ALBERT

Description: One of the most puzzling characteristics of sea-floor morphology is the occurrence of anomalously shallow, fracture-zone–parallel, oceanic transverse ridges. A model is proposed for the formation of transverse ridges near lat 21° and 24°N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in which the differential responses of large-offset and small-offset fracture zones to recent changes in spreading direction result in the generation of normal faults that coincide with the off-axis traces of fracture zones. Numerical models of the flexural response of the lithosphere to normal faulting suggest that modest amounts of extension (〈5 km) along low-angle faults (〈45°) are responsible for the transverse ridges.

Description: The early breakup of western Pangea has been investigated by mapping the pattern of fracture zones and distribution of seismic reflectors within the sedimentary cover of the Atlantic between the Cape Verde Islands and the equator. Two distinct sets of transverse oceanic lineaments are present, separated by the Guinea Fracture Zone near lat 10°N. Lineaments to the north are associated with the formation of the central Atlantic in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous; those in the south relate to the Cretaceous opening of the South Atlantic. The Guinea Fracture Zone is thus the conjugate of the Jurassic transform boundary under peninsular Florida, which linked the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico. The distribution of dated seismic reflectors suggests that deposition of deep-water sediments was confined to the region north of the Guinea transform until Aptian time, when the Sierra Leone Basin began to open. The latter started to widen at least 15 m.y. after the initiation of the Cape Basin off southwest Africa, an age difference that can be explained if a short-lived plate boundary developed in either Africa or South America during the Early Cretaceous. Neither the trends of the equatorial fracture zones nor the seismic stratigraphy supports the existence of a predrift gap between west Africa and Brazil.

Description: Hydrothermal venting, an important cooling mechanism of the Earth, supports a diverse array of seafloor and sub-seafloor ecosystems that are sustained by large thermal and chemical fluxes. Vents have been found along even the slowest and coldest spreading centers, calling into question the driving heat source for these vents. The ultraslow-spreading Mid-Cayman Spreading Center in the Caribbean Sea, which hosts the axial-flank Von Damm Vent Field (VDVF), provides an opportunity to probe the mechanisms for venting at ultraslow spreading rates. Using active-source seismic data from the 2015 CaySeis (Cayman Seismic) experiment, we determined the seismic velocities in the large massif beneath the VDVF. We propose that this massif was produced by a pulse of on-axis magmatism at ca.2 Ma, which was then followed by exhumation, cooling, and fracturing. A low seismic velocity anomaly 5 km below the VDVF is evidence for either a cracking front mining lithospheric heat or intrusive magmatic sills, both of which could drive ongoing deep hydrothermal fluid circulation. We conclude that the transient magmatism and variable crustal thickness at ultraslow-spreading centers create conditions for long-lived hydrothermal venting that may be widespread, and other VDVF-like vents may be common in these areas.

Description: Mineral assemblages in volcanic rocks record both pre-eruptive conditions and changes experienced by magma as it rises. Titanomagnetite in andesitic magmas is especially sensitive to changes in temperature and oxygen fugacity immediately prior to and during eruptions. Two end-member eruption states can be distinguished by examining titanomagnetite textures in erupted rocks. Slow-ascent eruptions—characterized by near-stagnant magma bodies and slow effusion of lava domes—show solid-state exsolution of titanohematite/ilmenite lamellae within titanomagnetite hosts. By contrast, fast-ascent eruptions—characterized by rapid chilling of magma in sub-Plinian eruptions—contain titanomagnetites without such exsolution features. This mineralogical distinction is particularly useful in examining very fine-grained distal tephra layers where other characteristic properties of the two eruptions types are not present. Such tephra records in lake deposits typically provide the most precise long-term eruption records from andesitic volcanoes. Using an example from Mount Taranaki, New Zealand, we show that by classifying eruption styles within such sequences, the underlying magmatic system processes at a volcano can be elucidated and separated from other environmental factors such as vent/crater configuration.

Description: Marine sediments contribute significantly to global element cycles on multiple time scales. This is due in large part to microbial activity in the shallower layers and abiotic reactions resulting from increasing temperatures and pressures at greater depths. Quantifying the rates of these diagenetic changes requires a three-dimensional description of the physiochemical properties of marine sediments. In a step toward reaching this goal, we have combined global data sets describing bathymetry, heat conduction, bottom-water temperatures, and sediment thickness to quantify the three-dimensional distribution of temperature in marine sediments. This model has revealed that ∼35% of sediments are above 60 °C, conditions that are suitable for petroleum generation. Furthermore, significant microbial activity could be inhibited in ∼25% of marine sediments, if 80 °C is taken as a major thermal barrier for subsurface life. In addition to a temperature model, we have calculated new values for the total volume (3.01 × 108 km3) and average thickness (721 m) of marine sediments, and provide the only known determination of the volume of marine-sediment pore water (8.46 × 107 km3), equivalent to ∼6.3% of the volume of the ocean. The results presented here can be used to help quantify the rates of mineral transformations, lithification, catagenesis, and the extent of life in the subsurface on a global scale.

Description: Logs collected while drilling measured density in situ, through the accretionary prism and decollement zone of the northern Barbados Ridge. Consolidation tests relate void ratio (derived from density) to effective stress and predict a fluid pressure profile, assuming that the upper 100 m of the prism is at a hydrostatic pressure gradient. The calculated fluid pressure curve rises to 〉90% of lithostatic below thrusts in the prism, presumably due to the increase in overburden and lateral tectonic loading. Thin (0.5–2.0 m) intervals of anomalously low density and resistivity in the logs through the basal decollement zone suggest dilation and perhaps hydrofracturing. A peak in hydraulic head in the upper half of the decollement zone requires lateral influx of fluid, a conclusion consistent with previous geochemical studies. Although the calculated fluid-pressure profile is model dependent, its inherent character ties to major structural features.

Description: Asteroid impacts play an important role in the evolution of planetary surfaces. In the inner solar system, the large majority of impacts occur on bodies (e.g., asteroids, the Moon, Mars) covered by primitive igneous rocks. However, most of the impacts recorded on Earth occur on different rock types and are poor proxies for planetary impacts. The Lonar crater is a 1.88-km-diameter, Quaternary age crater (Fig. 1) located on the ca. 66 Ma Deccan basaltic traps in Maharashtra (India), and is one of the very few craters on Earth emplaced directly on basaltic lava flows. We carried out 12 40Ar/39Ar step-heating experiments on 4 melt rock samples in order to (1) obtain a precise age for the Lonar crater; (2) study the response of isotopic chronometers during impacts on mafic target rocks; and (3) better understand the dating of extraterrestrial impact craters. We obtained 10 plateau and 9 inverse isochron ages on various aliquots. Combination of selected data into a global inverse isochron yielded an age of 570 ± 47 ka (MSWD = 1.1; P = 0.24). In comparison, previous nonisotopic investigations on rocks thought to be affected by secondary processes yielded a range of much younger ages (ca. 12–62 ka). The measured 40Ar/36Ar trapped values offer a direct comparison with the atmospheric benchmark value and allow us to test the inherited 40Ar* degassing capacity of basaltic impact melt rocks. The 40Ar/36Ar ratio of 296.5 ± 1.7 is indistinguishable from the atmospheric composition and suggests that inherited 40Ar* is absent from the melt rock. This result substantiates diffusion models that predict a near-complete degassing of low-viscosity melt (e.g., basalts) during impact, and demonstrates for the first time that inherited 40Ar* is less problematic for 40Ar/39Ar dating of impact events in basaltic igneous rocks compared to Si-rich rocks. These results provide direct evidence that basaltic melt rocks are excellent candidates for recording the timing of planetary impact events and, as far as dating is concerned, should be the preferred targets of sample recovery by future missions.

Description: One method of testing the concept of sequence stratigraphy is to compare it to Quaternary sediments in which chronology, stratigraphic relations, and facies geometry are more clearly understood than in older rocks. Rapid deposition rates during Quaternary glacial-eustatic cycles in large deltaic depocenters generate sequences comparable to those in the ancient stratigraphic record. In the northern Gulf of Mexico, the late Wisconsinan-Holocene Mississippi River has deposited a Type 1 sequence that includes lowstand, transgressive, and high-stand systems tracts. Characteristics of modern Mississippi River sedimentary environments support the methodology used in sequence analysis, but the short time taken for sequence generation here raises important questions about sequence time scales, correlation, and driving mechanisms.

Description: Gold colloids occur in black smoker fluids from the Niua South hydrothermal vent field, Lau Basin (South Pacific Ocean), confirming the long-standing hypothesis that gold may undergo colloidal transport in hydrothermal fluids. Six black smoker vents, varying in temperature from 250 °C to 325 °C, were sampled; the 325 °C vent was boiling at the time of sampling and the 250 °C fluids were diffusely venting. Native gold particles ranging from 〈50 nm to 2 μm were identified in 4 of the fluid samples and were also observed to precipitate on the sampler during collection from the boiling vent. Total gold concentrations (dissolved and particulate) in the fluid samples range from 1.6 to 5.4 nM in the high-temperature, focused flow vents. Although the gold concentrations in the focused flow fluids are relatively high, they are lower than potential solubilities prior to boiling and indicate that precipitation was boiling induced, with sulfide lost upon boiling to exsolution and metal sulfide formation. Gold concentrations reach 26.7 nM in the 250 °C diffuse flow sample, and abundant native gold particles were also found in the fluids and associated sulfide chimney and are interpreted to be a product of colloid accumulation and growth following initial precipitation upon boiling. These results indicate that colloid-driven precipitation as a result of boiling, the persistence of colloids after boiling, and the accumulation of colloids in diffuse flow fluids are important mechanisms for the enrichment of gold in seafloor hydrothermal systems.

