Collaborative Research: Plate Tectonic and Geochemical Evolution of the Young Walvis Ridge and Implications for African Plate Motion Modeling

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The cause of the bifurcating tracks of seamounts and seafloor swells in the Walvis Ridge area in the South Atlantic just off South Africa has been a longstanding enigma in Marine Geology and in our understanding of hotspots and the plate tectonic evolution of Africa. This project will go to sea to dredge and analyze rocks from the part of the seafloor to the west of the Walvis Ridge and examine changes from hotspot to diffuse volcanism. The present location of the Walvis hotspot and the reason for its waning volcanic activity over the last 60 Myr will also be determined. Argon trapped in minerals in the collected seafloor volcanic rocks will be used to determine the age progression of the volcano tracks. Rock, major and trace element geochemistry and isotopes will be used to see if the younger rocks in the bifurcated tracks can be linked to the older Walvis Ridge. Multibeam bathymetric mapping and a map of seafloor magnetics will also be generated to examine structural trends and plate tectonic motions of this part of the ocean floor. Broader impacts of the work include international collaboration with a complementary German effort that is studying the older part of the Walvis Ridge, K-12 teacher and graduate and undergraduate student training, and support of a PI whose gender is under-represented in the sciences.