DTM seismologists have initiated fieldwork for a multi-institutional experiment to produce seismic images of the mantle beneath the Hawaiian hotspot, the most vigorous center of intraplate volcanism on Earth. The Plume-Lithosphere Undersea Melt Experiment (PLUME) has been designed to distinguish among hypotheses for the origin of the Hawaiian Islands and the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain. Ideas have ranged from presssure-release partial melting in a plume-shaped conduit of hot material upwelling from the base of the mantle to a lithospheric fracture that has permitted melt from the upper mantle to ascend to the surface. The experiment involves the deployment of temporary land and ocean-bottom seismometers in two year-long networks to record seismic waves from distant earthquakes around the Pacific region and the application of a variety of imaging methods to those records.

In the first phase of the experiment, DTM's field seismologist Peter Burkett, assisted on two fieldtrips to the Hawaiian Islands by postdoctoral fellows Brian Savage and Linda Warren, installed ten of DTM's portable broadband stations on the islands of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui, and Hawaii. In January, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will deploy 35 ocean-bottom seismometers in a network centered approximately on the Loihi Seamount south of Hawaii. One year later, the seafloor instruments will be redeployed in a broader network of greater inter-station spacing.

The PLUME project also involves collaborators from the University of Hawaii and Yale University. DTM investigators include Sean Solomon and Erik Hauri.