The mid- to late Holocene paleoceanographic changes in the northern North Atlantic     

Jón EIR 《Frontiers of Earth Science》2008,2(4):449-457

A high-resolution diatom record from core MD99-2275 shows a general paleoceanographic change in the northern North Atlantic since 5000 cal. a B.P. by Principle Component Analysis. Sea surface temperature (SST) increased gradually during 5000 and 3000 cal. a B.P. on the North Icelandic shelf as a result of increasing influence of warm Atlantic water mass from the Irminger Current. It apparently started to decrease since 3000 cal. a B.P. due to the weakening influence of warm water and enhanced influence of the Polar and Arctic water masses from the East Greenland Current and the East Icelandic Current. Abrupt decreases in SST and intrusions of Polar and Arctic water superimposed on the late Holocene cooling trend during 3000-2600, 1300-1000 and 600-200 cal. a B.P.. The paleoceanographic record revealed from core MD99-2275 corresponds well with δ¹⁸O record from the GISP2 and is generally consistent with other SST records based on diatom on the North Icelandic shelf. __________ Translated from Marine Science Bulletin, 2008, 27(5) [译自:海洋通报]  相似文献   

Bimodal volcanism in northeast Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (Greater Antilles Island Arc): Genetic links with Cretaceous subduction of the mid-Atlantic ridge Caribbean spur     

Wayne T. Jolly  Edward G. Lidiak  Alan P. Dickin   《Lithos》2008,103(3-4):393-414

Bimodal extrusive volcanic rocks in the northeast Greater Antilles Arc consist of two interlayered suites, including (1) a predominantly basaltic suite, dominated by island arc basalts with small proportions of andesite, and (2) a silicic suite, similar in composition to small volume intrusive veins of oceanic plagiogranite commonly recognized in oceanic crustal sequences. The basaltic suite is geochemically characterized by variable enrichment in the more incompatible elements and negative chondrite-normalized HFSE anomalies. Trace element melting and mixing models indicate the magnitude of the subducted sediment component in Antilles arc basalts is highly variable and decreases dramatically from east to west along the arc. In the Virgin Islands, the sediment component ranges between< 0.5 to  1% in Albian rocks, and between  1 and 2% in succeeding Cenomanian to Campanian strata. In comparison, sediment proportions in central Puerto Rico range between 0.5 to 1.5% in the Albian to 2 to > 4% during the Cenomanian-Campanian interval. The silicic suite, consisting predominantly of rhyolites, is characterized by depleted Al₂O₃ (average < 16%), low Mg-number (molar Mg/Mg + Fe < 0.5), TiO₂ (< 1.0%), and Sr/Y (< 10), oceanic or arc-like Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope signatures, and by the presence of plagioclase. All of these features are consistent with an anatexic origin in gabbroic sources, of both oceanic and arc-related origin, within the sub-arc basement. The abundance of silicic lavas varies widely along the length of the arc platform. In the Virgin Islands on the east, rhyolites comprise up to 80% of Lower Albian strata (112 to 105 Ma), and about 20% in post-Albian strata (105 to 100 Ma). Farther west, in Puerto Rico, more limited proportions (< 20%) of silicic lavas were erupted. The systematic variation of both sediment flux and abundance of crustally derived silicic lavas are consistent with current tectonic models of Caribbean evolution involving approximately perpendicular subduction of the Caribbean spur of the mid-Atlantic Ridge, which was located approximately midway between North and South America until Campanian times. Within this hypothetical setting the centrally positioned Virgin Islands terrain remained approximately fixed above the subducting ridge as the Antilles arc platform swept northeastward into the slot between the Americas. Accordingly, heat flow in the Virgin Islands was elevated throughout the Cretaceous, giving rise to widespread crustal melting, whereas the subducted sediment flux was limited. Conversely, toward the west in central Puerto Rico, which was consistently more remote from the subducting ridge, heat flow was relatively low and produced limited crustal melting, while the sediment flux was comparatively elevated.  相似文献   

Low paleosecular variation at the equator: a paleomagnetic pilgrimage from Galapagos to Esterel with Allan Cox and Hans Zijderveld     

Rochette  P.  Ben Atig  F.  Collombat  H.  Vandamme  D.  Vlag  P. 《Geologie en Mijnbouw》1997,76(1-2):9-19

