ESVI: Earth Science on Volcanic Islands

Garrett Apuzen-Ito

Research Interests

My research focuses on the geodynamic processes of the convecting mantle, lithosphere, and crust associated with magmatism and tectonics throughout the ocean basins. The research tools I use include geophysics (seismology, gravity, topography), geochemistry, and numerical models. Recently, my students and I have been using high-performance computer simulations of mid-ocean ridges in which seafloor spreading is accommodated by a combination of magmatic intrusions and normal faulting. This work provides insight into how magmatism and tectonic processes interact at divergent plate boundaries and how the seafloor is created. Click here to see a video of a 3-D computer simulation.

Potential Projects

Continental rift zones are where continents break apart and eventually create ocean basins. The eastern edge of North America, for example, is an old rifted continental rift zone, which led to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Active continental rifting is occurring, for example, in the Western U.S. and east Africa. I invite an REU student to work with me on computer simulations to explore how the filling of an incipient water way at a continental rift zone impacts the system as water percolates into the crust and pressurizes cracks and lubricates fault zones. This project is for students who have interests in math, physics, and high-performance computer modeling.

Arjun Aryal

Research Interests

My research involves the use of data-driven approaches and numerical modeling to study geologic deformation processes caused by landslides, volcanoes, earthquakes, and other geologic phenomena. I use geodetic observation tools such as a Ground-based Laser Scanner, GPS, and InSAR to measure 3-D ground movement rates (millimeters to meters) to characterize processes such as interseismic activity on faults, inflation/deflation of volcanoes, subsidence related to extraction of groundwater, or coastal subsidence/uplift from sea-level changes. I also use the kinematic information or ground displacements (surface manifestation of the underlying geologic processes) to constrain geophysical models. For example, we can use ground movement measured from repeat laser scanner observations of a landslide to characterize the subsurface slip geometry of the landslide. These types of studies are useful for working towards better forecasting of natural hazards, or can offer a new perspective on the management of groundwater resources. This work is computationally intensive and involves primarily coding, data processing, and statistical analysis.

Potential Projects

• Modeling and understanding landslide characteristics
• Radar interferometric data processing and interpretation of InSAR interferograms of the Hawaiian islands

Sloan Coats

Research Interests

The term Common Era refers to the last ~2000 years, but it also has a scientific connotation, as this is the era common to paleoclimate reconstructions, observational data, and simulations from state-of-the-art climate models. I leverage these disparate sources of climate information to better understand variability on decadal and longer timescales—things like “megadroughts” over southwestern North America and trends in tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures. My work typically involves the development and implementation of novel statistical methods, including machine learning, as well as the use of climate modelling—particularly with the National Center for Atmospheric Research models. 

Potential Projects

• Using machine learning to better understand the characteristics of heat waves and droughts in both space and time.
• Analyzing historical trends in the tropical Pacific Ocean, a critical region for Hawaiian (and global) climate with an uncertain response to human-driven climate change.

Xiaolong (Leo) Geng

Research Interests

My research focuses on developing a comprehensive and quantitative understanding of coastal groundwater dynamics governing various biogeo- chemical processes in nearshore aquifers. My current research investigates the impact of evaporation and waves on groundwater dynamics in tidally influenced beaches.

On August 8, 2023, a rapid and devastating wildfire burned through and decimated the historical town of Lahaina, Maui, which was later declared a major disaster. This disaster will introduce a broad range of contaminants into the environment. For instance, during wildfires, power outages can disrupt wastewater treatment, leading to the release of untreated wastewater. The combustion of vegetation, structures, vehicles, and various materials within communities can release substantial quantities of hazardous chemicals, such as pyrogenic PAHs and heavy metals, as well as nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, into the environment. My work typically involves developing a comprehensive approach that combines direct on-site measurements with groundwater models to identify the ways of various contaminants across the land-sea boundary.

Potential Projects

• Deploying experimental transects on the impacted beaches to measure groundwater flow and quality
• Developing groundwater model to simulate groundwater flow and quality in beach systems

Helen Janiszewski

Research Interests

My research involves understanding the crustal and mantle structure beneath tectonically active regions such as subduction zones and volcanoes. Using seismic measurements, we can characterize the geophysical structure of these regions, and relate these to deformation processes, such as inflation/deflation due to magma, or seismogenic coupling. These types of studies are useful for working towards better understanding of natural hazards. I typically work with students that have a strong interest in physics, math, and computer programming, and students can expect to learn about seismic data availability and processing, seismic imaging techniques, processing, and modeling techniques. We may work with either or both onshore and offshore data.

Potential Projects

• Receiver function imaging of magma storage systems beneath volcanoes globally
• Use of compliance or other techniques to constrain sediment properties beneath ocean bottom seismometers

James Potemra

Research Interests

Our group uses direct measurements of ocean properties, such as temperature, sea level, waves, etc. to better understand ocean dynamics. This research has two broad foci: one involves the role of the ocean in the Earth's climate, the other is directed at providing data and products to the public.

