ALBERT

Description: Leg 49 of the International Phase of Ocean Drilling (IPOD) was designed with a wide spectrum of problems in mind. Topics investigated were (1) variation with time of mantle sources of spreading-center magmas, (2) aging of the volcanic layer, (3) degree of hydrothermal alteration and metamorphism of the volcanic layer, (4) lateral and vertical variation of the petrochemistry, magnetic properties, and structure of the volcanic layer, (5) north-south variability of spreading-center magmas through the North Atlantic, (6) initiation of glaciation during the late Pliocene, and (7) the influence of bottom currents originating at the Iceland-Faeroes Ridge on sediments of the ridge flank province of the western North Atlantic.

Description: The post-middle Miocene evolution of sedimentary patterns in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean has been deduced from a compilation and synthesis of CaCO3, opal, and nannofossil assemblage data from 11 sites drilled during Leg 138. Improvements in stratigraphic correlation and time scale development enabled the construction of lithostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic frameworks of exceptional quality. These frameworks, and the high sedimentation rates (often exceeding 4 cm/k.y.) provided a detailed and synoptic paleoceanographic view of a large and highly productive region. The three highlights that emerge are: (1) a middle late Miocene "carbonate crash" (Lyle et al., this volume); (2) a late Miocene-early Pliocene "biogenic bloom"; and (3) an early Pliocene "opal shift". During the carbonate crash, an interval of dissolution extending from -11.2 to 7.5 Ma, CaCO3 accumulation rates declined to near zero over much of the eastern equatorial Pacific, whereas opal accumulation rates remained substantially unchanged. The crash nadir, near 9.5 Ma, was marked by a brief shoaling of the regional carbonate compensation depth by more than 1400 m. The carbonate crash has been correlated over the entire tropical Pacific Ocean, and has been attributed to tectonically-induced changes in abyssal flow through the Panamanian seaway. The biogenic bloom extended from 6.7 to 4.5 Ma, and was characterized by an overall increase in biogenic accumulation and by a steepening of the latitudinal accumulation gradient toward the equator. The bloom has been observed over a large portion of the global ocean and has been linked to increased productivity. The final highlight, is a distinct and permanent shift in the locus of maximum opal mass accumulation rate at 4.4 Ma. This shift was temporally, and perhaps causally, linked to the final closure of the Panamanian seaway. Before 4.4 Ma, opal accumulation was greatest in the eastern equatorial Pacific Basin (near 0°N, 107°W). Since then, the highest opal fluxes in the equatorial Pacific have occurred in the Galapagos region (near 3°S, 92°W).

Description: The SO-84 cruise from Las Palmas to Cape Town studied the underwater volcanism associated with the St Helena hotspot. Wide-spaced grid mapping of a region south and west of St Helena island identified three previously unknown hotspot volcanoes (which we named Josephine 16°27'S-9°W, Jade 16°13'S-7°46'W and Benjamin 16°12'S-8°31'W) and several older, probably near-ridge-generated seamounts. The newly discovered hotspot seamounts, and the previously-known seamounts of Bagration, Bonaparte and Kutuzov were mapped and sampled. Onboard geochemical studies confirm that they all show trace-element (Rb, Nb, Y, Zr, Sr) enriched, hotspot magma-type compositions. Morphological studies and the state of the samples collected from the seamounts (all have at least 1 mm-thick Mn crusts) suggest that none of the volcanoes is presently active, and that the St Helena hotspot is probably extinct at the present time. Josephine appears to be the youngest volcano, and one dredge here yielded fossil hydrothermal material (Fe-hydroxides). To test the hypothesis that the extinction of the hotspot is due to its magmas being channelled to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, several dredges were taken on the ridge opposite St Helena. Furthermore, in the proposed influence zone of the St Helena plume head, Grattan seamount (9°44'S-12°48'W) was also sampled to examine whether its composition has been affected by the St Helena plume. During the transit from Las Palmas to St Helena, several sediment cores were taken in 3000 m water depth close to the ridge axis for palaeoclimatological work.