Description: Numerous studies invoke weak layers to explain the occurrence of submarine mega-slides (〉100 km3), in particular those on very gentle slopes (〈3°). Failure conditions are thought to be met only within this layer, which is embedded between stable sediments. Although key to understanding failure mechanisms, little is known about the nature and composition of such weak layers, mainly because they are destroyed with the landslides. This study is the first to place detailed constraints on the weak layer for one of the submarine mega-slides that occurred on the nearly flat, subtropical, northwest African continental slopes. Integrating results from the Ocean Drilling Program with high-resolution seismic reflection data, we show that the failure surfaces traced into the undisturbed sedimentary sequence coincide with thin (〈10 m) diatom ooze layers capped by clay. As diatom oozes are common on many continental margins, we suggest a new margin-independent failure mechanism to explain submarine mega-slides at low-gradient continental slopes globally. Diatom oozes are susceptible to building up excess pore fluid during burial due to their high compressibility and water content. If a low-permeable clay cap prevents upward drainage, excess pore pressures accumulate at the ooze-clay interface, causing the shearing resistance to increase at a lower rate than the shear stress until failure can occur. Changes in global climate affect the abundance of diatoms and thus formation of diatom oozes, thereby preconditioning the sediments for failure. However, the actual timing of failure is independent of environmental changes.

Description: In the Ionian Sea, one of the most seismically active regions in the Mediterranean, subduction is commonly associated with uplift of coastal mountains, enhanced erosion, and seismic activity along the Calabrian Arc and Hellenic Arc, thus potentially resulting in repetitive mass failures. Some of the turbidites observed in the deep basins are thick and prominent on seismic records because of the acoustic transparency of their upper structureless mud layer. Our high-resolution study of the most recent of these megabeds, the homogenite Augias turbidite (HAT), provides key proxies to identify pelagic sediments deposited following the catastrophic causative event. Radiometric dating in an area 〉150,000 km2 indicates that the different Mediterranean so-called homogenite deposits are in fact synchronous and were deposited during a single basin-wide event within the time window A.D. 364–415. Unlike interpretations that relate this turbidite to different triggering events, including the Santorini caldera collapse, the turbidite can be traced back to a large tsunami sourced from the A.D. 365 Crete megathrust earthquake. Correlation of the single-event HAT over a wide area of the Mediterranean, from the northern Ionian Sea to the Mediterranean Ridge and the anoxic Tyro Basin south of Crete, suggests that the A.D. 365 Crete earthquake and tsunami must have produced devastating effects, including widespread massive sediment remobilization in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Description: On the basis of heat-flow measurements, seismic mapping, and sediment pore-water analysis, we demonstrate widespread and efficient ventilation of the 18–22 Ma oceanic crust of the northeast equatorial Pacific Ocean. Recharge and discharge appear to be associated with basement outcrops, including seamounts and north-south–trending faults, along which sediment cover thins out and volcanic rocks are exposed. Low-temperature hydrothermal circulation through the volcanic crust leads to the reduction of heat flow through overlying sediments, with measured heat-flow values that are well below those expected from conductive cooling curves for lithosphere of this age. Typically, dissolved pore-water oxygen decreases from the sediment surface downward, reaching minimum values at mid-depth and rising again in the lower part of the cores investigated, clearly indicating oxygen-rich seawater circulation through the oceanic crust underneath the sediments. If the residence time of the circulating fluids in the upper crust is short or the fluid flux is large, oxic conditions may be preserved, and oxygen can diffuse upwards into the sediments. This process, leading to widespread oxic conditions in the near-basement sediments, may cause the oxidation of residual reduced material stored in the deeper sediments, resulting in downward fluxes of the reaction products into the basement and from there back into the oceans. Considering the widespread existence of this type of off-axis ventilation, the net effect of the resulting return flow of reaction products on biogeochemical cycles and element fluxes (e.g., carbon and nitrogen) may be very large.

Description: Volcanic sequences on ocean islands record the temporal evolution of underlying magmatic systems and provide insights into how silicic crust is produced away from convergent margins. Assimilation has often been suspected to contribute, but the detection of such a process and its evolving maturity during migration across a mantle plume is less well documented. Here we present new major and trace element and Sr-Nd-Pb-U-Th-Ra-Pa isotope data that facilitate comparison of basanite to phonolite evolution on Tenerife (Canary Islands) with that shown by published data from La Palma. On both islands, (230Th/238U) ratios decrease with differentiation from parental magmas with 230Th excess toward different, silicic contaminants in secular equilibrium. On La Palma, this is inferred to reflect assimilation of small amounts of mafic wall rock. On Tenerife, both (230Th/238U) and (231Pa/235U) ratios decrease toward 1 with increasing differentiation, and this is accompanied by a subtle increase in Pb isotope ratios. At the same time, (226Ra/230Th) ratios change from 〈1 to 〉1 (a hitherto unreported magnitude). The Tenerife assimilant is thus constrained to be a partial melt of syenite formed in equilibrium with residual feldspar. The differences reflect a primarily deeper, more mafic magma system beneath La Palma during its late shield-building stage, whereas recent magmatic evolution at Tenerife occurs primarily at lower temperatures in small, shallower magma systems formed during its post–basaltic shield stage. Differentiation takes millennia or less.

Description: The Ediacaran Period is punctuated by the ca. 580 Ma Gaskiers glaciation in Newfoundland. However, paleoclimatic data are scarce in Ediacaran successions in South China, where abundant geochemical and paleobiological data are shaping current understanding of Ediacaran evolutionary and environmental history. Here, we report the occurrence of silicified glendonites in the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation deposited in an inner-shelf environment on the South China block. Petrographic evidence suggests that these silicified glendonites are pseudomorphs after syndepositional or early authigenic ikaites formed at near-freezing temperatures. The glendonite-bearing stratigraphic interval is characterized by positive δ13C values. It predates both the negative δ13C excursion EN3 (widely believed to be an equivalent of the Shuram negative excursion) and excursion EN2. Although alternative interpretations may be possible, these glendonites may be related to and correlated with the Gaskiers glaciation. If confirmed, this correlation suggests that the Shuram event postdates the Gaskiers glaciation, thus having important implications for Ediacaran climate changes, carbon cycles, and biological evolution.

Description: Central American arc volcanism shows strong regional trends in lava chemistry that result from differing slab contributions to arc melting. However, the mechanism that transfers slab-derived trace elements into the mantle wedge remains largely unknown. By using a dynamic model for mantle flow and fluid release, we model the fate of three different slab-fluid sources: sediment, ocean crust, and serpentinized mantle. In the open subarc system, sediments lose almost all their highly fluid mobile elements by ∼50 km depth, so other fluid sources are necessary to explain the slab signal in arc-lava compositions. The well-documented transition from lavas with a strong geochemical slab signature (i.e., high Ba/La ratios) found in Nicaragua to lavas with a weaker slab signature (i.e., low Ba/La ratios) erupted in Costa Rica seems easiest to produce by a higher fraction of serpentine-hosted fluids released from the deeply faulted, highly serpentinized lithosphere subducting beneath Nicaragua than from the less deeply faulted, thicker, amphibolitic oceanic-crust and oceanic-plateau lithosphere subducting beneath Costa Rica.

Description: North Atlantic climate is very sensitive to overturning in the Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian (GIN) Seas, overflow of deep water into the North Atlantic via the Greenland-Iceland-Scotland Ridge, and compensating northward flow of warm surface water. Physical models suggest that, in the absence of such overturning, oceanic heat transport to the Northern Hemisphere is reduced by as much as 50%, open North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures are as much as 6 °C lower, and the winter sea-ice limit migrates as far south as 45°N. Although simulations of the equilibrium climate state for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) suggest the absence of GIN Seas overflow, tests of these model results have been hampered by ambiguity in sedimentary proxies. Here we present a bottom-water neodymium (Nd) isotope record from the Rockall Trough to investigate changes in the sources of circulating waters over the past 43 k.y. Today and throughout most of the Holocene, water from the GIN Seas, along with water from the North Atlantic Current (NAC) entrained during overflow, sets the bottom-water Nd isotope composition of the Rockall Trough to ∼–10. Our results suggest the persistence of this scenario back into the LGM and beyond to mid-Marine Isotope Stage 3. Periodic radiogenic excursions punctuate the record at times of meltwater events, implying either continued GIN Seas overflow without NAC entrainment, or millennial-scale interruptions in the overflow and shoaling of Southern Source Water. We conclude that overflow was at least intermittently present during the LGM, if not continuous, and that the GIN Seas have remained a source of deep water to the North Atlantic during the last glacial cycle.

Description: Geochemical, biomarker, and isotopic evidence suggests that the end-Permian was characterized by extreme oceanic anoxia that may have led to hydrogen sulfide buildup and mass extinction. We use an earth system model to quantify the biogeochemical and physical conditions necessary for widespread oceanic euxinia and hydrogen sulfide release to the atmosphere. Greater than threefold increases in ocean nutrient content combined with nutrient-trapping ocean circulation cause surface-water H2S accumulation in the paleo–Tethys Ocean and in areas of strong upwelling. Accounting for the presence of sulfide-oxidizing phototrophs in the model suppresses but does not prevent widespread release of H2S to the atmosphere. Evidence from the geologic record is consistent with modeled geochemical distributions of widespread nutrient-induced euxinia during the end-Permian, suggesting H2S toxicity and hypercapnia may have provided the kill mechanism for extinction.

Description: Logs collected while drilling measured density in situ, through the accretionary prism and decollement zone of the northern Barbados Ridge. Consolidation tests relate void ratio (derived from density) to effective stress and predict a fluid pressure profile, assuming that the upper 100 m of the prism is at a hydrostatic pressure gradient. The calculated fluid pressure curve rises to 〉90% of lithostatic below thrusts in the prism, presumably due to the increase in overburden and lateral tectonic loading. Thin (0.5–2.0 m) intervals of anomalously low density and resistivity in the logs through the basal decollement zone suggest dilation and perhaps hydrofracturing. A peak in hydraulic head in the upper half of the decollement zone requires lateral influx of fluid, a conclusion consistent with previous geochemical studies. Although the calculated fluid-pressure profile is model dependent, its inherent character ties to major structural features.