McFadden and Merrill (1995) suggested that the paleosecular variation (PSV) measured by the angular scatter of the virtual geomagnetic pole is minimal at the equator and should be smaller during a superchron than during the last 5 Myr. We revisited a key site of the 0–5 Ma database, the Galapagos archipelago, studied by Allan Cox in the early sixties. We obtained 79 sites with reliable mean directions on four islands (San Cristobal, Floreana, Santa Cruz and Pinzon), showing a larger proportion of transitional data than Cox (16 instead of 6%), because the sampling was concentrated on the Brunhes-Matuyama transition as delimited by Cox. This dataset allowed us to test the statistical method of Vandamme (1994) to separate PSV from transitional data. We obtained an angular scatter value of 11.2° (9.9–12.9°), instead of 16.8° for an a-priori rejection angle of 40°, compared with the 12.7° predicted from the global compilation (McFadden et al. 1991). Studies of sequences of lava flows are quite scarce in the Permian Kiaman Superchron, and the Esterel volcanics with their subequatorial paleolatitude are a good candidate to test the above prediction. We confirm the quality of the original data of Zijderveld (1975) and we improved the mean direction from one site. We also used new geological and geochronological data: Ar/Ar ages point to the period 264–278 Ma for a totally reversed volcanic sequence, in agreement with an ending of the Kiaman Superchron at 262–268 Ma. The extremely low angular scatter obtained (4 to 8°, depending on data selection) confirms the prediction, but an alternative interpretation invoking a post-volcanic Permian remagnetization is discussed.  相似文献   

Effects of eruption history and cooling rate on lava dome growth   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

J. H. Fink  N. T. Bridges 《Bulletin of Volcanology》1995,57(4):229-239

To better understand the factors controlling the shapes of lava domes, laboratory simulations, measurements from active and prehistoric flows and dimensional analysis were used to explore how effusion history and cooling rate affect the final geometry of a dome. Fifty experiments were conducted in which a fixed volume of polyethylene glycol wax was injected into a tank of cold sucrose solution, either as one continuous event or as a series of shorter pulses separated by repose periods. When the wax cooling rates exceeded a critical minimum value, the dome aspect ratios (height/diameter) increased steadily with erupted volume over the course of a single experiment and the rate at which height increased with volume depended linearly on the time-averaged effusion rate. Thus the average effusion rate could be estimated from observations of how the dome shape changed with time. Our experimental results and dimensional analyses were compared with several groups of natural lava flows: the recently emplaced Mount St Helens and Soufrière domes, which had been carefully monitored while active; three sets of prehistoric rhyolite domes that varied in eruptive style and shape; and two sets of Holocene domes with similar shapes, but different compositions. Geometric measurements suggest that dome morphology can be directly correlated with effusion rate for domes of similar composition from the same locality, and that shape alone can be related to a dimensionless number comparing effusion rate and cooling rate. Extrapolation to the venusian pancake domes suggests that they formed from relatively viscous lavas extruded either episodically or at average effusion rates low enough to allow solidified surface crust to exert a dominating influence on the final morphology.  相似文献   

Volcanism and archipelagic aprons in the Marquesas and Hawaiian Islands     

P. E. Filmer  M. K. McNutt  H. F. Webb  D. J. Dixon 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1994,16(5):385-406

Geophysical observations demonstrate that the archipelagic apron surrounding the Marquesan hot-spot volcanoes is derived almost entirely from mass wasting processes. Seismic reflection and refraction data constrain the volume of the apron sediments to approximately 200,000 km³, with thicknesses reaching over 2 km in the deep portions of the moat near the edge of the volcanic edifice. Seismic velocities average 4 to 5 km s^–1 in the sediments, and 6 km s^–1 at the top of the underlying basement. Single channel seismic profiles show acoustically chaotic cores in the sediments of the apron, which are interpreted as debris flows from mass wasting events. We deduce that the apron is formed by catastrophic collapses that may involve volumes over 100 km³ tens to hundreds of times during the lifetime of a volcano. Comparison with similar data from the Hawaiian Islands yields the result that the total volume of volcanics and their derived sediments along the strike of the chains is only slightly smaller for the Marquesas, implying comparable eruption rates. However, the ratio of sediment to surface volcanic load is much larger for the latter, leading to an overfilled moat in the Marquesas and an underfilled moat at Hawaii. The much larger size of the Hawaiian islands can be explained as the combined effects of a higher thermal swell, loading a stiffer elastic plate, and proportionately less mass wasting.  相似文献   

Abundant seamounts of the Rano Rahi seamount field near the Southern East Pacific Rise, 15° S to 19° S     

Daniel S. Scheirer  Ken C. Macdonald  Donald W. Forsyth  Yang Shen 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1996,18(1):13-52

