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1.
The Three Kings Ridge has been reinterpreted as a west-facing island arc under which a significant amount of Norfolk Basin lithosphere may have been subducted. Examination of additional seismic reflection profiles adds credence to this interpretation and suggests the presence of a north-south transition from subduction under the northern half of the ridge, evidenced by well-preserved island-arc morphology, to obduction along the southern half of the ridge. This obduction probably obliterated the trench, resulting in overthrusting and severe deformation of the forearc basin as well as intense faulting of the volcanic arc.  相似文献   

2.
The Northland Plateau and the Vening Meinesz “Fracture” Zone (VMFZ), separating southwest Pacific backarc basins from New Zealand Mesozoic crust, are investigated with new data. The 12–16 km thick Plateau comprises a volcanic outer plateau and an inner plateau sedimentary basin. The outer plateau has a positive magnetic anomaly like that of the Three Kings Ridge. A rift margin was found between the Three Kings Ridge and the South Fiji Basin. Beneath the inner plateau basin, is a thin body interpreted as allochthon and parautochthon, which probably includes basalt. The basin appears to have been created by Early Miocene mainly transtensive faulting, which closely followed obduction of the allochthon and was coeval with arc volcanism. VMFZ faulting was eventually concentrated along the edge of the continental shelf and upper slope. Consequently arc volcanoes in a chain dividing the inner and outer plateau are undeformed whereas volcanoes, in various stages of burial, within the basin and along the base of the upper slope are generally faulted. Deformed and flat-lying Lower Miocene volcanogenic sedimentary rocks are intimately associated with the volcanoes and the top of the allochthon; Middle Miocene to Recent units are, respectively, mildly deformed to flat-lying, calcareous and turbiditic. Many parts of the inner plateau basin were at or above sea level in the Early Miocene, apparently as isolated highs that later subsided differentially to 500–2,000 m below sea level. A mild, Middle Miocene compressive phase might correlate with events of the Reinga and Wanganella ridges to the west. Our results agree with both arc collision and arc unzipping regional kinematic models. We present a continental margin model that begins at the end of the obduction phase. Eastward rifting of the Norfolk Basin, orthogonal to the strike of the Norfolk and Three Kings ridges, caused the Northland Plateau to tear obliquely from the Reinga Ridge portion of the margin, initiating the inner plateau basin and the Cavalli core complex. Subsequent N115° extension and spreading parallel with the Cook Fracture Zone completed the southeastward translation of the Three Kings Ridge and Northland Plateau and further opened the inner plateau basin, leaving a complex dextral transform volcanic margin.  相似文献   

3.
The northwestern continental margin of New Zealand offers one of the finest examples of a continent-backarc transform. This transform, part of the Vening Meinesz Fracture Zone (VMFZ), accommodated about 170 km of sea-floor spreading in the Norfolk backare basin together with eastward migration of a volcanic arc, the Three Kings Ridge, in the Mid- to Late Miocene. Before the onset of spreading, strain along the VMFZ may have been linked to a major Early Miocene obduction event — the emplacement of the Northland Allochthon. The transform is manifested by a belt up to 50 km wide of left-stepping, linear fault scarps up to 2000 m high within an approximately 100 km-wide deformed zone. A marginal ridge, the Reinga Ridge, which includes a faulted, folded and uplifted Miocene sedimentary basin, occurs within the high-standing continental side of the deformed zone, whereas a narrow strip of linear detached blocks occupies the deep backarc oceanic side. Prespreading uplift and erosion of crust in the proto-backarc region, are volcanism, and obduction of the allochthon, supplied clastic sediments to the basin on the continental side. This basin was complexly deformed as the transform evolved. The transform was initiated as a dextral strike-slip fault zone, which developed right-branching splays and left-steps along its length, uplifting and cutting the continental margin into left-hand, en echelon blocks and relays. Folds formed locally within relay blocks and at the distal ends of the splays. Only the high continental side of this zone (the Reinga Ridge) remains, the formerly adjacent crust (the Three Kings Ridge) having been displaced towards the southeast. As the Three Kings block moved and the Norfolk Basin opened, opposing rift margins of the backarc basin foundered to form terraces. The oceanic side of the transform also subsided to produce the belt of detached blocks (some laterally displaced by strike slip) and linear troughs along the main escarpment system.  相似文献   