Description: The interrelation between deformation styles and behavior of fluids in accretionary prisms is under debate, particularly the possibility that overpressuring within the basal decollement may enable mechanical decoupling of the prism from the subducting material. Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) data from sediments spanning the basal decollement of the Barbados accretionary prism show a striking progression across this structure that strongly supports the hypothesis that it is markedly overpressured. In the accretionary prism, above the decollement, the minimum AMS axes are subhorizontal and oriented nearly east-west, whereas the maximum AMS axes are oriented nearly north-south and shallowly inclined. At the top of the decollement, the minimum AMS axes orientations abruptly change to nearly vertical; this orientation is maintained throughout the decollement and in the underthrust sediments below. The AMS orientations in the prism sediments above the decollement are consistent with lateral shortening due to regional tectonic stress, as the minimum axes generally parallel the convergence vector of the subducting South American plate and the maximum axes are trench-parallel. Because the orientations of the AMS axes in deformed sediments usually parallel the orientations of the principal strains, the AMS results indicate that the incremental strain state in the Barbados prism is one dominated by subhorizontal shortening. In contrast, the AMS axes within and below the decollement are consistent with a strain state dominated by vertical shortening (compaction). This abrupt change in AMS orientations at the top of the decollement at Site 948 is a direct manifestation of mechanical decoupling of the off-scraped prism sediments from the underthrust sediments. The decoupling horizon occurs at the top of the decollement zone, coinciding with the location of flowing, high-pressure fluids.

Description: The existence of an intrinsic depleted component in mantle plumes has previously been proposed for several hotspots in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. However, formation of these depleted basalts is often associated with unusual tectonomagmatic processes such as plume-ridge interaction or multistage melting at plume initiation, where depleted basalts could reflect entrainment and melting of depleted upper mantle. Late Cretaceous to middle Eocene seamounts that accreted in Costa Rica and are part of the early Galapagos hotspot track provide new insights into the occurrence and nature of intrinsic depleted components. The Paleocene (ca. 62 Ma) seamounts include unusually depleted basalts that erupted on the Farallon plate far from a mid-ocean ridge. These basalts closely resemble Gorgona komatiites in terms of trace element and radiogenic isotope composition, suggesting formation from a similar, refractory mantle source. We suggest that this source may be common to plumes, but is only rarely sampled due to excessive extents of melting required to extract melts from the most refractory parts of a heterogeneous mantle plume.

Description: During the Messinian, 6 m.y. ago, massive sea-level fall and widespread deposition of evaporites occurred in the Mediterranean Sea when it became isolated from the world oceans. Here we present the first hydrogen isotope data from individual sedimentary biomarkers, n-alkanes and isoprenoids, that tracked climatically driven hydrographic changes in response to extreme evaporation during the Messinian salinity crisis. The stable hydrogen and carbon isotope compositions of these biomarkers show a range of 160‰ in δD values and 14‰ in δ13C values, and roughly covary. This indicates that the source waters of the biomarkers were therefore in some cases extremely enriched in deuterium, having average δD as great as +66‰ VSMOW (Vienna standard mean ocean water). Such values are only known from desert climates today. Because the offset between the δD values of n-alkanes and isoprenoids preserved in the Miocene sedimentary rocks is similar to the offset found in modern biological samples, we conclude that diagenesis did not significantly affect the primary deuterium concentrations.

Description: The upper Quaternary pyroclastic flow deposits of Laacher See volcano show compositional and structural facies variations on four different scales: (1) eruptive units of pyroclastic flows, composed of many flow units; (2) depositional cycles of as many as five flow units; flow units containing (3) regional intraflow-unit facies; and (4) local intraflow-unit subfacies. These facies can be explained by successively overlapping processes beginning in the magma column and ending with final deposition. The pyroclastic flow deposits thus reflect major aspects of the eruptive history of Laacher See volcano: (a) drastic changes in eruptive mechanism due to increasing access of water to the magma chamber and (b) change in chemical composition and crystal and gas content as evacuation of a compositionally zoned magma column progressed. The four scales of facies result from four successive sets of processes: (1) differentiation in the magma column and external factors governing the mechanism of eruption; (2) temporal variations of factors inducing eruption column collapse; (3) physical conditions in the eruption column and the way in which its collapse proceeds; and (4) interplay of flow-inherent and morphology-induced transport mechanics.

Description: The growth of large volcanoes is commonly interrupted by episodes of flank collapse that may be accompanied by catastrophic debris avalanches, explosive eruptions, and tsunamis. El Hierro, the youngest island of the Canary Archipelago, has been repeatedly affected by such mass-wasting events in the last 1 Ma. Our field observations and petrological data suggest that the largest and most recent of these flank collapses—the El Golfo landslide—likely influenced the magma plumbing system of the island, leading to the eruption of higher proportions of denser and less evolved magmas. The results of our numerical simulations indicate that the El Golfo landslide generated pressure changes exceeding 1 MPa down to upper-mantle depths, with local amplification in the surroundings and within the modeled magma plumbing system. Stress perturbations of that order might drastically alter feeding system processes, such as degassing, transport, differentiation, and mixing of magma batches.

Description: Water transported in subducting oceanic plates plays a key role in a number of phenomena, including intraslab seismicity and arc magmatism. However, the locus of plate hydration and water distribution in crust and mantle of plates entering subduction zones is debated. We present evidence for anomalously low seismic velocities and densities of the crust and upper mantle of the Nazca plate at the north Chile trench. Crustal seismic velocities at the trench are lower than velocities of mature fast-spreading crust and even lower than velocities of highly extended slow-spreading crust. In addition, the Nazca plate at the north Chile trench may contain an ∼20-km-thick upper-mantle layer with ∼17% serpentine, which implies ∼2.5 wt% water. These results document pervasive rock alteration by water percolation linked to bending-related extensional faulting.

Description: A new analysis of Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 84 data demonstrates that the dominant process controlling the Guatemala margin tectonic evolution since ca. 25 Ma is subduction-erosion. Data from benthic foraminifera, assemblages from upper-slope DSDP Sites 568, 569, and 570 indicate long-term, progressive subsidence from upper to middle bathyal depths (600–1000 m) ca. 19 Ma to modern abyssal depths (〉2000 m). Rapid subsidence migrated landward starting at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary time under the current middle slope, where it increased sharply ca. 19 Ma, reached the current upper slope by ca. 15 Ma, and arrived at the uppermost slope ca. 2 Ma. Subsidence indicates crustal thinning by basal tectonic erosion of mass from the underside of the upper plate. Under the assumption that, in the Miocene, the morphology of the forearc was similar to that of today, landward migration of the trench was at a rate of 0.8–0.9 km/m.y. This linear rate corresponds to a tectonic erosion rate of the submerged forearc of 11.3–13.1 km3·m.y.−1·km−1. The evolution of arc magmatism and superfast spreading at the East Pacific Rise since early Miocene time may have caused slab shallowing and tectonic erosion that readjusted the forearc geometry.

Description: Largely continuous millennial-scale records of benthic delta O-18, Mg/Ca-based temperature, and salinity variations in bottom waters were obtained from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 548 (East Atlantic continental margin near Ireland, 1250 m water depth) for the period 3.7-3.0 Ma ago. High epsilon(Nd) values of -10.7 to -9 show that this site monitored changes in Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) throughout the mid-Pliocene. Bottom water variability at Ocean Drilling Progam (ODP) Site 978 (Alboran Sea, 1930 m water depth) provides a complementary record of MOW composition near its West Mediterranean source. Both sites show a singular and persistent rise in bottom water salinities by 0.7-1.4 psu, and in densities by similar to 1 kg m(-3) from 3.5 to 3.3 Ma ago, which is matched by an similar to 3 degrees C increase in bottom water temperature at Site 548. This event suggests the onset of strongly enhanced deep-water convection in the Mediterranean Sea and a related increase in MOW flow as a result of major aridification in the Mediterranean source region. In harmony with model suggestions, the enhanced MOW flow has possibly intensified Upper North Atlantic Deep Water formation.

Description: The rocks in the crustal section of the Oman ophiolite show an increasing input of a subduction component with time, most likely reflecting the generation of the ophiolite above a subducting slab. Field relations, new geochemical data, and Nd-Hf isotope data for felsic to mafic intrusive rocks in the mantle harzburgite from the Haylayn block in the Oman ophiolite suggest late magmatic events in a mantle wedge shortly before obduction of the ophiolite. Incompatible element contents and low εNd and εHf of the felsic rocks exclude differentiation from mafic magmas, but are consistent with an origin by partial melting of pelagic sediments similar to leucogranites in continental collision zones. These melts apparently mixed with mafic magmas resembling enriched late-stage lavas from the ophiolite. The leucogranitic intrusions into the mantle wedge confirm the transfer of melts of sediments from the subducted plate into the mantle at subduction zones. We suggest that the enrichment of Rb, K, and Pb observed in the Oman boninites is caused by addition of melts of sediments similar to those from the Haylayn block to the boninite source in the mantle wedge.

Description: Erosion by high stress abrasion of convergent margins from horsts and grabens on the subducting plate is not shown in seismic images. In a proposed model, the frontal sediment prism is a dynamic mass that elevates pore-fluid pressure. Overpressured fluid invades fractures in the upper plate and separates fragments that are dragged into a subduction channel along the plate interface. Removed fragments are smaller than surface ship seismic techniques have resolved and beyond the reach of past scientific ocean drilling; however, current drill capability and downhole geophysics can test the model.

Description: The Cretaceous period (similar to 145-65 m.y. ago) was characterized by intervals of enhanced organic carbon burial associated with increased primary production under greenhouse conditions. The global consequences of these perturbations, oceanic anoxic events (OAEs), lasted up to 1 m.y., but short-term nutrient and climatic controls on widespread anoxia are poorly understood. Here, we present a high-resolution reconstruction of oceanic redox and nutrient cycling as recorded in subtropical shelf sediments from Tarfaya, Morocco, spanning the initiation of OAE2. Iron-sulfur systematics and biomarker evidence demonstrate previously undescribed redox cyclicity on orbital time scales, from sulfidic to anoxic ferruginous (Fe-rich) water-column conditions. Bulk geochemical data and sulfur isotope modeling suggest that ferruginous conditions were not a consequence of nutrient or sulfate limitation, despite overall low sulfate concentrations in the proto-North Atlantic. Instead, fluctuations in the weathering influxes of sulfur and reactive iron, linked to a dynamic hydrological cycle, likely drove the redox cyclicity. Despite the potential for elevated phosphorus burial in association with Fe oxides under ferruginous conditions on the Tarfaya shelf, porewater sulfide generation drove extensive phosphorus recycling back to the water column, thus maintaining widespread open-ocean anoxia.

