Mapped the connection between the Gilbert Ridge into the Tuvalu Islands. Our initial destination showed a seamount that appears in Smith & Sandwell bathymetry image version 14, but not in version 8. Mapping across it, erased the western half of it, and we continued south to map and dredge our first volcano in Tuvalu (original first target in the proposal): Manu-Lele-Vae (bird's foot). The dredge (D02) contained various cobbles and pavement pieces of basalt, and additional pieces of sediment, some of those volcaniclastic (one of which seems to contain some fresh glass). Several basalts looked promising for age dating, mostly fine grained basaltic rocks with some olivine and clinopyroxene phenocrysts, one with a large(r) percentage. LIBS analyses suggest mainly alkalic basalts, ranging from basanite to basaltic trachy andesite.
- Jasper Konter
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