ALBERT

Description: The Arctic changes rapidly in response to global warming and is expected to change even faster in the future (IPCC 2001, 2007, 2013). Large areas of the shelves and continental slopes bordering the Arctic Ocean are characterized by permafrost and the presence of gas hydrates. Future global warming and potential hydrate dissociation in the Arctic Ocean challenge the slope stability of these areas. This may lead to slope failures. The first, and so far only reported, largescale slope failure in the Arctic Ocean is the Hinlopen/Yermak Megaslide (HYM). Following our previous studies, we wanted to investigate this giant slope failure and the deeper structure of the Sophia Basin in detail to elucidate the potential causes of the main and following failure events as well as to test existing hypotheses on the generation of this giant submarine landslide. Our investigations focused on (1) pre-site survey of proposed IODP drill sites, (2) deep tectonic structure and seismicity of the Sophia Basin and (3) future failure potential north of Svalbard. Furthermore, we extended measurements along the Spitsbergen Fracture Zone in the Fram Strait, where a new deep-sea slide was discovered in 2012 during cruise MSM 21/4. Also, we tied existing ODP drill holes on top of the southern Yermak Plateau to our new and existing seismic networks. We applied a combination of hydro-acoustic mapping, deep and high-resolution multichannel seismic reflection profiling and a wide-angle seismic survey with broad-band oceanbottom seismometers (BB-OBS). We mapped two headwall and sidewall areas of the HYM for indication of gas seepage including sampling. In addition, we sampled sediments to characterize the young sedimentation record, for dating and for geo-technical analysis.

Description: According to classical plume theory, the Tristan da Cunha hotspot is thought to have played a major role in the rifting of the South Atlantic margins and the creation of the aseismic Walvis Ridge by impinging at the base of the continental lithosphere shortly before or during the breakup of the South Atlantic margins. However, Tristan da Cunha is enigmatic as it cannot be clearly identified as a hot spot but may also be classified as a more shallow type of anomaly that may actually have been caused by the opening of the South Atlantic. The equivocal character of Tristan is largely due to a lack of geophysical data in this region. It is of central importance to characterize the region around Tristan da Cunha with geophysical data in a more coherent way to understand the tectonic processes of the opening of the South Atlantic and the formation of the Walvis Ridge, i.e. to understand whether Tristan da Cunha is the cause or the consequence of the rifting. We therefore staged a multi-disciplinary geophysical study of the region by acquiring passive marine electromagnetic and seismic data, bathymetric data as well as gravity data from which we will derive an electrical resistivity, seismic velocity and density model down to a depth of several hundred kilometres. These models will be interpreted in the context of geochemical data and tectonic models developed within the SPP1375 South Atlantic Margin Processes and Links with onshore Evolution (SAMPLE). On the cruise MSM24 we acquired bathymetric data within the Tristan da Cunha region and recovered 26 out of 26 ocean-bottom magnetotelluric stations (OBEM), 22 out of 24 broadband ocean-bottom seismometers (BBOBS) as well as two seismic and one magnetotelluric (MT) land stations from the uninhabited Nightingale Island. These stations were deployed one year ago during cruise MSM20/2. The cruise also offered the opportunity for a colleague from the University Heidelberg to conduct geological sampling on Tristan da Cunha.

Description: According to classical plume theory, the Tristan da Cunha hotspot is thought to have played a major role in the rifting of the South Atlantic margins and the creation of the aseismic Walvis Ridge by impinging at the base of the continental lithosphere shortly before or during the breakup of the South Atlantic margins. But Tristan da Cunha is enigmatic, as it cannot be clearly identified as a hot-spot but classifies also highly as a more shallow type of anomaly that may actually have been caused by the opening of the South Atlantic. The equivocal character of Tristan is largely due to lack of geophysical data in this region. To understand the tectonic processes of the opening of the South Atlantic, the formation of the Walvis ridge and to understand whether Tristan da Cunha is the cause or the consequence of rifting, it is of central importance to characterize the region around Tristan da Cunha in a more coherent way. Within this research cruise we deployed 26 ocean bottom electromagnetic stations (OEBM) and 24 ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) for a long term acquisition (1 year) of magnetotelluric and seismological data, acquired bathymetry and gravity data and performed geological sampling on Tristan da Cunha. The data will be interpreted in the context of geochemical data and tectonic models developed within the SPP1375 South Atlantic Margin Processes and Links with onshore Evolution (SAMPLE).