Description: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 334 to southern Costa Rica, Central America, documented unprecedented subduction erosion in an area of active seismic slip. Widespread subduction erosion of the upper plate initiated when the Cocos Ridge, an overthickened aseismic ridge, arrived at the Middle America Trench. Subduction erosion was coeval with the rapid formation of deposition centers on the forearc of the upper plate. The completely recovered shelf sequence constrains a short (〈2 m.y.) interval of extreme subsidence (∼1200 m) with a rapid pulse occurring during the first ∼0.3 m.y. This event removed an estimated 1.2 × 106 km3 of forearc material at a rate of ∼1690 km3/m.y./km of trench during a time of rapid (∼1035 m/m.y.) shelf sediment accumulation. At this erosive margin, a sediment-starved trench persisted, in spite of abundant sediment supply, because subduction erosion led to the creation of forearc basins. Similar rapid pulses of subduction erosion may punctuate the evolution of many margins, contributing disproportionately to crustal recycling at subduction zones with implications for the evolution of continental crust and mountain belts, and recycling of continental material into the mantle.

Description: The causes for the formation of large igneous provinces and hotspot trails are still a matter of considerable dispute. Seismic tomography and other studies suggest that hot mantle material rising from the core-mantle boundary (CMB) might play a significant role in the formation of such hotspot trails. An important area to verify this concept is the South Atlantic region, with hotspot trails that spatially coincide with one of the largest low-velocity regions at the CMB, the African large low shear-wave velocity province. The Walvis Ridge started to form during the separation of the South American and African continents at ca. 130 Ma as a consequence of Gondwana breakup. Here, we present the first deep-seismic sounding images of the crustal structure from the landfall area of the Walvis Ridge at the Namibian coast to constrain processes of plume-lithosphere interaction and the formation of continental flood basalts (Paraná and Etendeka continental flood basalts) and associated intrusive rocks. Our study identified a narrow region (〈100 km) of high-seismic-velocity anomalies in the middle and lower crust, which we interpret as a massive mafic intrusion into the northern Namibian continental crust. Seismic crustal reflection imaging shows a flat Moho as well as reflectors connecting the high-velocity body with shallow crustal structures that we speculate to mark potential feeder channels of the Etendeka continental flood basalt. We suggest that the observed massive but localized mafic intrusion into the lower crust results from similar-sized variations in the lithosphere (i.e., lithosphere thickness or preexisting structures)

Description: Large negative carbon (δ13C) and boron (δ11B) isotope excursions (both 〉6‰) within the widely distributed Neoproterozoic carbonates associated with the Marinoan "snowball Earth" event are interpreted to represent considerable perturbations of the carbon cycle and the accompanying reduction in global ocean pH. Yet this interpretation is predicated on these isotopic signals being primary in origin. Recent studies of Pleistocene carbonate platform sediments from the Great Bahama Bank (western Atlantic Ocean; Clino core, drilled by the Bahamas Drilling Project) and elsewhere demonstrate that δ13C excursions of similar magnitude and global distribution to the snowball Earth excursions are formed following eustatic sea-level fall and exposure of shelf carbonates to meteoric diagenesis. Here we present δ11B and trace element data (B/Ca, Na/Ca, Mg/Ca, and Sr/Ca) from the same Clino core carbonate sediments in order to explore the influence of this diagenetic process on the boron system. We find that within the interval of meteoric diagenesis the δ11B of bulk carbonate is reduced by ~6‰ in conjunction with a drop in the B/Ca ratio of 90%. Our results clearly demonstrate that the boron system is impacted by meteoric diagenesis, implying that a rigorous assessment of the diagenetic history of all ancient carbonates is required to ensure any paleoceanographic interpretation based on δ11B and/or B/Ca are robust.

Description: Ecological and taxonomic study of the mollusk-rich fauna of the Golfe d’Arguin, North Mauritania, investigates the various environmental influences affecting this tropical shelf. The upwelling of nutrient-rich waters leads to a highly productive environment under tropical conditions. The resulting mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sediment contains a large portion of calcareous components produced by heterotrophic organisms— e.g., mollusks, foraminifers, worms, barnacles—that are reworked on the open shelf. On the basis of mollusk assemblages, six taphocoenoses are defined, all being characterized by a mixed fauna of tropical (e.g., Tellina densestriata), subtropical (e.g., Macoma cumana) and temperate (e.g., Spisula subtruncata) species. Differences between the assemblages are related to the medium—grain size ranging from mud to gravel—that results from local hydrodynamic conditions and water depth. Among carbonate grains, Donax burnupi shells are very abundant in the swellexposed, northern part of the Golfe d’Arguin and reflect the tropical to subtropical, high-energy, and high-nutrient waters. Mollusk assemblages are demonstrated to be a sensitive tool for deciphering complex environmental conditions in sedimentary archives.

Description: Upwelling hot mantle plumes are thought to disintegrate continental lithosphere and are considered to be drivers of active continental breakup. The formation of the Walvis Ridge during the opening of the South Atlantic is related to a putative plume-induced breakup. We investigated the crustal structure of the Walvis Ridge (southeast Atlantic Ocean) at its intersection with the continental margin and searched for anomalies related to the possible plume head. The overall structure we identify suggests that no broad plume head existed during opening of the South Atlantic and anomalous mantle melting occurred only locally. We therefore question the importance of a plume head as a driver of continental breakup and further speculate that the hotspot was present before the rifting, leaving a track of kimberlites in the African craton.

Description: Scaled sandbox experiments with high basal friction, simulating the growth of accretionary wedges, display cycles alternating between frontal imbricate thrusting and underthrusting of long, undeformed sheets. By contrast, low basal friction experiments with otherwise similar and constant, initial conditions produce a classic frontal imbricate fan through repeated failure along frontal thrusts. The cyclical behavior observed in high basal friction experiments is expressed by three quantities: (1) the average spacing between frontal thrusts, (2) the advance and retreat of the deformation front, and (3) the frontal slope (Alpha) of the actively deforming wedge. As a long sheet is underthrust, the front is steepened through slumping until the maximum critical angle is reached. Then frontal thrusting resumes and the accretion of imbricate slices builds the wedge forward, thereby lowering the taper to the minimum critical angle. At shallow tapers, a long unit is underthrust and subsequently uplifts, shortens, and steepens the overlying wedge through backthrust deformation, thus completing the cycle. Underthrusting of long units offers a simple mechanism for underplating overlying units. It also provides a possible explanation for temporally and spatially varying wedge geometries in nature, when basal frictions attain 80%–90% of the internal friction.

Description: Subduction initiation at passive margins plays a central role in the plate tectonics theory. However, the process by which a passive margin becomes active is not well understood. In this paper we use the southwest Iberia margin (SIM) in the Atlantic Ocean to study the process of passive margin reactivation. Currently there are two tectonic mechanisms operating in the SIM: migration of the Gibraltar Arc and Africa-Eurasia convergence. Based on a new tectonic map, we propose that a new subduction zone is forming at the SIM as a result of both propagation of compressive stresses from the Gibraltar Arc and stresses related to the large-scale Africa-Eurasia convergence. The Gibraltar Arc and the SIM appear to be connected and have the potential to develop into a new eastern Atlantic subduction system. Our work suggests that the formation of new subduction zones in Atlantic-type oceans may not require the spontaneous foundering of its passive margins. Instead, subduction can be seen as an invasive process that propagates from ocean to ocean.

Description: High-resolution records of carbon and oxygen isotopes and benthic foraminiferal accumulation rates for the Eocene-Oligocene section at Ocean Drilling Program Site 689(Maud Rise, Weddell Sea; paleodepth about 1500 m) were used to infer variations in paleoproductivity in relation to changes in climate and ventilation of the deeper-water column. The benthic foraminiferal abundance and isotope records show short-term fluctuations at periodicities of 100 and 400 ka, implying orbitally driven climatic variations. Both records suggest that intermediate-depth water chemistry and primary productivity changed in response to climate. During the Eocene, productivity increased during cold periods and during cold-to-warm transitions, possibly as a result of increased upwelling of nutrient-rich waters. In the Oligocene, in contrast, productivity maxima occurred during intervals of low d18O values (presumably warmer periods), when a proto–polar front moved to the south of the location of Site 689. This profound transition in climate-productivity patterns occurred around 37 Ma, coeval with rapid changes toward increasing variability of the oxygen and carbon isotope and benthic abundance records and toward larger-amplitude d18O fluctuations. Therefore, we infer that, at this time, temperature fluctuations increased and a proto–polar front formed in conjunction with the first distinct pulsations in size of the Antarctic ice sheet. We speculate that this major change might have resulted from an initial opening of the Drake Passage at 37 Ma, at least for surface- and intermediate-water circulation.

Description: Erosion by high stress abrasion of convergent margins from horsts and grabens on the subducting plate is not shown in seismic images. In a proposed model, the frontal sediment prism is a dynamic mass that elevates pore-fluid pressure. Overpressured fluid invades fractures in the upper plate and separates fragments that are dragged into a subduction channel along the plate interface. Removed fragments are smaller than surface ship seismic techniques have resolved and beyond the reach of past scientific ocean drilling; however, current drill capability and downhole geophysics can test the model.

Description: A seismic-reflection survey on the Oregon continental margin conducted in 1989 indicates the widespread presence of gas hydrate beneath the middle and lower slope of this accretionary margin. The seismic signature of gas hydrate, a bottom simulating reflector (BSR) with negative polarity that locally cuts across stratigraphic horizons, is especially well developed beneath Hydrate Ridge. This anomalously shallow accretionary ridge was drilled during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 146 to study fluid venting. In this paper we focus on the seismic data from the southern part of Hydrate Ridge, where little evidence of active venting has previously been reported but where the seismic data indicate a complicated subsurface plumbing system. Apparent disruptions of the BSR beneath the western ridge flank suggest dissociation of gas hydrate in response to slumping. A double BSR beneath the southern crest suggests hydrate destabilization in response to tectonic uplift and folding. On the basis of these and other observations, we propose a qualitative model for the evolution of a hydrate-bearing ridge in an active accretionary complex in which gas hydrate initially stabilizes the sea floor, permitting construction of large ridges that are then eaten away by slumps along their margins. The north-to-south variation in sea-floor venting and subsurface seismic structure along Hydrate Ridge may reflect different stages in the temporal evolution of one of these ridges.