4.
The South Pandora and the Tripartite Ridges are active spreading centers located in the northern part of the North Fiji Basin. These spreading centers were surveyed over a distance of 750 km during the NOFI cruise of R/V L'Atalante (August–September 1994) which was conducted in the frame of the french-japanese Newstarmer cooperation project. SIMRAD EM12-dual full coverage swath bathymetric and imagery data as well as airgun 6-channel seismic, magnetics and gravity profiles were recorded along and offaxis from 170°40 E to 178° E. Dredging and piston coring were also performed along and off-axis. The axial domain of the South Pandora Ridge is divided into 5 first-order segments characterized by contrasted morphologies. The average width of the active domain is 20 km and corresponds either to bathymetric highs or to deep elongated grabens. The bathymetric highs are volcanic constructions, locally faulted and rifted, which can obstruct totally the axial valley. The grabens show the typical morphology of slow spreading axes, with two steep walls flanking a deep axial valley. Elongated lateral ridges may be present on both sides of the grabens. Numerous volcanoes, up to several kilometers in diameter, occur on both flanks of the South Pandora Ridge. The Tripartite Ridge consists of three main segments showing a sigmoid shape. Major changes in the direction of the active zones are observed at the segment discontinuities. These discontinuities show various geometrical patterns which suggest complex transform relay zones. Preliminary analysis of seismic reflection profiles suggest that the Tripartite Ridge is a very young feature which propagates into an older oceanic domain characterized by a significant sedimentary cover. By contrast, a very thin to absent sedimentary cover is observed about 100 km on both flanks of the South Pandora Ridge active axis. The magnetic anomaly profiles give evidence of long and continuous lineations, parallel to the South Pandora Ridge spreading axis. According to our preliminary interpretation, the spreading rate would have been very low (8 km/m.y. half rate) during the last 7 Ma. The South Pandora and Tripartite Ridges exhibit characteristics typical of active oceanic ridges: (1) a segmented pattern, with segments ranging from 80 to 100 km in length; (2) an axial tectonic and volcanic zone, 10 to 20 km wide; (3) well-organized magnetic lineations, parallel to the active axis; (4) clear signature on the free-air gravity anomaly map. However, no typical transform fault is observed; instead, complex relay zones are separating first-order segments.  相似文献   

5.
On the basis of bathymetric data and other geological and geophysical data obtained during the first survey conducted by Chinese Mainland in the area off eastern Taiwan Island from May to June in 2000, the morphological features of the region, the tectonic control to the seafloor topography and their tectonic implication are studied and discussed. The results have revealed that both the slope zone of the Ryukyu arc and the Ryukyu Trench present a typical morphotectonic characteristics controlled by the trench-arc system in the West Pacific Ocean. At the slope of eastern Taiwan Island the isobathic lines parallel to the coastline and distribute densely in nearly N-S direction and the slope gradient of topography is large. Such a unique feature is attributed to the collision of the Luzon arc and Eurasia continent. In the Huatung Basin, turbidity fans and submarine canyons are well developed, the formations of which are mainly related to the steep topography of the slope of the Luzon arc and the abundant s  相似文献   

