ALBERT

Description: Characteristics of water masses were analyzed to study the Kuroshio intrusion into the sea southwest of Taiwan. Hydrographic data were obtained from CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth) casts during two cruises in May and August 1986. In May, remnants of water intruding from the Kuroshio were found on the continental slope south of the Penghu Channel. By August, these were replaced by water from the South China Sea. During this period, water from the Kuroshio also appeared near the southern tip of Taiwan. The intrusion current reached a depth of at least 500 m and was probably part of a cyclonic circulation in the northern South China Sea. The results support the hypothesis of a seasonal pattern of the intrusion process: intrusion of water from the Kuroshio begins in late summer, intensifies in winter, and ceases by late spring when South China Sea waters again enter this region.

Description: A seismic refraction profile recorded along the geologic strike of the Chugach Mountains in southern Alaska shows three upper crustal high-velocity layers (6.9, 7.2, and 7.6 km/s) and a unique pattern of strongly focussed echelon arrivals to a distance of 225 km. The group velocity of the ensemble of echelon arrivals is 6.4 km/s. Modeling of this profile with the reflectivity method reveals that the echelon pattern is due to peg-leg multiples generated from with a low-velocity zone between the second and third upper crustal high-velocity layers. The third high-velocity layer (7.6 km/s) is underlain at 18 km depth by a pronounced low-velocity zone that produces a seismic shadow wherein zone peg-leg multiples are seen as echelon arrivals. The interpretation of these echelon arrivals as multiples supersedes an earlier interpretation which attributed them to successive primary reflections arising from alternating high- and low-velocity layers. Synthetic seismogram modeling indicates that a low-velocity zone with transitional upper and lower boundaries generates peg-leg multiples as effectively as one with sharp boundaries. No PmP or Pn arrivals from the subducting oceanic Moho at 30 km depth beneath the western part of the line are observed on the long-offset (90-225 km) data. This may be due to a lower crustal waveguide whose top is the high-velocity (7.6 km/s) layer and whose base is the Moho. A deep (~54 km) reflector is not affected by the waveguide and has been identified in the data. Although peg-leg multiples have been interpreted on some long-range refraction profiles that sound to upper mantle depths, the Chugach Mountains profile is one of the few crustal refraction profiles where peg-leg multiples are clearly observed. This study indicates that multiple and converted phases may be more important in seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection profiles than previously recognized.

Description: During a seismic reflection survey conducted by the California Consortium for Crustal Studies in the Basin and Range Province west of the Whipple Mountains, SE California, a piggyback experiment was carried out to collect intermediate offset data (12–31 km). These data were obtained by recording the Vibroseis energy with a second, passive recording array, deployed twice at fixed positions at opposite ends of the reflection lines. The reflection midpoints fall into a 3-km-wide and 15-km-long region in Vidal Valley, roughly parallel to a segment of one of the near-vertical reflection profiles. This data set makes three unique contributions to the geophysical study of this region. (1) From forward modeling of the observed travel times using ray-tracing techniques, a shallow layer with velocities ranging from 6.0 to 6.5 km/s was found. This layer dips to the south from 2-km depth near the Whipple Mountains to a depth of 5-km in Rice Valley. These depths correspond closely to the westward projection of the Whipple detachment fault, which is exposed 1 km east of the near-vertical profiles in the Whipple Mountains. (2) On the near-vertical profile, the reflections from the mylonitically deformed lower plate at upper crustal and mid crustal depths are seen to cease underneath a sedimentary basin in Vidal Valley. However, the piggyback data, which undershoot this basin, show that these reflections are continuous beneath the basin. Thus near-surface energy transmission problems were responsible for the apparent lateral termination of the reflections on the near-vertical reflection profile. (3) The areal distribution of the midpoints allows us to construct a quasi-three-dimensional image on perpendicular profiles; at the cross points we determined the true strike and dip of reflecting horizons. This analysis shows that the reflections from the mylonitically deformed lower plate dip to the southwest westward of the Whipple Mountains and dip to the south southward of the Turtle Mountains. The results of this study support the interpretation of crustal reflectivity in the near-vertical reflection profiles to be related to the mid-Tertiary episode of extension which produced the Whipple metamorphic core complex. This association geometrically suggests a more regionally distributed mechanism for crustal thinning as compared with single detachment fault models.