Description: We present analytical results from four dredge locations across the eastern Zealandia continental margin and adjacent ocean crust. The 115 Ma dacites dredged from the West Wishbone Ridge (WWR) are isotopically primitive, weakly adakitic, slab-derived lavas. The 97 Ma A-type granites and a basalt from the easternmost Chatham Rise enlarge the known area of postsubduction Gondwana magmatism. Amphibolite-grade schists from a fault block south of the Chatham Rise provide a critical bridge between the Zealandia and West Antarctica belts of Jurassic–Cretaceous accretionary prism rocks. The new recognition of the WWR as a remnant of a 115 Ma intraoceanic subduction system means that previous hypotheses of the WWR as a fracture zone or spreading ridge require modification. The dacite ages constrain the start of Osbourn Trough spreading, which caused breakup of the Hikurangi-Manihiki igneous plateau, to before 115 Ma. We speculate that, after 115 Ma, the WWR was rifted by an intraoceanic spreading center that developed along its southeast side. Impingement of this spreading center against the Gondwana margin led to widespread 95–100 Ma postsubduction magmatism, variable lithospheric stretching, and ultimately continental splitting of Zealandia and West Antarctica across basement trends.

Description: Ecosystems damaged by distal volcanic ash and sulfur deposition usually recover within decades. However, sediment, stalagmite, and pollen records from the southernmost Andes indicate a 2000 yr impact on forest and aquatic ecosystems after deposition of a thin tephra layer. SO2 released from altering pumice produced intense soil and lake acidification in a 〉150,000 km2 area. Acidification led to nutrient leaching and affected soil microorganisms, causing plant decay and increased soil erosion in an area larger than 8000 km2. We conclude that weakly buffered soils in humid environments are extremely vulnerable to volcanic and anthropogenic acidification, causing long-lasting ecosystem damage and perturbations of paleoclimate proxy records.

Description: Bowers Ridge is an similar to 700 km long arcuate ridge behind the Central Aleutian Arc in the Bering Sea. The lack of age and geochemical data for the ridge has hampered the development of geodynamic models for the evolution of the North Pacific and the Aleutian-Bering Sea region. Here we present the first geochemical and Ar-40/Ar-39 age data for the volcanic basement of Bowers Ridge and a seamount from the western end of the ridge sampled during R/V Sonne cruise SO201-1b. The northern Bowers Ridge basement (26-32 Ma) consists of mafic to intermediate calc-alkaline rocks with adakite-like (Sr/Y = 33-53, La-N/Yb-N = 3.3-7.8), high field strength element (HFSE)-depleted (e.g., Nb-N/La-N = 0.07-0.31) trace element patterns and Sr-Nd-Pb isotope compositions within the Western Aleutian Arc array, implying magma generation above an obliquely subducting slab. The seamount samples (22-24 Ma) are HFSE-rich alkaline olivine basalts (La-N/Yb-N = 3.3-3.9, Nb-N/La-N = 1.0-1.4) with minor arc-type trace element signatures (Pb-N/Ce-N = 1.4-1.6, K-N/Nb-N = 1.7-1.9) but with Pacific mid-oceanic-ridge basalt (MORB)-like isotopic compositions, pointing to an origin by small-degree decompression melting from slightly subduction-modified mantle. The geochemistry of the recovered rocks can be explained by highly oblique subduction along the northern part of Bowers Ridge in its present-day configuration, consistent with an in-situ origin of Bowers Ridge as a Cenozoic island arc.

Description: Back-scattered electron investigations of Argille Scagliose, mudstones from the Barbados forearc sampled during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 110, and the matrix of the Okitsu melange, southwest Japan, indicate a variety of microfabric geometries and deformation mechanisms despite the similarity of their mesoscopic scaly fabrics. In the Okitsu melange, the scaly fabric is the mesoscopic expression of an anastomosing microfabric, whereas the detailed geometry of scaly fabrics is unrelated to the microfabric in the Argille Scagliose and Leg 110 mudstones. Care must be taken in the classification and interpretation of scaly fabrics in light of these data, and future studies should focus on microstructural investigations.

Description: The venting at the northern Peru convergent margin, unlike at other margins, has produced large barite deposits, which have not been observed outside the vents. The 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratios of the fluids are more radiogenic than seawater. To explain these elevated values, we propose either the influence of a fluid characterized by a more radiogenic signature originating from the continent, or a reaction between seawater and the underlying continental metamorphic basement. The presence of this nonlocal radiogenic component is marked more strongly on the 87Sr/86Sr ratios measured in the barite deposits. We assume that the fluid sampled at the venting site and the fluid responsible for the barite deposit sampled at the same site originated from the same source, i.e., the Paleozoic metamorphic basement of the Andean continental margin.

Description: The Cocos-Nazca spreading center is one of the few examples of the formation of a spreading center by splitting of oceanic lithosphere. It was created when the Farallon plate broke up in the early Miocene following the collision of the Pacific-Farallon spreading center with the North American continent. Much of the ancient Farallon plate corresponding to the area of opening is lost to subduction beneath Central America and South America, but new data from the conjugate area on the Pacific plate allow the first detailed reconstruction of the break-up process. The opening began after chron 7 (25 Ma) at a location of focused crustal extension caused by overlapping spreading centers that had evolved in response to a slight reorientation of a Pacific-Farallon ridge segment. Beginning at chron 6B (22.7 Ma), eastward progressing seafloor spreading started along an axis that most likely migrated toward the region of weak lithosphere created by the Galapagos hotspot. By chron 6 (19.5 Ma), plate splitting from the spreading center to the trench was complete, allowing the fully detached Cocos and Nazca plates to move independently. This kinematic change resulted in a significant ridge jump of the newly established Pacific-Nazca spreading center, a change in plate motion direction of the Nazca plate by 20° clockwise, and a large increase in Pacific-Cocos plate velocity in the middle Miocene.

Description: Prestack depth-migrated seismic reflection data collected off Flemish Cap on the Newfoundland margin show a structure of abruptly thinning continental crust that leads into an oceanic accretion system. Within continental crust, there is no clear evidence for detachment surfaces analogous to the S reflection off the conjugate Galicia Bank margin, demonstrating a first-order asymmetry in final rift development. Anomalously thin (3–4 km), magmatically produced oceanic crust abuts very thin continental crust and is highly tectonized. This indicates that initial accretion of the oceanic crust was in a magma-limited setting similar to present-day ultraslow spreading environments. Seaward, oceanic crust thins to 〈1.3 km and exhibits an unusual, highly reflective layering. We propose that a period of magma starvation led to exhumation of mantle in an oceanic core complex that was subsequently buried by deep-marine sheet flows to form this layering. Subsequent seafloor spreading formed normal, ∼6-km-thick oceanic crust. This interpretation implies large fluctuations in the available melt supply during the early stages of seafloor spreading before a more typical slow-spreading system was established.

Description: A high-resolution multiparameter stratigraphy allows the identification of late Quaternary glacial and interglacial cycles in a central Arctic Ocean sediment core. Distinct sandy layers in the upper part of the otherwise fine-grained sediment core from the Lomonosov Ridge (lat 87.5°N) correlate to four major glacials since ca. 0.7 Ma. The composition of these ice-rafted terrigenous sediments points to a glaciated northern Siberia as the main source. In contrast, lithic carbonates derived from North America are also present in older sediments and indicate a northern North American glaciation since at least 2.8 Ma. We conclude that large-scale northern Siberian glaciation began much later than other Northern Hemisphere ice sheets.

Description: Bering Sea climate and ecosystem dynamics have recently undergone major changes that have affected seasonal sea ice distribution and marine life, including commercially important salmon fisheries. Unfortunately, long-term Bering Sea dynamics are poorly understood, largely because of an absence of high-resolution marine proxy archives. Here we present the first record compiled from annual growth-increment widths of long-lived coralline algae collected in shallow-water habitats spanning the entire Aleutian Islands. While algal growth in the Aleutians exhibits a variable relationship with regional temperatures, it is strongly driven by changes in solar radiation reaching the seafloor. Therefore, it provides an exceptional archive of long-term light dynamics, which in the Bering Sea is attributed to changes in strength of the Aleutian Low (AL), the dominant climate pattern of the subarctic North Pacific. The AL is positively related to Bering Sea cloudiness and wind strength, which in turn fosters upper-ocean mixing. Mixing raises surface-water nutrient concentrations and stimulates plankton production, which is positively linked to Alaskan salmon abundance. Enhanced clouds and plankton production increase shading on the shallow seafloor and reduce algal growth. Light-driven algal growth rates track proxy-derived salmon abundance from 1782 onward, but are poorly related to temperature-dominated Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) variability prior to the twentieth century. The algal record suggests that the present-day relationship of AL and PDO varied historically and that salmon stocks have been more closely related to AL strength via its effect on plankton abundance rather than PDO-related temperatures.

Description: New U-series isotope data for lavas from the East Scotia backarc spreading center span a large range in (230Th/232Th) and (238U/232Th). Most of the backarc lavas have (238U/230Th) 〈 1, similar to the composition of mid-oceanic-ridge basalts (MORB). Lavas from two segments have (238U/230Th) 〉 1 and are enriched in fluid-mobile elements, implying a recent addition of a U-rich slab-derived component. The data from one segment suggest an influence from an aqueous fluid from altered MORB, whereas samples from the other slab-influenced segment show addition of a sediment melt. The slab-influenced samples form a distinct trend in the equiline diagram between aqueous fluid and sediment melt that is suggested to be a mixing line rather than an isochron.

Description: U-Th-Ra disequilibria of basanites, tephrites, and phonolites from the A.D. 1585 eruption on La Palma, Canary Islands, constrain magma differentiation times in an ocean-island rift zone. The insignificant difference in (230Th)/(232Th) implies differentiation from basanite to phonolite in 〈15 k.y. 226Ra has a half-life of 1600 yr, however, and permits higher temporal resolution; (226Ra)/(230Th) disequilibria are highest in the phonolites (46%–54%) and basanites (44%–47%) and lowest in the tephrites (38%–41%). The higher 226Ra excesses in the end-member compositions model basanite-phonolite differentiation within 1550–1750 yr at a rate of 0.04% fractional crystallization per year. Such a short time interval is in sharp contrast to the ∼200 k.y. proposed for phonolite differentiation on the neighboring island of Tenerife and could reflect different volcanic systems, with a mantle-fed rift system on La Palma versus a crustal magma reservoir on Tenerife.