6.
The tectonic mechanisms controlling how volcanic arcs migrate through space and geologic time within dynamic subduction environments is a fundamental tectonic process that remains poorly understood. This paper presents an integrated stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of Late Cretaceous to Recent volcanic arcs and associated basins in the southeastern Caribbean Sea using seismic reflection data, wide-angle seismic refraction data, well data, and onland geologic data. We propose a new tectonic model for the opening of the Grenada and Tobago basins and the 50-250-km eastward jump of arc volcanism from the Late Cretaceous Aves Ridge to the Miocene to Recent Lesser Antilles arc in the southeast Caribbean based on the mapping of three seismic megasequences. The striking similarity of the half-graben structure of the Grenada and Tobago basins that flank the Lesser Antilles arc, their similar smooth basement character, their similar deep-marine seismic facies, and their similar Paleogene sediment thickness mapped on a regional grid of seismic data suggest that the two basins formed as a single, saucer-shaped, oceanic crust Paleogene forearc basin adjacent to the now dormant Aves Ridge. This single forearc basin continued to extend and widen through flexural subsidence during the early to middle Eocene probably because of slow rollback of the subducting Atlantic oceanic slab. Rollback may have been accelerated by oblique collision of the southern Aves Ridge and southern Lesser Antilles arc with the South American continent. Uplift and growth of the southern Lesser Antilles arc divided the Grenada and Tobago basins by early to middle Miocene time. Inversion of normal faults and uplift effects along both edges of the Lesser Antilles arc are most pronounced in its southern zone of arc collision with the South American continent. The late Miocene to Recent depositional histories of the Grenada and Tobago basins are distinct because of isolation of the Grenada basin by growth and uplift of the Neogene Lesser Antilles volcanic ridge.  相似文献   

7.
基于2000年5~6月在台湾岛以东海域调查获得的多波束全覆盖测深等地质和地球物理资料,对该海域海底地形特征进行了研究,探讨了构造对海底地形的控制作用及其构造地质意义.研究表明,琉球岛弧岛坡区和琉球海沟表现为典型的西太平洋沟-弧-盆体系控制下的构造地形;台湾岛东部岛坡等深线近南北向平行密集排列,地形坡度大,弧陆碰撞造就了该区独特的地形特征;花东盆地海底峡谷发育,其形成主要受基底起伏和走滑断裂的控制;加瓜海脊东西两侧水深和地形特征明显不同,但其基底可能属于花东盆地,加瓜海脊的东侧对应了两个不同性质板块的边界;西菲律宾海盆表现为北西向线状脊-槽相间排列,并遭受北东向转换断层的切割,根据海底地形、转换断层和磁异常条带的方向推测,研究区海底形成于距今60~45Ma的西菲律宾海盆北东-南西向扩张期.  相似文献   

8.
Recent volcanic activity along the northern flank of the Fiji Platform, revealed for the first time from new GLORIA imagery, suggests that the loci of interplate motion in this region have migrated rapidly since the switch from Vitiaz to New Hebridean subduction at 5–8 Ma. At present the plate boundaries along the northern flank of the Fiji Platform consist of two major strike-slip faults of opposing sense: the sinistral Fiji Transform Fault along the northwest flank of the platform, and at least one (or possibly two) zones of dextral strike slip (including Peggy Ridge) along the northeast flank. The tectonic relation-ships of these two fault systems lies north of Fiji and is not determined.  相似文献   

9.
Data on bottom-water potential temperature, turbidity and current indications show that in the Southern Ocean west of the Kerguelen Plateau, Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) of Weddell Sea origin spreads northwards from the Atlantic—Indian Basin in two directions: (1) AABW enters the Agulhas Basin through relatively deep areas in the Mid-Indian Ridge at 20–25°E and possibly at 35°E, and flows northwards into the Mozambique Basin as far as its northern limits; (2) a more easterly spreading path extends from the Atlantic—Indian Basin through the Crozet into the Madagascar, Mascarene, Somali and Arabian Basins. The passage in the western branch of the Indian Ridge for the AABW spreading from the Crozet into the Madagascar Basin appears to be at 29-26°S and 60–64°E.East of the Kerguelen Plateau in the South Indian Basin, the bottom water formed mainly along the Adélie Coast and Ross Sea travels west towards the Kerguelen Plateau and then parallel to it. This water finally flows eastwards hugging the Southeast Indian Ridge. Significant deviations from this general circulation pattern occur due to local topographic effects. Some AABW in the South Indian Basin exits through a passage at 120–125°E in the region of the Australian—Antarctic discordance in the Southeast Indian Ridge and enters the South Australian Basin and subsequently the Wharton Basin. This passage is clearly indicated by the northward extension of a cold, bottom-water tongue as shown by the temperature distribution in the region; the bottom-water effects in the passage are reflected in the high turbidity and current lineations on the sea floor.In the Southern Ocean basins, bottom-water turbidity is generally high, reflecting in part the strong bottom-water activity. The effects of AABW circulation on the sea floor—in the form of well-developed small- or large-scale current ripples and erosional/depositional features, manganese-nodule formations, and unconformities and reworking of sediments observed in cores — are also marked in these basins. Even though the AABW in the Wharton Basin is cold, its spreading effects on the sea floor are minimal in this basin in contrast to the basins west of the Mid-Indian Ridge at comparable latitudes.  相似文献   

