The Evolution of the Galapagos Mantle Plume: From Large Igneous Province to Ocean Island Basalt

Mantle plumes are anomalously hot, narrow upwellings of mantle material that originate at the core-mantle boundary. As plumes rise they may form volumetrically large "heads" (~1000 km in diameter) with narrower (~100 km) "tails." Plume head melting is thought to form Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs), vast outpourings of basaltic lava (~106 km3), while plume tail melting forms linear chains of ocean island basalts (OIBs) similar the Emperor-Hawaii Seamount chain. Mantle plume derived melts indicate that these structures sample deep Earth geochemical and lithological heterogeneities. Studying plume-derived lavas can clarify important planetary-scale questions relating to the accretion of the Earth, primordial geochemical reservoirs, the fate of subducted materials, planetary differentiation, and convective mixing.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Geosciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Geosciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Trela, Jarek

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Gazel, Esteban

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Caddick, Mark J.
• Herzberg, Claude T.
• Zhou, Ying

• Geology
• Geochemistry
• mantle plumes
• olivine
• thermometry
• petrology
• hotspots
• isotopes

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:10029

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77438