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、加拉帕戈斯群岛、亚速尔群岛和冰岛，以及由岩浆和构造过程（熔体和断层的侵入和喷发）在洋中脊产生的海洋地壳。由于这些过程发生在海洋表面以下，人们对它们的了解还很有限。冰岛是一个特殊的地方，冰岛热点与大西洋中脊的巧合产生了异常厚（25公里）的地壳，并将海底带到地表，在那里它作为一个自然实验室，它的构造和地质特征可以被详细检查。这个项目的目的是通过直接观察来改善一些已知发生在海洋中脊上的过程，而这些过程是无法直接观察到的；其中包括扩展裂谷带、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之外，该项目还具有许多教育和其他更广泛的影响：培训研究生和本科生，国际合作（与冰岛科学家合作），广泛参与雪城大学熔岩项目，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.