This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-2).
Fund are provided for conducting high-pressure experiments to investigate the fate of sediments as they are progressively subducted to greater depths. In particular, two major questions are addressed that are relevant to the chief goals of the Subduction Factory initiative of MARGINS: (1) What is the effect of CO2 (in the form of carbonates) on the melting behavior of subducting sediments, and (2) What is the role of carbonated sediment melting on mass transfer and mass balance of major, trace, and volatile elements across the subduction factory?
Broader impacts include support of a new young investigator and a female soft-money researcher (LDEO). It would also support a graduate student at Rice. And also involve undergraduate students in aspects of the research.