Description: The Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau are uplifted by the ongoing northward underthrusting of the Indian continental lithosphere below Tibet resulting in lithospheric stacking. The layered structure of the Tibetan upper mantle is imaged by seismic methods, most detailed with the receiver function method. Tibet is considered as a place where the development of a future craton is currently under way. Here we study the upper mantle from Germany to northern Sweden with seismic S receiver functions and compare the structure below Scandinavia with that below Tibet. Below Proterozoic Scandinavia, we found two low velocity zones on top of each other, separated by a high velocity zone. The top of the upper low velocity zone at about 100km depth extends from Germany to Archaean northern Sweden. It agrees with the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) below Germany and Denmark. Below Sweden it is known as the 8°discontinuity, or as a mid-lithospheric discontinuity (MLD), similar to observations in North America. Seismic tomography places the LAB near 200km in Scandinavia, which is close to the top of our deeper low velocity zone. We also observed the bottom of the asthenosphere (the Lehmann discontinuity) deepening from 180km in Germany to 260km below Sweden. Remnants of old subduction in the upper about 100km below Scandinavia and Finland are known from controlled source seismic experiments and local earthquake studies. Recent tomographic studies indicate delamination of the lithosphere below southern Scandinavia and northern Germany. We are suggesting that the large scale layered structure in the Scandinavian upper mantle may be caused by processes similar to the ongoing lithospheric stacking in Tibet.

Description: Ultraslow spreadingmid-ocean ridges have a low magma budget and melt is distributed unevenly along the ridge axis. There is little or no basaltic crust between isolated magmatic centers. The processes that focus melts to segments of robust magmatism are not yet understood. During a seismic survey of the ultraslow spreading Knipovich Ridge in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea with ocean bottom seismometers, we discovered a seismic gap in the upper mantle beneath Logachev Seamount, where micro-earthquakes clearly delineate a shallowing of the maximum depth of faulting. A topography of the lithosphere that allows melts to travel laterally along its base and rise in areas of thin lithosphere has been proposed as a possible mechanism to explain the focusing of melts at volcanic centers, but has never been confirmed observationally. Our results are the first geophysical evidence for an along-axis variation of the lithospheric thickness at an ultraslow spreading ridge.

Description: In this study we present a 3D P-wave upper-mantle tomography model of the SW Iberian margin and Alboran Sea based on teleseismic arrival times recorded by Iberian and Moroccan land stations and by a seafloor network deployed for 1 year in the Gulf of Cadiz area during the EC-NEAREST project. The 3D model was computed down to 600 km depth. The tomographic images exhibit significant velocity contrasts, as large as 3%, confirming the complex evolution of this plate boundary region. Prominent high-velocity anomalies are found beneath Betics-Alboran Sea, off-shore SW Portugal, and N Portugal, at sublithospheric depths. The transition zones between high and low velocity anomalies in SW and S Iberia are associated to the contact of oceanic and continental lithosphere. The fast structure below the Alboran Sea-Granada area depicts a L-shaped body steeply dipping from the uppermost mantle to the transition zone where it becomes less curved. This anomaly is consistent with the results of previous tomographic investigations and recent geophysical data such as stress distribution, GPS measurements of plate motion, and anisotropy patterns. In the Atlantic domain, under the Horseshoe Abyssal Plain, the main feature is a high-velocity zone found at uppermost mantle depths. This feature appears laterally separated from the positive anomaly recovered in the Alboran domain by the interposition of low-velocity zones which characterize the lithosphere beneath the SW Iberian peninsula margin, suggesting that there is no continuity between the high velocity anomalies of the two domains west and east of the Gibraltar Strait.