10.
2D multichannel seismic data and bathymetric records from the glaciated western Svalbard margin and the rift valley region of the ultraslow, and oblique-spreading, Knipovich Ridge are in this study interpreted to infer differences in seafloor spreading mechanisms and to identify sedimentary processes. Our results show that the rift flank geometry, the rift valley elevation and the active magmatism are closely linked. The inferred magmatic segments of the Knipovich Ridge exhibit high and steep rift flanks, whereas the rift flank heights of the proposed tectonic-dominated segments are lower and less steep. In addition, we observe significant rift flank asymmetry across the rift valley which can be partly explained by subsidence due to sediment loading. The identification of a huge sedimentary wedge on the western rift flank suggests that the oldest parts of these sediments have been transported from the western Svalbard margin and across the rift valley. However, we suggest that most of these sediments are glacimarine/hemipelagic sediments which have been deposited in the time period after the rift valley flanks had developed sufficiently to cut off the direct transport routes from the western Svalbard margin. We also observe thick current depositions on the western side, suggesting a strong along-slope influence of the West Spitsbergen Current during the Plio–Pleistocene time period.  相似文献   

11.
Eleven seismic reflection profiles across Shirshov Ridge and the adjacent deep-water sedimentary basins (Komandorsky and Aleutian Basins) are presented to illustrate the sediment distribution in the western Bering Sea. A prominent seismic reflecting horizon, Reflector P (Middle—Late Miocene in age), is observed throughout both the Aleutian and Komandorsky Basins at an approximate subbottom depth of 1 km. This reflector is also present, in places, on the flanks and along the crest of Shirshov Ridge. The thickness of sediments beneath Reflector P is significantly different within the two abyssal basins. In the Aleutian Basin, the total subbottom depth to acoustic basement (basalt?) is about 4 km, while in the Komandorsky Basin the depth is about 2 km.Shirshov Ridge, a Cenozoic volcanic feature that separates the Aleutian and Komandorsky Basins, is an asymmetric bathymetric ridge characterized by thick sediments along its eastern flank and steep scarps on its western side. The southern portion of the ridge has more structural relief that includes several deep, sediment-filled basins along its summit.Velocity data from sonobuoy measurements indicate that acoustic basement in the Komandorsky Basin has an average compressional wave velocity of 5.90 km/sec. This value is considerably larger than the velocities measured for acoustic basement in the northwestern Aleutian Basin (about 5.00 km/sec) and in the central Aleutian Basin (5.40–5.57 km/sec). In the northwestern Aleutian Basin, the low-velocity acoustic basement may be volcaniclastic sediments or other indurated sediments that are overlying true basaltic basement. A refracting horizon with similar velocities (4.6–5.0 km/sec) as acoustic basement dips steeply beneath the Siberian continental margin, reaching a maximum subbottom depth of about 8 km. The thick welt of sediment at the base of the Siberian margin may be the result of sediment loading or tectonic depression prior to Late Cenozoic time.  相似文献   

12.
Giant Megamullion in the Parece Vela Backarc Basin   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
We present results of high-resolution bathymetric studies of the extinct intermediate-spreading Parece Vela Basin in the northwestern Pacific, where we have identified an extremely large mullion structure, here termed a giant megamullion. We find that the giant megamullion is nearly an order of magnitude larger than the similar structures in the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge (`megamullions'). The giant megamullion has slightly elevated mantle Bouguer anomaly, and yields serpentinized peridotites and gabbros, suggesting that they are exposing oceanic crust and upper mantle. An off-axis rugged `chaotic terrain' was also identified in the Parece Vela Basin. The terrain consists of isolated and elevated blocks capped by corrugated axis-normal lineations, and associated deeps. We thus interpret it as analogues to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge megamullions. We propose that amagmatic tectonics producing the giant megamullion and the chaotic terrain occupied a significant part in crustal construction in the Parece Vela Basin evolution.  相似文献   