A widespread seamount province, the Rano Rahi Field, is located near the superfast spreading Southern East Pacific Rise (SEPR) between 15°–19° S. Particularly abundant volcanic edifices are found on Pacific Plate aged 0 to 6.5 Ma between 17°–19° S, an area greater than 100,000 km². The numbers of seamounts and their volume are several times greater than those of a comparablysurveyed area near the Northern East Pacific Rise (NEPR), 8°–17° N. Most of the Rano Rahi seamounts belong to chains, which vary in length from 25 km to >240 km and which are very nearly collinear with the Pacific absolute and relative plate motion directions. Bends of 10°–15° occur along a few of the chains, and some adjacent chains converge or diverge slightly. Many seamount chains have fluctuations in volume along their length, and statistical tests suggest that some adjacent chains trade-off in volume. Several seamount chains split into two lines of volcanoes approaching the axis. In general, seamount chains composed of individual circular volcanoes are found near the axis; the chains consist of variably-overlapping edifices in the central part of the survey; to the west, volcanic ridges predominate. Near the SEPR, the volume of nearaxis seamount edifices is generally reduced near areas of deflated cross-sectional area of the axial ridge. Fresh lava flows, as imaged by sidescan sonar and sampled by dredging, exist around some seamounts throughout the entire survey area, in sharp contrast to the absence of fresh flows beyond 30 km from the NEPR. Also, the increases in seamount abundance and volume extend to much greater crustal ages than near the NEPR. Seamount magnetization analysis is also consistent with this wider zone of seamount growth, and it demonstrates the asynchronous formation of most of the seamount chains and volcanic ridges. The variety of observations of the SEPR seamounts suggests that a number of factors and mechanisms might bring about their formation, including the mantle upwelling associated with superfast spreading, off-axis mantle heterogeneities, miniplumes and local upwelling, and the vulnerability of the lithosphere to penetration by volumes of magma. In particular, we note the association of extensive, recent volcanism with intermediate wavelength gravity lineaments lows on crust aged 6 Ma. This suggests that the lineaments and some of the seamounts share a common cause which may be related to ridge-perpendicular asthenospheric convection and/or some manner of extension in the lithosphere.  相似文献   

Variations in axial processes on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: The median valley of the MARK area     

Jennifer R. Brown  Jeffrey A. Karson 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1988,10(1-2):109-138

Submersible observations and photogeology document dramatic variations in the distribution of young volcanic rocks, faulting, fissuring, and hydrothermal activity along an 80 km-long segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge south of the Kane Transform (MARK Area). These variations define two spreading cells separated by a cell boundary zone or a small-offset transform zone. The northern spreading cell is characterized by a median ‘neovolcanic’ ridge which runs down the axis of the median valley floor for 40 km. This edifice is as much as 4 km wide and 600 m high and is composed of very lightly sedimented basalts inferred to be < 5000 years old. It is the largest single volcanic constructional feature discovered to date on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The active Snake Pit hydrothermal vent field is on the crest of this ridge and implies the presence of a magma chamber in the northern spreading cell. In contrast, the southern cell is characterized by small, individual volcanos similar in size to the central volcanos in the FAMOUS area. Two of the volcanos that were sampled appear to be composed of dominantly glassy basaltic rocks with very light sediment cover; whereas, other volcanos in this region appear to be older features. The boundary zone between the two spreading cells is intensely faulted and lacks young volcanic rocks. This area may also contain a small-offset ( < 8 km) transform zone. Magmatism in the northern cell has been episodic and tens of thousands of years have lapsed since the last major magmatic event there. In the southern cell, a more continuous style of volcanic accretion appears to be operative. The style of spreading in the southern cell may be much more typical for the Mid-Atlantic Ridge than that of the northern cell because the latter is adjacent to the 150 km-offset Kane Transform that may act as a thermal sink along the MAR. Such large transforms are not common on the MAR, therefore, lithosphere produced in a spreading cell influenced by a large transform may also be somewhat atypical.  相似文献   

Magmatic evolution of the Easter microplate-Crough Seamount region (South East Pacific)     

Roger Hekinian  Peter Stoffers  Dietrich Akermand  Nicolas Binard  Jean Francheteau  Colin Devey  Dieter Garbe-Schönberg 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1995,17(4):375-397

