Earlier work by the PI and other investigatiors suggest that boron isotopes may be valuable and unique tracers of fluids derived during dehydration of the subducting slab at island arcs. This project will study the extent of lithosphere recycling back into the mantle as expressed in inter-oceanic island are basalts using boron as a tracer. Approximately 40 samples from the Halmahera arc have already been subjected to extensive petrologic, geochemical and isotopic analysis, and these will be used for the boron studies. This work is expected to confirm the usefulness of boran as a tracer, and to shed new light on the role of fluids from the subducting slab.