Through collaborations with the Oceanography Department, Ocean Resources Engineering and the Center for Microbial Oceanography, a series of measurements are routinely collected at Station ALOHA, a region roughly 100 miles north of Oahu. Here we maintain a sea-floor observatory called ACO. This provides real-time information about the deep ocean, including video, sounds, and various physical properties. We also conduct monthly cruises to Station ALOHA as part of the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) program. During these 5-day expeditions, a wide range of measurements are made, and various samples are taken and then processed back on campus. Finally, the third component at Station ALOHA is a “ocean reference site”, a surface mooring (buoy), that measures atmospheric conditions (wind speed, rainfall, etc.) and subsurface ocean quantities. All of these measurements provide us with relatively long-term time-series that can provide insights to how the ocean environment is changing, and the analyses may help better understand climate change.

A second area where ocean observations are collected and used is within a program called the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS). This effort is aimed at providing real-time and forecast information to a wide range of ocean users, including coastal managers, planners, tourists, surfers, and so on. PacIOOS maintains observations in all the American Affiliated Pacific islands including Hawai‘i. We have a wide array of coastal measurements and numerical models, and then try to provide these data via web-based services.

Potential Projects

• Investigate time-series of measured temperature and salinity at Station ALOHA to try and detect long-term changes in ocean conditions. Using the co-located mooring, try and attribute these changes to local air-sea forcing.
• Process deep-sea measurements of passive acoustics (underwater sounds) to help identify various signals of interest (e.g., marine mammal sounds)
• Help develop end-user products based on observations/data from the coastal region. These could include map-based presentations of inundation events, forecast of high surf or other extreme events, automatic alerts when near-shore water quality become degraded, etc. For this project, we encourage applications from students with experience in Liunx-based scripting, Python, javascript, GIS-based tools, and webpage design.

Godwin Severa

Research Interests

Materials science is a crosscutting discipline finding importance in numerous areas including space exploration and clean energy. My research focuses on exploring innovative approaches to achieving superior material properties for emerging applications including space radiation protection, reversible hydrogen storage for fuel cells and, gas separation and purification. My work typically entails syntheses and detailed characterization of the new advanced materials with the desired performance metrics. Typical students in this research have interest in chemistry, materials science, physics, engineering and clean energy technologies.

Potential Projects

• Investigating the space applications of metal containing ionic liquids, for example, in reversible volatile gas capture
• Exploring the utilization of clays as hydrogen storage materials

Shiv Sharma

Research Interests

My research interests are in the applications of micro- and remote Raman spectroscopy, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy for Earth and planetary exploration. Currently I am involved with NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover Mission for understanding surface geology and identify the compositions and structures of the rocks and surface minerals in the Jezero Crater on Mars using SuperCam instrument. Details about SuperCam instrument are available here.
We are also interested in analyzing the compositions and molecular structures of synthetic and natural materials including silicate glasses, minerals and biogenic minerals, and ices relevant to planetary exploration of the Moon, Mars, and Europa. My Laboratory also have developed instrumentation for standoff Raman, fluorescence and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, and more recently underwater standoff Raman system. Details are available here.

Potential Projects

• Micro-Raman study of the structure of volcanic glasses and synthetic silicate glasses and melts for understanding volcanic processes
• Micro-Raman characterization of volcanic aerosols
• Micro-Raman and standoff Raman investigation of coral samples dredged from various depth in the ocean to learn about effect of climate changes on coral reefs

Team Mentors: Bruce Houghton and Natalia Gauer-Pasqualon

Research Interests

Our research group focuses on the study of erupting volcanoes, and the dynamics and processes of explosive eruptions. We study volcanoes in Hawaii and Iceland by conducting fieldwork integrating video analysis with study of volcanic products. We work on very fine time (sub-second) and length (< meters) particularly for 21st-century, basaltic fissure-fed eruptions. We work in full partnership with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, University of Iceland and INGV (Italy). The results of our research quantify the behavior of magma above and beneath the Earth's surface, contributing to the evaluation of volcanic risk, and defining hazards for communities living near volcanoes.

Potential Projects

• Video analysis of 21st-century eruptions of Kilauea or Mauna Loa, Hawaii
  • Required skills: ERTH300 or equivalent class focused on physical volcanology, current drivers license
  • Preferred skills: Experience with Matlab
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Team Mentors: Peng Jiang and Annie Chien

Research Interests

Our current research focuses on oceanic magmatism, mantle source lithology and metasomatic history, and deep Earth’s materials recycling beneath mid-ocean ridges (MOR) and hotspots, via integrated textural and in-situ chemical/isotopic analyses on various mineral phases (e.g., olivine, spinel, pyroxene, plagioclase) in the erupted lavas. The studied regions include 8°20’ seamount chain and the nearby Siqueiros Transform in the northern East Pacific Rise (NEPR), the Juan de Fuca Ridge, the 13°-23° southern East Pacific Rise (SEPR) on-axis ridge lavas and the off-axis Rano Rahi Seamounts, as well as Honolulu Volcanics (in Hawaii). Mineral phases in lavas from these regions either crystallized from melts or were captured from mantle as mantle xenocrysts: the textures and in-situ chemical/isotopic compositions (via Electron Microprobe or Ion Microprobe techniques) of which can provide direct constrains on magmatic differentiation processes and/or mantle source characteristics (e.g., peridotite vs. pyroxenite lithologies, mantle metasomatism history). These constraints are crucial in understanding deep Earth dynamics (materials recycling), mantle heterogeneity, and magmatic processes that shape oceanic crusts.

