Cape Verde is one of the few places in the world’s ocean basins where one can study extensive subaerial exposures of Mesozoic MORB crustal basement and the overlying marine sediments, which are in direct contact with (and crosscut by) hotspot-derived magmatic bodies. This project will leverage this unique geology to investigate how mantle melts interact with oceanic lithosphere—mantle, crustal, and sedimentary—to modulate OIB geochemistry and form the intrusive pedestals upon which hotspot volcanoes are built, offering insights into the globally relevant problem of hotspot geodynamics.