Description: Nucleation of calcium carbonate on microbial cell material may have been the dominant mode of microbial carbonate formation during most of Earth's history. Current knowledge predicts that nucleation takes place on the cell surface or on extracellular polymeric substances. However, the initial nucleation steps have not been described in detail and the process remains elusive. Here we describe the bacterial nucleation of calcium carbonate at the nanometer scale. In our precipitation experiment with sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB), the bulk of calcium carbonate precipitates on hundreds of individual globules 60– 200 nm in diameter. Globules originate from the SRB cell surface but calcify significantly only when released to the culture medium. Similar globules have been observed, albeit at a much larger scale, in other bacterial precipitation experiments and in many natural microbial carbonates, suggesting that the process we describe could be an important step in microbial calcification.

Description: A rigorous detection of Milankovitch periodicities in volcanic output across the Pleistocene-Holocene ice age has remained elusive. We report on a spectral analysis of a large number of well-preserved ash plume deposits recorded in marine sediments along the Pacific Ring of Fire. Our analysis yields a statistically significant detection of a spectral peak at the obliquity period. We propose that this variability in volcanic activity results from crustal stress changes associated with ice age mass redistribution. In particular, increased volcanism lags behind the highest rate of increasing eustatic sea level (decreasing global ice volume) by 4.0 ± 3.6 k.y. and correlates with numerical predictions of stress changes at volcanically active sites. These results support the presence of a causal link between variations in ice age climate, continental stress field, and volcanism.

Description: Submarine hydrothermal vents and associated sealfoor mineralization on the Tonga arc have been found for the first time, in the summit calderas of two shallow-water volcanoes, greatly extending the known areas and diversity of seafloor hydrothermal activity in the western Pacific region. The highest temperature vents (245-265 degrees C) occur at water depths of 385-540 m near the summit of one volcano at 24 degrees S. The vents are spatially related to basaltic dike swarms exposed at a summit cone and in the caldera walls. Clusters of large (to 10 m high) barite, anhydrite, and sulfide chimneys on the summit cone are vigorously discharging clear hydrothermal fluids with temperatures on the seawater boiling curve. There is abundant evidence of phase separation, which can be seen as flame-like jets of steam (H2O vapor) at the chimney orifices. Pyrite, marcasite, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite line the interiors of the highest temperature vents, similar to black smoker chimneys on the mid-ocean ridges.

Description: New seismic imaging and seismotectonic data from the southwest Iberian margin, the site of the present-day boundary between the European and African plates, reveal that active strike slip is occurring along two prominent lineaments that have recently been mapped using multibeam bathymetry. Multichannel seismic and subbottom profiler images acquired across the lineaments show seafloor displacements and active faulting to depths of at least 10 km and of a minimum length of 150 km. Seismic moment tensors show predominantly WNW–ESE right-lateral strike-slip motion, i.e., oblique to the direction of plate convergence. Estimates of earthquake source depths close to the fault planes indicate upper mantle (i.e., depths of 40–60 km) seismogenesis, implying the presence of old, thick, and brittle lithosphere. The estimated fault seismic parameters indicate that the faults are capable of generating great magnitude (Mw ≥ 8.0) earthquakes. Such large events raise the concomitant possibility of slope failures that have the potential to trigger tsunamis. Consequently, our findings identify an unreported earthquake and tsunami hazard for the Iberian and north African coastal areas.

Description: The spreading axis at many slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges is marked by an axial volcanic ridge. In this study, we use a combination of high-resolution remote sensing methods to elucidate the detailed nature of volcanoes in such a ridge. We fi nd that the “hummocks” described in previous sidescan sonar studies are dome- or cone-shaped edifi ces, 5–150 m high with diameters of 30–330 m. We estimate they form quickly, in single eruptions, each of which may produce several hummocks. Hummock collapse is common and hummocks of all heights are prone to failure. Collapses generally occur down the regional seafl oor slope, suggesting control by local topography. Approximately 33% of hummocks lose ~40% of their volume by collapse, so ~12% of all material erupted on the axial volcanic ridge is rapidly converted to talus. The higher porosity of these deposits may increase average upper crustal porosity by several percent, contributing 〉0.5 km s–1 to seismic velocity decrease in the upper oceanic crust, and may be one of the dominant mechanisms for increasing porosity in upper slow-spreading oceanic crust.

Description: Early diagenetic dolomite formation in methanogenic marine sediments is enigmatic because acidifi cation by CO2, a by-product of methanogenesis, should lead to carbonate dissolution and not precipitation. However, petrographic relationships indicate that dolomite breccia layers with δ13C values of ~+15‰, recovered from the lower slope of the Peru continental margin (Ocean Drilling Program Site 1230), formed deep in the methanogenic zone during tectonic activity of a décollement. Based on radiogenic Sr isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr 〉 0.711) and positive δ18O values (+6‰), we present evidence that the dolomite breccias mainly formed from fl uids originating from deep sedimentary units within the accretionary prism, where they interacted with continental crust and/or siliciclastic rocks of continental affi nity. Due to silicate alteration and dehydration, such fl uids are likely alkaline and thus have the potential to neutralize the acidifi cation imposed by the high dissolved CO2 concentrations. This scenario provides a potential mechanism by which dolomite formation can be induced deep in a highly active methanogenic zone.

Description: Seamounts can provide conduits for the entry and exit of hydrothermal fluids in ocean basins. However, only a few ridge flank hydrothermal systems that discharge through seamounts have been discovered, all located on relatively young crust. We have retrieved samples from 126 m.y. old Henry Seamount, an extinct volcano near the youngest Canary island of El Hierro, that provide evidence for Holocene low-temperature hydrothermal fluid discharge. This is the first documented finding of such activity at the Canary archipelago. The samples include shells from vesicomyid clams 〈18.6 k.y. old, massive barite, and trachytes that are pervasively barite metasomatized. Sulfur, oxygen, and strontium isotope ratios of barite indicate that the fluid contained residual sulfate from microbial reduction at the recharge site and reacted with basement rocks. Recharge probably occurred at basement outcrops of El Hierro's submarine flank at 25–30 km distance, the driving force for hydrothermal circulation through old crust being provided by increased basal heat flow from Canary magmatism. The data show that island flanks may provide important recharge sites for seawater circulation and that even old and small seamounts can contribute to heat and mass exchange between ocean crust and seawater.

Description: We report here the discovery of Miocene, Pliocene, and early Pleistocene shallow-marine carbonates on Mayaguana Island (southeastern Bahamas) that have so far not been observed on any other Bahamian island. Spanning more than 17 m.y., but 〈12 m thick, this stratigraphic succession only occurs along the northern coast of the island, indicating that the Mayaguana Bank underwent minor subsidence throughout the late Cenozoic and was tilted toward the south during the Quaternary. In addition to considerably extending the stratigraphic record of the Bahamas Islands, our findings demonstrate that these carbonate banks were at different elevations and subsided at different rates during the Neogene. The young age of the tilting event detected on Mayaguana further shows that parts of the southeastern margin of North America have recently undergone tectonic activity a long way from its actual boundary with the Caribbean plate.

Description: Laser probe Ar-40/Ar-39 dating of quartz phenocrysts with rhyolite glass inclusions from the Bishop Tuff air-fall and ignimbrite deposits reveals that the Long Valley magma system existed as a long-lived silicic magma chamber throughout most of the Pleistocene. Sanidine phenocryst and matrix glass analyses show that the Bishop Tuff eruption occurred at 759 +/- 1 to 761 +/- 1 ha, Initial and radiogenic Ar isotope ratios indicate isotopic equilibrium between the sanidine phenocrysts and their host melt at the time of eruption. The quartz phenocrysts, in contrast, the most abundant phenocryst phase of the Bishop rhyolite, crystallized, trapped their glass inclusions, and became a closed system with respect to Ar at 1.89 +/- 0.03 to 2.3 +/- 0.3 Ma. Consequently, the Bishop rhyolite magma already resided in the Long Valley basement and had formed most of its quartz phenocrysts similar to 1.1 m.y. before its principal eruption, providing important constraints on the longevity of large silicic magma chambers.

Description: Lahars, debris flows, and sediment-rich floods are frequent and deadly hazards at all mountain-forming volcanoes. Their hazard potential is traditionally assessed through mass-conserving closed-system models, where peak conversion rates of potential energy to mechanical energy and hence maximum destruction potential are predicted to occur on the steepest volcano flanks. This belies evidence of extremely high-energy and deadly catastrophes caused by such flows at large distances from volcanoes. Here we use the first high-resolution record of a moving lahar to develop a new model of the temporally and spatially variable mass-flow structure. We show that bulk flow energy can grow dramatically in such systems over tens to hundreds of kilometers via momentum transfers from the lahar into water and particles along its path. We also demonstrate that dynamic transformations of such flows and their ultimate runout are primarily controlled by the mass flow front.

Description: The submersible Nautile completed 22 dives during the Nautilau cruise (R/V Nadir, April 17-May 10, 1989) for a detailed investigation of the southern Lau basin near Tonga. The objective of the scientific team from France, Germany, and Tonga was to understand the process of sea-floor ore formation associated with hydrothermal circulation along the Valu Fa back-arc ridge behind the Tonga- Kermadec trench. The four diving areas, between lat 21°25′S and 22°40′S in water ∼2000 m deep, were selected on the basis of results from cruises of the R/V JeanCharcot and R/V Sonne. The Nadir cruise provided proof of hydrothermal activity—in all four areas, over more than 100 km—as indicated by the widespread occurrence of hydrothermal deposits and by heat flow, conductivity, and temperature measurements near the sea bottom. The most spectacular findings were high-temperature white and black smokers and associated fauna and ore deposits. Hydrothermal water chemistry and sulfide composition data presented here indicate that this hydrothermal field is very different from the hydrothermal fields in oceanic ridges. This difference is seen in the water chemistry of the hydrothermal fluid (pH = 2 and high metal content) and the chemical composition of sulfides (enrichment in Ba, As, and Pb).

