The project, begun this spring and extending into 2010, seeks to establish a better understanding of why the Pacific Northwest, specifically eastern Oregon’s High Lava Plains, is so volcanically active. This region, chosen for study because of its accessibility, its high volcanic flux (this the most volcanically active area of the continental United States), and its relatively young age, provides the team with an interesting and challenging problem. None of the accepted paradigms about crustal formation and magmatism fit eastern Oregon. By applying numerous techniques ranging from geochemistry and petrology to active and passive seismic imaging to geodynamic modeling, the group will be able to examine an assemblage of new data that they hope will give them key information about the roles of lithosphere structure, tectonics, flat-slab subduction, slab roll-back, and plumes as instigators of aerially extensive magmatism continuing from plate margins into the interior of the continent.