Description: The regions containing the two zonal currents of the subtropical gyre in the eastern North Atlantic, the Azores Current and the North Equatorial Current (NEC), have quite different physical characteristics. Associated with the Azores Current are strong horizontal thermohaline gradients that can be located easily both at the surface and at depth with temperature data alone, thus making satellite IR imagery and expendable bathythermograph profiles suitable for observing it. During winter, the surface expression of the Azores Current is often found to the north of the strongest subsurface gradients. In contrast to the Azores Current and to the central water mass boundary just to the south, the NEC has relatively weak horizontal temperature and salinity gradients, requiring density information in order to identify it. There is no clear surface manifestation found with the NEC. Common to both currents, though, is that each transports O(8 Sv) in the upper 800 m of the ocean near 27°W, with the largest velocities being in the upper 400 m.

Description: Li/Ca ratios in modern brachiopod shells generally correlate inversely with growth temperature, ranging from ∼20 µmol/mol at 30°C to ∼50 µmol/mol at 0°C with no apparent interspecific offsets. Causes of the temperature effect on Li/Ca ratios are not yet understood. Cenozoic brachiopod Li/Ca ratios average ∼30 µmol/mol, similar to the average observed in modern brachiopods. Relatively constant Li/Ca ratios for Eocene to Pleistocene nonluminescent brachiopod shells, consistent with previous observations of Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera, support the conclusion of little variation in Cenozoic seawater Li/Ca. Nonluminescent portions of Permian and Carboniferous brachiopods have Li/Ca ratios substantially lower (generally 〈10 µmol/mol) than modern, Cenozoic, or Devonian samples. Mass balance considerations, constrained by δ18O of brachiopods, suggest that low Li concentrations in Permo-Carboniferous seawater could be the result of a lower flux of dissolved Li from the continents and/or a higher flux of Li from seawater to clastic marine sediments. Nonluminescent Devonian brachiopods from a single hand specimen have Li/Ca ratios around 70% of the modern average. These Li/Ca ratios can be explained by either somewhat higher temperature with constant seawater Li/Ca, somewhat lower seawater Li/Ca at constant temperature, or a combination of slightly elevated temperature and slightly lower seawater Li/Ca.

Description: Turrialba volcano, the southeasternmost volcano in the Central American arc, is constructed of medium to high-K calcalkaline basalts, andesites, and dacites, plus rare basalts with unusually high Nb concentrations. The compositions of these high-Nb basalts are more similar to those of intraplate basalts than they are to typical calcalkaline or arc-tholeiitic basalts. The association of calcalkaline and high-Nb basalts is rare in arc front volcanoes, seemingly being restricted to volcanoes that overlie Oligocene or younger subducting crust or that overlie the edges of subducting plates. The calcalkaline and high-Nb basalts at Turrialba have generally similar major element, trace element, and isotopic compositions but differ significantly in their Ba/La and La/Nb ratios. The geochemical similarities imply that they were derived from similar ocean island basalt sources. Their geochemical differences suggest that residual rutile stabilized by a large ion lithophile element bearing slab-derived fluid was present during calcalkaline basalt genesis but not during high-Nb basalt genesis. To explain the stability of rutile in a calcalkaline melt with a relatively low TiO2 concentration, we use a model that involves two stages of melting for both basalt types. Silica saturated high degree melts with mid-ocean ridge basalt like incompatible element concentrations generated by upwelling mantle are used as mixing end-members for both the calcalkaline and the high-Nb basalts. The calcalkaline basalts represent mixtures of the high-degree melts and oxidized small-degree melts generated by amphibole breakdown in mantle overlying the subducting slab. This small-degree melt has high incompatible element concentrations and is saturated in rutile. Arc-related lamprophyric rocks have compositions that are appropriate for these small-degree melts. High-Nb basalts are mixtures of the high-degree melts and more reduced small-degree melts that are undersaturated in rutile. These reduced melts may migrate around or through the subducting slab into the wedge to become involved in arc magma genesis.