Description: Rhythmic bedding is a prominent feature of North American and European Upper Cretaceous pelagic carbonate sequences deposited in epicontinental and continental-edge settings. Such bedding rhythms can result from variations in carbonate productivity, terrigenous dilution, redox conditions, or bottom currents. Each type of bedding cycle is expressed differently in the stratigraphic record but probably was caused by climatic cycles that are linked to variations in the Earth's orbital characteristics (Milankovitch cycles). Thus, pelagic carbonates of Cretaceous age acted as particularly sensitive recorders of orbitally induced changes in climate. Documentation of these bedding rhythms will permit detailed chronostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic correlations and will further illuminate depositional processes in Upper Cretaceous carbonate sequences.

Description: A 6-m.y.-long composite marine record of explosive silicic volcanism from five Ocean Drilling Program sites in the subpolar North Atlantic was compared with several marine records of global and local paleoclimate proxies (benthic δ18O and ice-rafted debris records). Coarsening and high frequency of occurrence of Icelandic tephras were recorded in 3.6–3 Ma sediments, suggesting that these tephras were dispersed farther from the source by enhanced westerly winds over the subpolar North Atlantic. The 40Ar/39Ar ages were determined by laser probe on K-feldspar and biotite phenocrysts of tephras that were erupted from the Jan Mayen volcanic system. Compared to the tuned paleomagnetic age model, the 40Ar/39Ar dating (0.618 ± 0.007 Ma to 4.90 ± 0.05 Ma) yields a new age model that postdates by 155 k.y. the inception of ice rafting on the Iceland Plateau during the cold marine isotope stage M2 (i.e., 3.3–3.14 Ma).

Description: The thickness of an active plate boundary fault is an important parameter for understanding the strength and spatial heterogeneity of fault behavior. We have compiled direct measurements of the thickness of subduction thrust faults from active and ancient examples observed by ocean drilling and fi eld studies in accretionary wedges. We describe a general geometric model for subduction thrust décollements, which includes multiple simultaneously active, anastomosing fault strands tens of meters thick. The total thickness encompassing all simultaneously active strands increases to ~100–350 m at ~1–2 km below seafl oor, and this thickness is maintained down to a depth of ~15 km. Thin sharp faults representing earthquake slip surfaces or other discrete slip events are found within and along the edges of the tens-ofmeters- thick fault strands. Although fl attening, primary inherited chaotic fabrics, and fault migration through subducting sediments or the frontal prism may build mélange sections that are much thicker (to several kilometers), this thickness does not describe the active fault at any depth. These observations suggest that models should treat the subduction thrust plate boundary fault as 〈1–20 cm thick during earthquakes, with a concentration of postseismic and interseismic creep in single to several strands 5–35 m thick, with lesser distributed interseismic deformation in stratally disrupted rocks surrounding the fault strands.

Description: Volcanic ash layers preserved within the geologic record represent precise time markers that correlate disparate depositional environments and enable the investigation of synchronous and/or asynchronous behaviors in Earth system and archaeological sciences. However, it is generally assumed that only exceptionally powerful events, such as supereruptions (≥450 km3 of ejecta as dense-rock equivalent; recurrence interval of ∼105 yr), distribute ash broadly enough to have an impact on human society, or allow us to address geologic, climatic, and cultural questions on an intercontinental scale. Here we use geochemical, age, and morphological evidence to show that the Alaskan White River Ash (eastern lobe; A.D. 833–850) correlates to the “AD860B” ash (A.D. 846–848) found in Greenland and northern Europe. These occurrences represent the distribution of an ash over 7000 km, linking marine, terrestrial, and ice-core records. Our results indicate that tephra from more moderate-size eruptions, with recurrence intervals of ∼100 yr, can have substantially greater distributions than previously thought, with direct implications for volcanic dispersal studies, correlation of widely distributed proxy records, and volcanic hazard assessment.

Description: Paleoenvironmental studies and climate models demonstrate that fl uvial runoff and moisture availability in the Caribbean hinterland react very sensitively to climatic variations. Late Pleistocene and Holocene climate records document pronounced dry and wet periods over tropical South America mainly caused by shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). However, forcing mechanisms for changes in the ITCZ position remain controversial. Here we present high-resolution foraminiferal Ba/Ca and δ18Oseawater records from a core located within the Orinoco River outfl ow documenting abrupt hydrological changes in the Orinoco catchment area during the deglacial and Holocene. Our data, obtained from the surface-dwelling foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber (pink), show an abrupt increase in Ba/ Ca ratios in the early Holocene, starting ~600 yr after the end of the Younger Dryas (YD) cold interval at ca. 10.8 ka and suggesting a massive reorganization of moisture sources in northern South America. In contrast, the salinity dependent δ18Oseawater from the same samples shows a gradual decrease starting at the end of the YD. The offset of our Ba/Ca peak excludes meltwater release in conjunction with the northern Andean glacier retreat well before the end of the YD as a forcing mechanism. We suggest that the Ba/Ca record documents an abrupt increase in Ba-rich waters of a northern Andean source caused by the insolation-driven shift of the ITCZ and/or enhanced monsoon activity.

Description: Deepwater landslides are often underestimated as potential tsunami triggers. The North Gorringe avalanche (NGA) is a large (∼80 km3 and 35 km runout) newly discovered and deepwater (2900 m to 5100 m depth) mass failure located at the northern flank of Gorringe Bank on the southwest Iberian margin. Steep slopes and pervasive fracturing are suggested as the main preconditioning factors for the NGA, while an earthquake is the most likely trigger mechanism. Near-field tsunami simulations show that a mass failure similar to the NGA could generate a wave 〉15 m high that would hit the south Portuguese coasts in ∼30 min. This suggests that deepwater landslides require more attention in geo-hazard assessment models of southern Europe, as well as, at a global scale, in seismically active margins.

Description: Hot springs in active geothermal areas such as Yellowstone National Park, the Geysers geothermal field in California, and the Taupo volcanic zone in New Zealand are notably enriched in the trace metals Au, Ag, As, Sb, and Hg. Such near-surface hot springs have formed many of the world's important deposits of gold and silver and some of the largest deposits of mercury. The majority of these are associated with continental geothermal systems in subaerial environments. Here we report the discovery of active mercury-depositing hot springs in a submarine setting, at nearly 200 m water depth, within the offshore extension of the Taupo volcanic zone of New Zealand. These vents contain the first documented occurrence of elemental mercury on the sea floor and provide an important link between offshore hydrothermal activity and mercury-depositing geothermal systems on land. The discovery has implications for mercury transport in sea-floor hydrothermal systems and underscores the importance of submarine volcanic and geothermal activity as a source of mercury in the oceans.

Description: Methane hydrates, ice-like compounds that consist of water and methane, represent a potentially enormous unconventional methane resource that may play a critical role in climate change and ocean acidification; however, it remains unclear how much hydrate exists. Here, using a newly developed three-dimensional (3-D) thermal technique, we reveal a novel method for detecting and quantifying methane hydrate. The analysis reveals where fluids migrate in three dimensions across a continental margin and is used to quantify hydrate with meter-scale horizontal resolution. Our study, located at Hydrate Ridge, offshore Oregon (United States), suggests that heat flow and hydrate concentrations are coupled and that 3-D thermal analysis can be used to constrain hydrate and fluid flow in 3-D seismic data. Hydrate estimates using this technique are consistent with 1-D drilling results, but reveal large, previously unrecognized swaths of hydrate-rich sediments that have gone undetected due to spatially limited drilling and sampling techniques used in past studies. The 3-D analysis suggests that previous hydrate estimates based on drilling at this site are low by a factor of approximately three.

Description: Experimental studies have shown that temperature, pressure, sulfur fugacity (fS2), and oxygen fugacity (fO2) influence the Fe content of sphalerite. We present compositional in situ data on sphalerite from submarine volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) ores of hydrothermal vents from different plate tectonic settings and with variable host-rock compositions. Sphalerite from sediment-hosted vents has systematically higher S contents and Fe/Zn ratios than those of the sediment-starved vents, reflecting an influence of fS2 and fO2 on Fe partitioning between fluid and sphalerite. The Fe/Zn ratios of sphalerite from sediment-starved vent systems apparently increase systematically with the fluid temperatures of the corresponding vents. We conclude that the composition of sphalerite can be used to (1) distinguish between sediment-hosted and sediment-starved hydrothermal processes, and (2) estimate minimum fluid temperatures of sphalerite precipitation from inactive sediment-starved hydrothermal vent sites and fossil VHMS deposits.

Description: Quiescently active volcanoes are enigmatic due to their restlessness but lack of eruptive activity. I present a model of coupled conduit convection and foam accumulation to explain degassing behavior of Masaya, an active volcano in Nicaragua that is currently emitting large amounts of gas but not erupting. Gas-rich magma is transported through a conduit 2–6 m in radius and then released into a shallow reservoir. The magma is degassed in the reservoir and forms a foam 1–3 m thick at the top with bubbles 20–60 µm in diameter. The foam layer is stable because the input of gas into the foam is balanced by gas release through a vent to the surface. If the foam layer is destabilized, the volcano can erupt explosively. The most likely cause of foam destabilization is a large injection of volatile-rich magma from deeper levels into the shallow conduit-reservoir system, thereby increasing magma fluxes and gas fluxes, exsolving large gas bubbles, and reducing surface tension of the magma.

Description: The solubility of H2O in silicate melt drops substantially with decreasing pressure, so that a magma initially containing several weight percent H2O in a crustal magma reservoir is left with only a few thousand parts per million following ascent and eruption at the Earth’s surface. This rapid release of volatiles makes determining the pre-eruptive H2O contents of magmas very difficult. Olivine-hosted melt inclusions are thought to retain their H2O because they are protected from decompression by the strength of the host crystal, and pre-eruptive concentrations obtained from melt inclusions have been used to both estimate the amount of H2O in the upper mantle and investigate its role in the melt generation process. The greatest uncertainty involved in constraining upper mantle conditions from melt inclusions is the potential for rapid diffusive loss or gain of H+ (protons) through the host olivine. Here we present results from hydration and dehydration experiments that demonstrate that, contrary to the widely held view, H2O loss or gain in melt inclusions is not limited by redox reactions and significant fluxes of H+ through the host olivine are possible on very short time scales. We also show that the Fe3+/ΣFe of an olivine-hosted melt inclusion maintains equilibrium with the external environment via diffusion of point defects through the host olivine. Our results demonstrate that, while pre-eruptive H2O and Fe3+/ΣFe can be reliably estimated, olivine-hosted melt inclusions do not necessarily retain a record of the H2O and O2 fugacity conditions at which they formed. High-H2O melt inclusions are particularly susceptible to diffusive dehydration, and therefore are not reliable proxies for the state of the upper mantle.