13.
The traditional image of ocean circulation between Australia and Antarctica is of a dominant belt of eastward flow, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, with comparatively weak adjacent westward flows that provide anticyclonic circulation north and cyclonic circulation south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. This image mostly follows from geostrophic estimates from hydrography using a bottom level of no motion for the eastward flow regime which typically yield transports near 170 Sv. Net eastward transport of about 145 Sv for this region results from subtracting those westward flows. This estimate is compatible with the canonical 134 Sv through Drake Passage with augmentation from Indonesian Throughflow (around 10 Sv).A new image is developed from World Ocean Circulation Hydrographic Program sections I8S and I9S. These provide two quasi-meridional crossings of the South Australian Basin and the Australian–Antarctic Basin, with full hydrography and two independent direct-velocity measurements (shipboard and lowered acoustic Doppler current profilers). These velocity measurements indicate that the belt of eastward flow is much stronger, 271 ± 49 Sv, than previously estimated because of the presence of eastward barotropic flow. Substantial recirculations exist adjacent to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current: to the north a 38 ± 30 Sv anticyclonic gyre and to the south a 76 ± 26 Sv cyclonic gyre. The net flow between Australia and Antarctica is estimated as 157 ± 58 Sv, which falls within the expected net transport of 145 Sv.The 38 Sv anticyclonic gyre in the South Australian Basin involves the westward Flinders Current along southern Australia and a substantial 33 Sv Subantarctic Zone recirculation to its south. The cyclonic gyre in the Australian–Antarctic Basin has a substantial 76 Sv westward flow over the continental slope of Antarctica, and 48 ± 6 Sv northward-flowing western boundary current along the Kerguelen Plateau near 57°S. The cyclonic gyre only partially closes within the Australian–Antarctic Basin. It is estimated that 45 Sv bridges westward to the Weddell Gyre through the southern Princess Elizabeth Trough and returns through the northern Princess Elizabeth Trough and the Fawn Trough – where a substantial eastward 38 Sv current is hypothesized. There is evidence that the cyclonic gyre also projects eastward past the Balleny Islands to the Ross Gyre in the South Pacific.The western boundary current along Kerguelen Plateau collides with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that enters the Australian–Antarctic Basin through the Kerguelen–St. Paul Island Passage, forming an energetic Crozet–Kerguelen Confluence. Strongest filaments in the meandering Crozet-Kerguelen Confluence reach 100 Sv. Dense water in the western boundary current intrudes beneath the densest water of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current; they intensely mix diapycnally to produce a high potential vorticity signal that extends eastward along the southern flank of the Southeast Indian Ridge. Dense water penetrates through the Ridge into the South Australian Basin. Two escape pathways are indicated, the Australian–Antarctic Discordance Zone near 125°E and the Geelvinck Fracture Zone near 85°E. Ultimately, the bottom water delivered to the South Australian Basin passes north to the Perth Basin west of Australia and east to the Tasman Basin.  相似文献   

14.
Heck and Heckle are seamount chains trending approximately northwest on the western flank of Juan de Fuca Ridge near its northern end. Evidence from magnetic anomalies and from chemistry and relative ages of dredged basalt suggests that the seamounts in these chains are produced near the spreading centre on Juan de Fuca Ridge and do not continue to grow as they are carried away by sea-floor spreading. Their development is possibly related to transverse fractures on Juan de Fuca Ridge resulting from reorientation of the ridge from north to north-northeast which began about 8 m.y. ago, combined with tension in the Pacific Plate. In contrast the Eickelberg Chain to the south may have been produced by a fixed-mantle plume now located near Juan de Fuca Ridge, as suggested by limited basalt geochemistry and by the long and productive life of that chain. The Pratt-Welker Chain may also have been produced by a mantle plume, but most other seamounts on the western flanks of Juan de Fuca and Explorer ridges are thought to have formed at crustal fractures near the spreading centres in the same way as the seamounts of the Heck and Heckle chains.  相似文献   