Description: Hole 504B is by far the deepest hole yet drilled into the oceanic crust in situ, and it therefore provides the most complete “ground truth” now available to test our models of the structure and evolution of the upper oceanic crust. Cored in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean in 5.9-m.y.-old crust that formed at the Costa Rica Rift, hole 504B now extends to a total depth of 1562.3 m below seafloor, penetrating 274.5 m of sediments and 1287.8 m of basalts. The site was located where the rapidly accumulating sediments impede active hydrothermal circulation in the crust. As a result, the conductive heat flow approaches the value of about 200 mW/m² predicted by plate tectonic theory, and the in situ temperature at the total depth of the hole is about 165°C. The igneous section was continuously cored, but recovery was poor, averaging about 20%. The recovered core indicates that this section includes about 575 m of extrusive lavas, underlain by about 200 m of transition into over 500 m of intrusive sheeted dikes; the latter have been sampled in situ only in hole 504B. The igneous section is composed predominantly of magnesium-rich olivine tholeiites with marked depletions in incompatible trace elements. Nearly all of the basalts have been altered to some degree, but the geochemistry of the freshest basalts is remarkably uniform throughout the hole. Successive stages of on-axis and off-axis alteration have produced three depth zones characterized by different assemblages of secondary minerals: (1) the upper 310 m of extrusives, characterized by oxidative “seafloor weathering“; (2) the lower extrusive section, characterized by smectite and pyrite; and (3) the combined transition zone and sheeted dikes, characterized by greenschist-facies minerals. A comprehensive suite of logs and downhole measurements generally indicate that the basalt section can be divided on the basis of lithology, alteration, and porosity into three zones that are analogous to layers 2A, 2B, and 2C described by marine seismologists on the basis of characteristic seismic velocities. Many of the logs and experiments suggest the presence of a 100- to 200-m-thick layer 2A comprising the uppermost, rubbly pillow lavas, which is the only significantly permeable interval in the entire cored section. Layer 2B apparently corresponds to the lower section of extrusive lavas, in which original porosity is partially sealed as a result of alteration. Nearly all of the logs and experiments showed significant changes in in situ physical properties at about 900–1000 m below seafloor, within the transition between extrusives and sheeted dikes, indicating that this lithostratigraphic transition corresponds closely to that between seismic layers 2B and 2C and confirming that layer 2C consists of intrusive sheeted dikes. A vertical seismic profile conducted during leg 111 indicates that the next major transition deeper than the hole now extends—that between the sheeted dikes of seismic layer 2C and the gabbros of seismic layer 3, which has never been sampled in situ—may be within reach of the next drilling expedition to hole 504B. Therefore despite recent drilling problems deep in the hole, current plans now include revisiting hole 504B for further drilling and experiments when the Ocean Drilling Program returns to the eastern Pacific in 1991.

Description: In an attempt to create a scenario for the cause of the glacial to interglacial CO2 change recorded in air trapped in polar ice, we call on an increase in the alkalinity of polar surface waters. In this way we circumvent a major deficiency of the polar nutrient scenarios of Sarmiento and Toggweiler (1984), Siegenthaler and Wenk (1984) and Knox and McElroy (1984). Namely, our scenario does not require a drop in the nutrient content of polar surface waters in conformity with the demonstration by Boyle (1988a, b) that the cadmium content of planktonic foraminifera from polar regions did not decrease from late glacial to Holocene time. The rise in alkalinity required by our model is a natural consequence of the demise, during glacial time, of North Atlantic Deep Water as a major force in ocean circulation and of the nutrient maximum deepening of Boyle (1988b). Rather than being original, our hypothesis builds on the concept basic to the polar nutrient hypotheses, namely that the CO2 partial pressure in polar waters controls that for both the atmosphere and warm surface ocean. It also requires the alkalinity increase in surface waters produced by Boyle's nutrient deepening.

Description: A 4-year expendable bathythermograph data set (1984–1987) from the area between southern Brazil and the Antarctic Peninsula provides information on the interannual variability of front locations. Two boundaries of subtropical water at different depths are identified north and south of the Brazil Current-Falkland (Malvinas) Current confluence zone. The northern Subtropical Front is displaced over a large part of the Argentine Basin from one observational period to the other. The shallow southern Subtropical Front appears fixed to the Falkland Escarpment. The Polar Front and Subantarctic Front locations do not vary much, except for one case where a cold core eddy in the Polar Frontal Zone causes a large northward displacement of the Subantarctic Front.

Description: The Azores Current, south of the Azores Archipelago, is part of the subtropical North Atlantic gyre. Using an international hydrographic data set, we analyze mean and seasonal geostrophic transport fields in the upper 800 m of the ocean in order to determine the origin of the Azores Current in the western basin and seasonal changes in the related flow. Geostrophic currents are obtained by using the method applied by Stramma (1984) in the eastern basin. The Azores Current is found to originate in the area of the Southwest Newfoundland Rise (Figure 10). In winter an almost uniform current connects this region of origin with the Azores Current, while a branching into two current bands is observed in summer, with the southern band forming a marked cyclonic loop. Within the upper 800 m, all of the transport in the northern band and about 70% of the transport in the southern band recirculates in the eastern basin. Additionally, expendable bathythermograph data from the Azores Current region indicate an increase of eddy potential energy from winter to summer.

