ALBERT

Description: Wide-angle reflection/refraction seismic profiles were recorded across the Cyprus Arc, the plate boundary between the African Plate and the Aegean–Anatolian microplate, from the Eratosthenes Seamount to the Hecataeus Rise immediately south of Cyprus. The resultant models were able to resolve detail of significant lateral velocity variations, though the deepest crust and Moho are not well resolved from the seismic data alone. Conclusions from the modelling suggest that (i) Eratosthenes Seamount consists of continental crust but exhibits a laterally variable velocity structure with a thicker middle crust and thinner lower crust to the northeast; (ii) the Hecataeus Rise has a thick sedimentary rock cover on an indeterminate crust (likely continental) and the crust is significantly thinner than Eratosthenes Seamount based on gravity modelling; (iii) high velocity basement blocks, coincident with highs in the magnetic field, occur in the deep water between Eratosthenes and Hecataeus, and are separated and bounded by deep low-velocity troughs and (iv) one of the high velocity blocks runs parallel to the Cyprus Arc, while the other two appear linked based on the magnetic data and run NW–SE, parallel to the margin of the Hecataeus Rise. The high velocity block beneath the edge of Eratosthenes Seamount is interpreted as an older magmatic intrusion while the linked high velocity blocks along Hecataeus Rise are interpreted as deformed remnant Tethyan oceanic crust or mafic intrusives from the NNW–SSE oriented transform margin marking the northern boundary of Eratosthenes Seamount. Eratosthenes Seamount, the northwestern limit of rifted continental crust from the Levant Margin, is part of a jagged rifted margin transected by transform faults on the northern edge of the lower African Plate that is being obliquely subducted under the Aegean–Anatolian upper plate. The thicker crust of Eratosthenes Seamount may be acting as an asperity on the subducting slab, locally locking up subduction of the Cyprus Arc on its northern margin, while deformed Tethyan oceanic crust remains trapped between its northeastern margin and the Hecataeus Rise.

Description: We present the combined results of deep multichannel reflection and refraction seismic surveys across the Flemish Cap–Goban Spur conjugate margin pair (North Atlantic), which we use to infer rifting style and breakup. Profiles on both margins cross magnetic anomaly 34 and extend into oceanic crust, making it possible to observe the complete history from continental rifting through to the formation of initial oceanic crust. The deep multichannel seismic (MCS) reflection data have previously been used to support a model of symmetric pure shear extension followed by asymmetric breakup and a sharp continent-ocean boundary. Using both types of seismic data, our results indicate instead that asymmetric structures are formed during all stages of rifting, breakup, and complex transition to oceanic spreading. The differing nature of the two ocean-continent transition zones is particularly striking. For Flemish Cap, our reprocessed image of the MCS profile clearly shows tilted fault blocks beneath back-tilted sediment packages, consistent with a wide region of highly thinned continental crust inferred from wide-angle seismic data. In contrast, normal incidence and wide-angle seismic data for the Goban Spur transition zone indicate the presence of exhumed serpentinized mantle.