15.
The southwestern part of the Scotia Sea, at the corner of the Shackleton Fracture Zone with the South Scotia Ridge has been investigated, combining marine magnetic profiles, multichannel seismic reflection data, and satellite-derived gravity anomaly data. From the integrated analysis of data, we identified the presence of the oldest part of the crust in this sector, which tentative age is older than anomaly C10 (28.7 Ma). The area is surrounded by structural features clearly imaged by seismic data, which correspond to gravity lows in the satellite-derived map, and presents a rhomboid-shaped geometry. Along its southern boundary, structural features related to convergence and possible incipient subduction beneath the continental South Scotia Ridge have been evidenced from the seismic profile. We interpret this area, now located at the edge of the south-western Scotia Sea, as a relict of ocean-like crust formed during an earlier, possibly diffuse and disorganized episode of spreading at the first onset of the Drake Passage opening. The successive episode of organized seafloor spreading responsible for the opening of the Drake Passage that definitively separated southern South America from the Antarctic Peninsula, instigated ridge-push forces that can account for the subduction-related structures found along the western part of the South Scotia Ridge. This seafloor accretion phase occurred from 27 to about 10 Ma, when spreading stopped in the western Scotia Sea Ridge, as resulted from the identification of the marine magnetic anomalies.  相似文献   

16.
GLORIA side-scan imagery from the northern North Fiji Basin reveals modern and relict sea-floor fabric. The South Pandora Ridge is marked by steep escarpments and small rift basins, but no recent volcanism. The northern and eastern limbs of the 16°58S, 173°55E triple junction are marked by rift grabens flanked by steep escarpments, but little recent volcanism is apparent there. At present, there is no well-organized spreading system in the northern North Fiji Basin; extension and shearing are occurring within narrowly confined areas. It is uncertain how these areas relate to one another and fit into the regional tectonic framework.  相似文献   

17.
The northern Mascarene Basin, lying between Madagascar and the Seychelles Plateau in the north-west Indian Ocean, is marked at its north-western end by the Amirante Arc, an enigmatic ridge-trench complex superficially resembling an island arc. Structural trends in the area have been mapped using GLORIA sidescan sonar data, seismic reflection profiles and bathymetric maps. It is concluded that the north-west Mascarene Basin was created during the Late Cretaceous by sea-floor spreading about a north-west trending spreading axis cut by northeast trending transform faults. A major transform fault between the northern tip of Madagascar and the western margin of the Seychelles Plateau is proposed as a boundary between the Late Cretaceous Mascarene basin and the older Somali Basin to the north-west. The northern segment of the Amirante Ridge may mark part of the transform. The southern segment of the Ridge and its associated trench are, however, wholly contained within the Late Cretaceous ocean floor of the Mascarene Basin, and are best explained as compressional features related to a change in sea-floor spreading geometry in the Late Cretaceous or earliest Tertiary. Two models for the evolution of the Mascarene Basin are proposed, the major differences between them being the amount of subduction at the southern Amirante Arc and the timing of the initial separation between India and the Seychelles.  相似文献   