Description: Two buoy types have been tested with respect to their drift performance under drogued and undrogued conditions. Additionally, forces acting on the buoys were measured directly. Quadratic drag laws have been confirmed for the drag in water and the combined drag of wind and waves. Stokes drift contributes about one half to the wind factor of 0.023, which is obtained for undrogued buoys in the Atlantic. The forces on a windowshade drogue are given by a linear relation between force and water velocity for speeds exceeding 10 cm/s. They have been extrapolated to speeds of less than 10 cm/s by both a linear and a quadratic relationship. Correlations between drift and wind speed in the Atlantic suggest that the linear law is a better approximation under realistic conditions. According to these measurements in the Atlantic the described buoy-drogue system with a windowshade drogue in 100-m depth is a good current-measuring device. Slippage is negligible for wind speeds of less than 15 m/s and is less than 2 cm/s under gale conditions. Undrogued buoys are strongly affected by wind and cannot be used for the analysis of currents without correction, even under light winds.

Description: Along the continental margin of northern Peru, Sea Beam bathymetry and seismic reflection records reveal features from mass wasting in the middle and lower slope areas. A curved scarp cuts the middle slope and marks a slip surface seaward of which a 20 by 33 km block was displaced 800 m and back rotated 5° as it moved downslope. The front of that block is itself marked by a 1‐km‐high curved scar where the block failed and created a ∼30‐km debris flow avalanche. The avalanche morphology of closed highs and lows without directional fabric covers the lower slope and trench axis seaward of the detached block. If the slip was catastrophic, a local ∼50‐m‐high tsunami was generated. This example documents the type of slope failure commonly inferred as a source of destructive tsunamis. Since the block was detached along faults that displace beds 3–5 km deep, it represents more than a superficial slide where sediment was locally oversteepened. The detached block includes rocks that were part of the continental margin since at least Eocene time in front of which a 15‐km‐wide accretionary complex subsequently developed. Apparently, only low levels of horizontal compression could be transmitted into the upper plate because of weak coupling across the Benioff zone. This may have permitted detachment and mass movement of the block despite the long history of plate convergence here. Tsunamogenic slides and mass wasting at trench depths are difficult to detect without modern high‐resolution techniques.

Description: The constitutive relations describing the fluid pressure response of a porous medium to changes in stress and temperature must reflect the microscopic processes that are operative over the time scale allowed for the deformation. Short‐duration deformations are readily described by undrained moduli, and intermediate duration deformations by drained moduli, both of which are formulated through linear elastic theory. Long‐term deformations that operate over geologic time are normally dominated by irreversible processes and result in considerably larger deformations, for the same applied stress conditions, than would be expected from their elastic counterparts. Model constitutive equations are developed for both elastic and irreversible processes and the magnitude and interpretation of the relevant material properties examined. Although the theory is presented in general terms, a sample calculation shows that for sandstone the inelastic deformation is one and one half orders of magnitude greater than the elastic deformation at the same applied stress. This difference in magnitude has a significant effect on the effective hydraulic diffusivity, various pore pressure coefficients, and the prospective fluid pressure development of the sediment.

Description: Near-surface sediments from the equatorial east Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea exhibit pronounced shear strength maxima in profiles from the peak Holocene and Pleistocene. These semi-indurated layers start to occur at 8–102 cm below the sediment surface and can be explained neither by the modal composition nor by the effective overburden pressure of the sediments. However, scanning electron microscope and microprobe data exhibit micritic crusts and crystal carpets, which are clearly restricted to (undisturbed) samples from indurated layers and form a manifest explanation for their origin. The minerals precipitated comprise calcite, aragonite, and in samples more proximal to the African continent SiO2 needles, and needles of as yet unidentified K-Mg-Fe-Al silicates, crusts of which dominate the indurated layers in the Norwegian Sea. By their stratigraphic position in deep-sea sediments the carbonate-based shear strength maxima are tentatively ascribed to dissolved adjacent pteropod layers from the early Holocene and hence to short-lived no-analogue events of early diagenesis. Possibly, they have been controlled by a reduced organic carbon flux, leading to increased aragonite preservation in the deep sea.