Day 1

Day 1

Saipan, Mariana Islands (15°10’51”N, 145°45’21”E)

When my BFFL Kristy suggested I try doing the same “tectonical” cruise as she took a couple of years ago I was totally skeptical. I mean a science cruise? I never expected it would be this interesting, and fun! I’m going to visit all of these new and super exciting places, like today our boat landed at our first stop, Saipan, one of the Mariana Islands located in the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The beaches are beautiful, especially because the whole west side of the island is surrounded by an offshore coral reef, so there’s a huge lagoon! Though the beaches are great I spent most of my day on a Tectonics Tour provided by the cruise! Apparently, the whole chain of Mariana Islands was created when the Philippine Plate and the Pacific Plate began pushing towards each other (AKA converging).  The boundary between these two plates is called a subduction boundary because one of the plates is forced beneath the other. (FUN FACT! The “sub” in subduction means below!) At subduction boundaries like this one, long deep trenches are formed. (called deep-sea trenches) When a trench is formed a volcanic island arc is also formed. The Mariana Islands are one example of volcanic island arc and their accompanying deep-sea trench, the Mariana Trench. I learned so much interesting stuff, and that was just the first part of my tour! I’ll update tomorrow with more info!

 http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/definitions/stratovolcano?page=1

Check out this picture i took myself off of our ship of the two volcanoes on the island of Anatahan, one of the central Mariana Islands. Its first eruption in recorded history was in 2003, it is the most recently active volcano of any in the Mariana Islands.
I miss Nashville but i'm having a great time! 

Love Ya'll
-Nancy