July 27, 2006
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
Tokyo Institute of Technology

Discover of New Volcanism on Pacific Plate Flexure

Institute for Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE: Yoshio Fukao, Director) of Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC: Yasuhiro Kato, President), collaborated with Tokyo Institute of Technology (Masuo Aizawa, President) and others, discovered new type volcanism on the Pacific plate not belonging to any of the three volcanism categories on Earth; divergent plate boundaries (e.g., mid-ocean ridges), convergent plate boundaries (e.g., island arcs) and hotspots (e.g., Hawaiian, Polynesian). The joint group has came to the conclusion from studies of the rock samples of submarine volcano and data that have been collected during survey operated by Research Vessel "Kairei" and Manned Research Submersible "Shinkai 6500", at 800 km off the east of Sanriku, Japan, in the water depth of 6,000 m, on June 2004 and May 2005. This report will be published online July 27, 2006 Science Express, hosted by US magazine, "Science".

Contacts:
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
Institute for Research on Earth Evolution
Natue Abe      +81-46-867-9329
Nobuo Naraki      +81-46-867-9590

Tokyo Institute of Technology
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Eiichi Takahashi      +81-3-5734-2338
Naoto Hirano      nhirano@ucsd.edu
Current address:
IGPP, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego

(For Publication)
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
Manager, Planning Department Press Office
Shinji Oshima      press@jamstec.go.jp