The Easter microplate-Crough Seamount region located between 25° S–116° W and 25° S–122° W consists of a chain of seamounts forming isolated volcanoes and elongated (100–200 km in length) en echelon volcanic ridges oriented obliquely NE (N 065°), to the present day general spreading direction (N 100°) of the Pacific-Nazca plates. The extension of this seamount chain into the southwestern edge of the Easter microplate near 26°30 S–115° W was surveyed and sampled. The southern boundary including the Orongo fracture zone and other shallow ridges (< 2000 m high) bounding the Southwest Rift of the microplate consists of fault scarps where pillow lava, dolerite, and metabasalts are exposed. The degree of rock alternation inferred from palagonitization of glassy margins suggests that the volcanic ridges are as old as the shallow ridges bounding the Southwest Rift of the microplate. The volcanics found on the various structures west of the microplate consist of depleted (K/Ti < 0.1), transitional (K/Ti = 0.11–0.25) and enriched (K/Ti > 0.25) MORBs which are similar in composition to other more recent basalts from the Southwest and East Rifts spreading axes of the Easter microplate. Incompatible element ratios normalized to chondrite values [(Ce/Yb)_N = 1–2.5}, {(La/Sm)_N = 0.4–1.2} and {(Zr/Y)_N = 0.7–2.5} of the basalts are also similar to present day volcanism found in the Easter microplate. The volcanics from the Easter microplate-Crough region are unrelated to other known South Pacific intraplate magmatism (i.e. Society, Pitcairn, and Salas y Gomez Islands). Instead their range in incompatible element ratios is comparable to the submarine basalts from the recently investigated Ahu and Umu volcanic field (Easter hotspot) (Scientific Party SO80, 1993) and centered at about 80 km west of Easter Island. The oblique ridges and their associated seamounts are likely to represent ancient leaky transform faults created during the initial stage of the Easter microplate formation ( 5 Ma). It appears that volcanic activity on seamounts overlying the oblique volcanic ridges has continued during their westward drift from the microplate as shown by the presence of relatively fresh lava observed on one of these structures, namely the first Oblique Volcanic Ridge near 25° S–118° W at about 160 km west of the Easter microplate West Rift. Based on a reconstruction of the Easter microplate, it is suggested that the Crough seamount (< 800 m depth) was formed by earlier (7–10 Ma) hotspot magmatic activity which also created Easter Island.  相似文献   

Quantitative mapping of active mud volcanism at the western Mediterranean Ridge-backstop contact     

Alain Rabaute  Nicolas Chamot-Rooke 《Marine Geophysical Researches》2007,28(3):271-295

Based on a new quantitative analysis of sidescan sonar data combined with coring, we propose a revised model for the origin for Mediterranean Ridge mud volcanism. Image analysis techniques are used to produce a synthetic and objective map of recent mud flows covering a 640 × 700 km² area, which represents more than half of the entire Mediterranean Ridge mud belt. We identify 215 mud flows, extruded during the last 37,000–60,000 years. This time period corresponds to the limit of penetration of the sonar, that we evaluate through geoacoustic modeling of the backscattered signal returned by the mud breccia-hemipelagites contact, and calibrate by coring. We show that during this period, at least 96% of the mud volume has been extruded at the Mediterranean Ridge-Hellenic backstop contact, the remaining being scattered over the prism. We suggest that the source is a Messinian (5–6 Ma) mud reservoir that remained close to the backstop contact, at variance with the classical transport-through-the-wedge model. A revised mud budget indicates that steady-state input is not needed. We propose that the source layer was deposited in deep and narrow pre-Messinian basins, sealed by Messinian evaporites, and finally inverted in post-Messinian times. Onset of motion of the Anatolia-Aegea microplate in the Pliocene resulted in change from slow to fast convergence, triggering shear partitioning at the edges of the backstop and basin inversion. Mud volcanism initiation is probably coeval with the latest events of this kinematic re-organization, i.e. opening of the Corinth Gulf and activation of the Kephalonia fault around 1–2 Ma.  相似文献   

Nonhomogeneous Poisson model for volcanic eruptions     

Chih-Hsiang Ho 《Mathematical Geology》1991,23(2):167-173

A simple Poisson process is more specifically known as a homogeneous Poisson process since the rate was assumed independent of time t. The homogeneous Poisson model generally gives a good fit to many volcanoes for forecasting volcanic eruptions. If eruptions occur according to a homogeneous Poisson process, the repose times between consecutive eruptions are independent exponential variables with mean=1/. The exponential distribution is applicable when the eruptions occur at random and are not due to aging, etc. It is interesting to note that a general population of volcanoes can be related to a nonhomogeneous Poisson process with intensity factor(t). In this paper, specifically, we consider a more general Weibull distribution, WEI (, ), for volcanism. A Weibull process is appropriate for three types of volcanoes: increasing-eruption-rate (>1), decreasing-eruption-rate (<1), and constant-eruption-rate (=1). Statistical methods (parameter estimation, hypothesis testing, and prediction intervals) are provided to analyze the following five volcanoes: Also, Etna, Kilauea, St. Helens, and Yake-Dake. We conclude that the generalized model can be considered a goodness-of-fit test for a simple exponential model (a homogeneous Poisson model), and is preferable for practical use for some nonhomogeneous Poisson volcanoes with monotonic eruptive rates.  相似文献