DTM’s postdoctoral associate Alison Shaw is continuing her work with the National Science Foundation MARGINS Program, which she began last year in the Mariana Islands. On July 15, Shaw began an expedition to the Izu Islands, which will continue through August 9 in collaboration with scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of New Mexico, University of Tokyo, and Geological Survey of Japan.

Shaw will be collecting volcanic rock samples for melt inclusion work targeting basaltic tephra deposits. In addition, she will be collecting vesicular lavas for collaborative biogeochemical and stable isotope studies with Geophysical Laboratory colleagues Andrew Steele, Penny Morrill, and Marilyn Fogel. In conjunction with her trip, Shaw presented a talk at the University of Tokyo’s Department of Earth and Planetary Science on July 25 entitled “Volatile Contents and Hydrogen Isotope Variations in Mariana Arc Melt Inclusions”.

On the island of Niijima, some of the team relaxed Japanese style in the Mamashita hot springs. The springs are fed by a 25-m-deep hot well where the water is pumped to the surface and distributed to hot pools. This well was one of the locations where samples of the water and gases were taken.