic features can be examined in detail. This project has the aim of improving, by direct observation, a number of processes that are known to occur on mid-ocean ridges where they cannot be directly observed; among them are propagating rift zones, migrating faults and large-scale block rotations. In addition to improving our understanding of global rift processes, this project has a number of educational and other broader impacts: training for graduate and undergraduate students, international collaboration (with scientists in Iceland), and broad participation on the Syracuse University LAVA Project, and education and outreach activity.