by Michael O. Garcia

Mantle plumes produce basalts which provide fundamental information on the composition and history of the mantle. The Hawai'ian plume is the classic example of a mantle plume and its basalts are unquestionably the best studied suite from any plume. The subaerially exposed lavas of Koolau Volcano belong to the Enriched Mantle1 endmember of ocean island basalts and they define a geochemical endmember among Hawai'ian shield lavas in major and trace elements and in isotopes. Koolau lavas are important to an understanding of the origin and evolution of the Hawai'ian plume and the mantle. In particular, Koolau lavas appear to provide the strongest evidence for deep mantle recycling of crust (sediments and basalt), although this interpretation remain controversial and is based on sampling only the uppermost veneer of the volcano. It is important to establish the longevity of the distinctive Koolau geochemical signature by sampling deeper and older lavas from the volcano. If there were basaltic and sedimentary components in the Hawai'ian plume, were they restricted to the final stages of Koolau volcano´s growth? Scientific drilling will allow us to answer this question by obtaining lavas from subsurface of this enigmatic volcano.

• (No objectives found in database. Record is incomplete and needs some manual curation)

Coring, Drilling, Hf Isotopes, High Resolution, HSDP, ICDP-1999/15, Icp-Ms, KOOLAU, Mantle Plume, Periodicity, Recycling, Source Character, Thermal Regimes, Trace Elements, U.s.a., Volcanic Systems, Volcanics

Latitude: 21.34425, Longitude: -157.87286