VOILA

The Antillean islands are made of such volcanoes. Many other island chains (e.g., Indonesia, Japan) were also formed in this way. Without the water, these volcanoes and islands would not be there! Not all the Antillean islands are the same. Some are bigger, some have more active volcanoes, some have a history of larger earthquakes and others not. This probably is caused by how much water goes down with the plate and how much ends up in the magma. We want to study the water in the plate that subducts below the Antilles, because we want to understand why there are these differences between the islands... The Earth has a hard outer shell which is broken into tectonic plates (like a broken eggshell). These plates move on the softer rock (the mantle) below. About 2/3 of these plates lie below the oceans. These plates soak up water. We want to find out is where this water goes when it is soaked up. When two plates meet, one of them (the denser one) will sink below the other into the softer,..

Primary location: United Kingdom