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Fluid venting from a mud volcano in the Mediterranean Ridge Diapiric Belt |
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| Authors: | MB Cita JM Woodside MK Ivanov RB Kidd AF Limonov Scientific Staff of Cruise TTR - Leg |
| Institution: | Universita' degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sezione Geologia e Paleontologia, Via L. Mangiagalli 34, I-20133 Milan, Italy;Faculty of Earth Sciences, Free University, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands;Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University, 1 Universitetskaya Place, 119899 Moscow, Russia;Department of Geology, University of Wales, College of Cardiff, PO Box 914, Cardiff CF1 3YE, UK |
| Abstract: | Direct observation of active emission of fluids and mud from a submarine mud volcano were made for the first time in an extensive field of mud diapirs and mud volcanoes on the Mediterranean Ridge using a video camera towed 2 m above the seafloor in 1800 m of water. This recent research using both long range and deep-towed sidescan sonar systems indicates also that diapirism and eruption of mud along the crest of the ridge is more common than previously thought. The southwards increase in age of rock fragments carried within the erupted mud supports the hypothesis that the fluid mud becomes overpressured within a southward-dipping backthrust from the Inner Deformation Front of this accretionary prism. |
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