Potential Projects

• Phase chemistry study on plagioclase ultraphyric basalts (PUBS) from both NEPR and SEPR regions. We found PUBs from both 8°20’ NEPR seamount lavas and 13°-23° SEPR basalts. Obvious plagioclase growth zonation is observed. It will be interesting to acquire their chemical composition by electron microprobe, combined with petrologic modeling, to understand their crystallization pressure, temperature, as well as magmatic evolution history. The plagioclase study will provide complementary constraints in addition to the olivine study we are currently working on.
• Phase chemistry study of pyroxene for MOR basalts (MORB) in NEPR and SEPR. The presence of pyroxene, although it has been included in many MELTS models, is not very commonly observed in MORB samples. Pyroxene phenocrysts can either be high pressure (e.g., >10 kbar) crystallization product, or the product of continuous fractional crystallization (without being “consumed” by later crustal processes, such as reaction porous flow). We have found some pyroxene-bearing samples in both NEPR and SEPR, the textural and geochemical studies of which, combined with petrologic modeling, can be of great importance to understand high-pressure mantle melting and fractional crystallization.

Team Mentors: Haunani Kane and Kainalu Steward

Research Interests

Our research combines coastal geomorphology, paleo environmental reconstructions, spatial analysis, and the perspectives of native islanders to investigate how islands, reefs, and island people are impacted by changes in climate.

Potential Projects

In 2018 a catastrophic hurricane struck atoll islands in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Satellite imagery documents both island loss and subsequent recovery. This project will involve mapping shorelines from monthly satellite and UAS (drone) imagery to determine how seasonal physical parameters (swell magnitude and direction, wind, extreme tides, etc) influence island recovery and long term stability. Students will also gain experience in conducting coastal surveys including UAS and RTK-surveying methods. Professional development skills will also be acquired through stakeholder outreach, presentations, and meetings.

Preferred skills: experience using ArcMap and/or Arc GIS Pro, and willingness to work independently

Team Mentors: Brian Popp and Chris Wall

Research Interests

Coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems on earth. Reef corals – the ecological engineers of tropical reefs – exist in a mutualistic symbiosis with microalgae (Symbiodiniaceae), which provide photosynthetically-derived nutrition for their coral animal hosts. However, corals exploit alternative sources of nutrition, as well, including feeding on zooplankton (i.e., heterotrophy). Corals may rely more on heterotrophy during periods of stress and in environments where symbiont photosynthesis is limited or if the hosts are particularly adapted for prey capture. We are interested in the physiological and ecological determinates of nutritional plasticity and applying new methods in stable isotope analysis to track food sources from producers to consumers in coral reef food webs.

Potential Projects

Our research focuses on trophic ecology, nutritional plasticity, and stable isotope ecology of reef corals. We use cutting edge methods (such as compound specific isotope analysis of individual amino acids) to determine sources of nutrition and their contribution to marine and aquatic animals. We are interested in working with students with a desire to learn about coral reef ecology, animal physiology, and stable isotope biogeochemistry. Projects may focus on field collections or manipulative experiments, and students will gain experience in stable isotope analysis, data analysis, and coding in R.

Team Mentors: Amir Haroon, Erin Wallin and Peter Kannberg

Research Interests

The primary research focus lies in improving hydro-geophysical models through the application of electrical and electromagnetic methods that use the electrical resistivity of the subsurface as a proxy to address groundwater-related research questions. By applying geophysical tools to image subsurface properties and processes at various spatial scales we seek to improve our understanding of 1) freshwater-saltwater interactions within the deep coastal transition zone between terrestrial and marine realms, and 2) anthropogenically induced contamination and subsurface structures that control groundwater flow. The field of research is diverse, ranging from novel system development to data acquisition in the field and includes data processing, geophysical modeling, inversion, and interpretation in the lab.

We seek motivated students with a strong interest in physics, mathematics, and earth science, that have already acquired their first experiences in scripting and programming languages. A general affinity to working outdoors in potentially remote environments is desired, as students will participate in data acquisition on land and possibly also at sea. Students can expect to learn about state-of-the-art technologies, and the processing and interpretation of geophysical data related to groundwater research, in a fun and relaxed research environment.

Potential Projects

• Onshore / offshore field experiments on Big Island: Offshore extensions of terrestrial groundwater aquifers have been discovered at multiple sites along the coast of Hawaiʻi Island. Additional geophysical experiments to better understand the connectivity of the terrestrial and marine realms are planned for June 2024. The REU project will leverage this unique opportunity, where the student will actively gain insights into hydro-geophysical research.
• Data processing of geophysical data acquired at Red Hill and within Pearl Harbor: In November 2023, electromagnetic and electrical experiments were carried out within Pearl Harbor and the adjacent Red Hill area. The REU project will focus on processing and interpreting an excerpt of the acquired data helping us understand the geophysical connection between our onshore and offshore experiments.