Application of High Precision 40Ar/39Ar Geochronology to Volcanoes of the Hawaiian-Emporeror Chain

该奖项是为了对以前从夏威夷-皇帝海山链收集的熔岩样品进行40 Ar/39 Ar增量加热重新定年，以更精确地确定其火山演化。 这条海山链代表了与夏威夷地幔柱有关的过量火山活动的“痕迹”，显示了太平洋板块如何相对于地幔柱移动，最有可能是深地幔起源。 这些样品的先前全岩K-Ar年代太不精确，无法解决夏威夷羽流（地球上最重要和最大的羽流）是否相对于地幔固定的基本问题。 更精确的40 Ar/39 Ar增量加热日期将允许更精确地解析羽流位置和夏威夷-皇帝火山活动以及随时间的建筑，精确比较夏威夷-皇帝链末端与太平洋板块的其他构造特征所需的分辨率，并从根本上解决羽流在其历史上是否相对于地幔移动的问题。

Award is for 40 Ar/39 Ar incremental heating re-dating of previously-collected lava samples from the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain to more precisely determine its volcanic evolution. This seamount chain represents the "trace" of excess volcanism associated with the Hawaiian plume, showing how the Pacific Plate has moved relative to the plume, most likely of deep mantle origin. Previous whole-rock K-Ar dates of these samples are too imprecise to address fundamental questions about whether the Hawaiian plume, the most important and largest plume on earth, is fixed relative to the earth's mantle. The more precise 40 Ar/39 Ar incremental heating dates will allow for more precise resolution of plume location and Hawaiian-Emperor volcanism and edifice-building with time, resolution needed to accurately compare the Hawaiian-Emperor chain end with other tectonic features of the Pacific plate and to fundamentally address the issue of whether this plume has moved relative to the mantle in its history.