Description: We present a 500-km long, 2-D P -wave velocity model across the Orphan Basin, offshore NE Newfoundland, Canada, from Flemish Cap to the Bonavista Platform, formed using refraction and wide-angle reflection data from 89 ocean-bottom seismometers. This layered model builds on a recent traveltime tomography result using additional constraints from coincident multichannel seismic reflection and gravity data plus borehole logs from three wells. The model shows (i) post-rift Tertiary (velocities ~1.7–3.5 km s –1 ) and (ii) both post-rift and syn-rift, Cretaceous and Jurassic sediments (~4–5 km s –1 ), deposited within an eastern and a western sub-basin that are separated by a major basement block. The existence of Jurassic sediments indicates a pre-Cretaceous rifting phase in the eastern sub-basin, and possibly in the western sub-basin. However, there is no evidence that Triassic sediments are widespread across the Orphan Basin. Two upper crustal sublayers and one lower crustal layer are defined by differences in velocities (5.4–6.1, 6.1–6.5 and 6.3–7.1 km s –1 , respectively) and vertical velocity gradients (mean = 0.14, 0.10 and 0.05 s –1 , respectively). Crustal thinning is asymmetric across the Orphan Basin. Within the eastern sub-basin, continental crust beneath Flemish Cap (~32 km thick; β ~ 1.1) thins westward into a 35-km-wide zone of hyperextended crust (〈10 km thick; β 〉 3.4) beneath an 11-km-deep sedimentary basin. Within the western sub-basin, the Bonavista Platform crust (~32 km thick) thins eastward into a 116-km-wide zone of hyperextended crust. Two zones of thicker crust (β = 2–3.5) exist within the central section, with muted topography within the eastern part and large basement highs in the western part, separated by the eastward dipping White Sail Fault (WSF). The zone to the east of the WSF displays higher velocities in the lower crust than to the west. This can only be explained by a lateral ductile flow across the zone boundary. By combining the two upper crustal sublayers into one, we define the full crustal thicknesses of the upper and lower crusts as 12 and 22 km, respectively. The extension and thinning factors of these two layers are calculated across the basin. Discrepancies between upper crustal thinning and lower crustal thinning are common but only produce a small mass deficit (~7 per cent or 1.5 km) in the lower crust. Structural connections are shown between the Rockall Trough and the West Orphan Basin and between the Porcupine Basin and the East Orphan Basin in that a wider hyperextended western basin is paired with a narrower eastern basin by a middle zone of thicker crust. In contrast to the Rockall Trough and the Porcupine Basin, serpentinized mantle is not observed in the East Orphan Basin where hyperextended crust is observed (β max  ~ 8.5). One possible cause is that the restricted size of the basin and its location adjacent to Flemish Cap may have permitted a heavier supply of sediment to cover the basement early during its extension. Such a cover would inhibit the flow of water into the crust and thus leave the mantle unchanged.

Description: In 2010, a wide-angle seismic reflection/refraction profile was acquired along the Hecataeus Rise, an area of shallow seabed immediately south of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. The profile crossed from the Hecataeus Rise, through the Cyprus Arc to the Levantine Basin beyond. Due to the short length of the profile and the corresponding lack of deep ray coverage, velocity modelling was complemented by gravity modelling to gain constraints on deep crustal structure. The resultant model reveals velocities for the Hecataeus Rise that show no evidence of shallow ophiolites like those seen on mainland Cyprus, and the velocities are not diagnostic of a unique crustal affinity. Low-velocity sediments make up at least 7 km of the upper structure of Hecataeus Rise and these sediments overlie a two-layered crust. From the gravity modelling, the combined sediments and crust of Hecataeus Rise appear to be thinner than the Eratosthenes Seamount block to the southwest. A high-velocity lower crustal block is modelled under the seaward edge of Hecataeus Rise and, based on the gravity modelling, is inferred to extend landwards beneath the Rise. Similar high-velocity blocks were identified on the southwestern edge of Hecataeus Rise along nearby refraction lines and were interpreted as remnant Tethyan oceanic crust, foundered in the Cyprus Arc, along which subduction has ceased in this area. Given the thin two-layered crust beneath a thick accumulation of sediments modelled for Hecataeus Rise, we interpret that Hecataeus Rise represents a collage of oceanic fragments, accreted together within the failed subduction zone. Outboard of the crust of Hecataeus Rise, a 5-km deep low-velocity basin, possibly an accretionary wedge, is imaged that appears to correspond with the Cyprus Arc deformation zone imaged on both coincident and along-strike seismic reflection lines. A similar and wider feature is observed on seismic refraction lines to the west and combined, these may be revealing an eastward tapering zone of crustal deformation. To the south of the profile, the Levantine Basin appears undisturbed by the collision to the north and exhibits a uniform and homogeneous velocity structure.