18.
Swath MR1 data from the remnant Colville and active Kermadec arc margins, south of 33°30 S (SW Pacific), record the structural morphology and evolution of the rifted, and now separate portions, of the proto-Colville–Kermadec arc flanking the actively widening southern Havre Trough back-arc basin associated with Pacific-Australian plate convergence. Both the remnant Colville and active Kermadec arc margins comprise opposing, asymmetric, partially basement exposed, segmented ridges. Differences in morphology between the two ridges are, however, observed. The single, near linear, border fault system, with relief of 1000 m, along the western edge of the Kermadec margin is interpreted to be the exposed fault escarpment of a major, west-dipping, detachment fault. In contrast, two major zig-zag border fault systems along the eastern edge of the Colville Ridge, bounding a back-tilted ridge flank terrace, are interpreted as major antithetic faults between the remnant arc and back-arc region. This contrast in structural morphology coincides with, respectively, lesser and greater degrees of both active tectonism and channel-canyon erosion, on the remnant Colville and active Kermadec margins. These differences are interpreted to reflect the progressive trenchward collapse and associated greater rift flank uplift and incisive erosion of the Kermadec foot-wall contrasting with the non-collapse and relatively lesser rift flank uplift and ridge erosion of the Colville hanging-wall. The data provide further constraints on the early evolution of the Havre Trough in particular, and back-arc basins in general.  相似文献   

19.
The northeastern high-latitude North Atlantic is characterised by the Bellsund and Isfjorden fans on the continental slope off west Svalbard, the asymmetrical ultraslow Knipovich spreading ridge and a 1,000 m deep rift valley. Recently collected multichannel seismic profiles and bathymetric records now provide a more complete picture of sedimentary processes and depositional environments within this region. Both downslope and alongslope sedimentary processes are identified in the study area. Turbidity currents and deposition of glacigenic debris flows are the dominating downslope processes, whereas mass failures, which are a common process on glaciated margins, appear to have been less significant. The slide debrite observed on the Bellsund Fan is most likely related to a 2.5–1.7 Ma old failure on the northwestern Barents Sea margin. The seismic records further reveal that alongslope current processes played a major role in shaping the sediment packages in the study area. Within the Knipovich rift valley and at the western rift flank accumulations as thick as 950–1,000 m are deposited. We note that oceanic basement is locally exposed within the rift valley, and that seismostratigraphic relationships indicate that fault activity along the eastern rift flank lasted until at least as recently as 1.5 Ma. A purely hemipelagic origin of the sediments in the rift valley and on the western rift flank is unlikely. We suggest that these sediments, partly, have been sourced from the western Svalbard—northwestern Barents Sea margin and into the Knipovich Ridge rift valley before continuous spreading and tectonic activity caused the sediments to be transported out of the valley and westward.  相似文献   

20.
Magnetic profiles obtained during the Hesant 92/93 cruise with the R/V Hesperides show large amplitude anomalies (up to 1000 nT) along a 100 km wide band in the northern margin of the Powell Basin. The anomalies, which are also locally identified in the eastern and western margins, are attributed to the continuation of the two branches of the Antarctic Peninsula Pacific Margin Anomaly (PMA). Interactive modelling of two-dimensional bodies in four profiles oriented NNW-SSE allows us to determine the main features of the magnetic source bodies within the continental crust. These are elongated in a N60/degE trend, and their base is located at a depth exceeding 15 km. Equivalent magnetic susceptibilities mostly between 0.07 and 0.1 (SI) are obtained. These values are consistent with the hypothesis that remanent magnetisation of the magnetic source bodies is sub-parallel to the present geomagnetic field (norÍmally magnetised). The general trends of the bathymetry a nd the geometry of the acoustic basement on multichannel seismic profiles are consistent with the upper surface of magnetic bodies. In order to match the observed anomalies it is also necessary to consider a second tabular shaped body with induced magnetisation in almost all the profiles, which could represent layers 2 and 3 of the oceanic crust of the Powell Basin. Three different geometries of connection between the anomalies in the Powell Basin margins and the PMA branches are discussed. The most plausible one is the occurrence of two branches, although they are closer together than in the Bransfield Strait. The northern branch would continue along the fragments of continental crust of the South Scotia Ridge located at the northern boundary of the Powell Basin, whereas the southern branch would be located only in the eastern and western passive margins of the Powell Basin. The apparent splitting of the southern branch of the anomalous body indicates that it was emplaced before Oligo cene times, when the opening of this basin occurred, and that it was subsequently fragmented during the Cenozoic. A possible time of formation of the PMA body would be during the long Cretaceous normal polarity interval, which also coincides with a peak in magmatic activity along the Antarctic Peninsula.  相似文献   

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