Description: In this paper we present an outcrop example of coarse-grained sediment waves generated by hyperpycnal discharges at the toe of Miocene clinoform systems exposed in the northeast Atlantic coast of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. An individual set of these sediment waves is formed during the waxing and waning phases of the hyperpycnal discharge. During the waxing phase, accumulation of coarse-grained sediments with generation and migration of dune bedforms occurs at the base of the clinoforms. These deposits show transitions of tractive sedimentary structures with evidence of bedload transport, and a continuous reworking by the overpassing hyperpycnal flow. The continued erosion and reworking during the waxing phase affect mainly the top and the stoss side of the dunes, resulting in isolated lenses having upcurrent aggradation structures. During the waning phase, these isolated lenses are covered by fine-grained heterolithic strata that are thicker on the stoss side than on the lee side, constituting a differential draping. The pulsating and sustained character of the hyperpycnal flows and the steep depositional slope clinoforms controlled the stacking pattern of the coarse-grained sediment waves during successive hyperpycnal events. In this way, small-scale, coarse-grained sediment waves, with wavelengths of 10-40 m and up to 5 m amplitude, and a stacking pattern showing an up-current growth, are generated by high-density hyperpycnal flows on slopes having steep gradients.

Description: Diatremes are debris-filled structures beneath maars that result from many magma-water (phreatomagmatic) explosions during a monogenetic volcano’s lifetime. A long-standing model requires deepening explosions, due to water table drawdown, that eject progressively deeper-seated country rock from the explosion sites, while the overlying diatreme and its surface crater widen due to subsidence. A revised model is proposed wherein explosions can take place at any level within a diatreme at a given time, most effectively venting material from near-surface explosions. Deep-seated country rock lithics in tephra deposits record stepwise vertical mixing of material by upward-directed debris jets and downward subsidence, rather than direct ejection from deep explosions. Juvenile and lithic clasts erupted during a given explosion may have had a complex history within the diatreme and need not directly reflect fragmentation or brecciation during the explosion that ejects them.

Description: We propose a classification scheme that unifies terminology for all primary volcaniclastic deposits, assigns initial depositional mechanism as the basis for classifying them, and refines the grain-size classes used to pigeonhole samples. By primary volcaniclastic deposits and rocks, we mean the entire range of fragmental products deposited directly by explosive or effusive eruption. This definition thus focuses on the primary transport and deposition of particles, rather than those processes by which the particles form or the nature of the fluid in which they are carried. We favor this approach for all primary volcaniclastic deposits because they typically contain assemblages of clasts formed by different processes and/or at different times that are subsequently brought together during eruption.

Description: The entry of groundwater into volcanic conduits has been proposed as a major modifying agent of eruptive dynamics, influencing magma fragmentation and pyroclast dispersion. Although several external water sources and interaction mechanisms have been proposed, the nature and effects of magma-water interaction are still largely unclear, as well as its controlling factors. A common postulate for phreatomagmatic activity to occur is that pressure in a conduit crosscutting a subsurface aquifer should drop below the aquifer pressure, which depends on the properties of the aquifer and the ascending magma. In agreement with most phreatomagmatic eruptions, we show that the injection of large mass fractions of groundwater during silicic explosive eruptions (e.g., 〉5 wt%) is only physically feasible for low-eruption-rate events; while high-intensity eruptions with evidence of magma-water interaction are probably related to other interaction mechanisms (e.g., the involvement of surface water or the destabilization of aquifer-hosting rocks during collapse phases). Because conditions for access of groundwater to the conduit are preferably reached above the fragmentation level, magma-water interaction seems not to induce dramatic changes to the features of a primary ‘dry’ vesiculation, as commonly claimed. Hence, the low vesicularity indexes often attributed to phreatomagmatic eruptions are difficult to explain by the quenching effect of groundwater on not-fully developed vesicularity. Instead, these indexes may be related to the low eruption rates needed for effective magma-water interaction, generally characterized by significant lateral gradients of vesicularity in narrow conduits.

Description: The 650 km3 rhyolitic Bishop Tuff (eastern California, USA), which is stratigraphically zoned with respect to temperatures of mineral equilibration, reflects a corresponding thermal gradient in the source magma chamber. Consistent with previous work, application of the new TitaniQ (Ti-in-quartz) thermometer to quartz phenocryst rims documents an ∼100 °C temperature increase with chamber depth at the time of eruption. Application of TitaniQ to quartz phenocryst cores, however, reveals lower temperatures and an earlier gradient that was less steep, with temperature increasing with depth by only ∼30 °C. In many late-erupted crystals, sharp boundaries that separate low-temperature cores from high-temperature rims cut internal cathodoluminescent growth zoning, indicating partial phenocryst dissolution prior to crystallization of the high-temperature rims. Rimward jumps in Ti concentration across these boundaries are too abrupt (e.g., 40 ppm across a distance of 〈10 µm) to have survived magmatic temperatures for more than ∼100 yr. We interpret these observations to indicate heating-induced partial dissolution of quartz, followed by growth of high-temperature rims (made possible by lowering of water activity due to addition of CO2) within 100 yr of the climactic 760 ka eruption. Hot mafic melts injected into deeper parts of the magma system were the likely source of heat and CO2, raising the possibility that eruption and caldera collapse owe their origin to a recharge event.

Description: The chlorine isotope composition of Earth’s interior can place strong constraints on deep-Earth cycling of halogens and the origin of mantle chemical heterogeneity. However, all mantle-derived volcanic samples studied for Cl isotopes thus far originate from submarine volcanic systems, where the influence of seawater-derived Cl is pervasive. Here, we present Cl isotope data from subglacial volcanic glasses from Iceland, where the mid-ocean ridge system emerges above sea level and is free of seawater influence. The Iceland data display significant variability in δ37Cl values, from −1.8‰ to +1.4‰, and are devoid of regional controls. The absence of correlations between Cl and O isotope ratios and the lack of evidence for seawater-derived enrichments in Cl indicate that the variation in δ37Cl values in Icelandic basalts can be solely attributed to mantle heterogeneity. Indeed, positive correlations are evident between δ37Cl values and incompatible trace element ratios (e.g., La/Y), and long-lived radiogenic Pb isotope ratios. The data are consistent with the incorporation of altered lithosphere, including the uppermost sedimentary package, subducted into the Iceland mantle plume source, resulting in notable halogen enrichments in Icelandic basalts relative to lavas from adjacent mid-ocean ridges.

Description: Based on swath bathymetry, two-dimensional, high-resolution seismic reflection profiles, and Ocean Drilling Program/Deep Sea Drilling Project (ODP/DSDP) data, we describe a seafloor honeycomb pattern and propose a model for its formation in Pliocene–Miocene carbonate deposited on the uneven oceanic basement of the Carnegie Ridge (offshore Ecuador). Hydrothermal fluids derived from the basement aquifer fractured and dissolved carbonate sediment, creating seafloor pits above basements highs. Fluids expelled along polygonal faults may have assisted the nucleation of seafloor depressions. At the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, strong bottom currents scoured previously damaged sediments, enlarging the initial depressions and producing the seafloor honeycomb pattern. This regional erosive episode was contemporaneous with the final closing of the Isthmus of Panama and the clogging of the Ecuador Trench by the subduction of the Carnegie Ridge, so that the honeycomb pattern may be viewed as a regional marker of these two geodynamic events.

Description: The geological record contains evidence of volcanic eruptions that were as much as two orders of magnitude larger than the most voluminous eruption experienced by modern civilizations, the A.D. 1815 Tambora (Indonesia) eruption. Perhaps nowhere on Earth are deposits of such supereruptions more prominent than in the Snake River Plain–Yellowstone Plateau (SRP-YP) volcanic province (northwest United States). While magmatic activity at Yellowstone is still ongoing, the Heise volcanic field in eastern Idaho represents the youngest complete caldera cycle in the SRP-YP, and thus is particularly instructive for current and future volcanic activity at Yellowstone. The Heise caldera cycle culminated 4.5 Ma ago in the eruption of the ∼1800 km3 Kilgore Tuff. Accessory zircons in the Kilgore Tuff display significant intercrystalline and intracrystalline oxygen isotopic heterogeneity, and the vast majority are 18O depleted. This suggests that zircons crystallized from isotopically distinct magma batches that were generated by remelting of subcaldera silicic rocks previously altered by low-δ18O meteoric-hydrothermal fluids. Prior to eruption these magma batches were assembled and homogenized into a single voluminous reservoir. U-Pb geochronology of isotopically diverse zircons using chemical abrasion–isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry yielded indistinguishable crystallization ages with a weighted mean 206Pb/238U date of 4.4876 ± 0.0023 Ma (MSWD = 1.5; n = 24). These zircon crystallization ages are also indistinguishable from the sanidine 40Ar/39Ar dates, and thus zircons crystallized close to eruption. This requires that shallow crustal melting, assembly of isolated batches into a supervolcanic magma reservoir, homogenization, and eruption occurred extremely rapidly, within the resolution of our geochronology (103–104 yr). The crystal-scale image of the reservoir configuration, with several isolated magma batches, is very similar to the reservoir configurations inferred from seismic data at active supervolcanoes. The connection of magma batches vertically distributed over several kilometers in the upper crust would cause a substantial increase of buoyancy overpressure, providing an eruption trigger mechanism that is the direct consequence of the reservoir assembly process.

Description: On the shelf and upper slope off Peru the signal of coastal upwelling productivity and bottom-water oxygen is well preserved in alternately laminated and bioturbated diatomaceous Quaternary sediments. Global sea-level fluctuations are the ultimate cause for these cyclic facies changes. During late Miocene time, coastal upwelling was about 100 km west of the present centers, along the edge of an emergent structure that subsequently subsided to form the modern slope. The sediments are rich in organic carbon, and intense microbially mediated decomposition of organic matter is evident in sulfate reduction and methanogenesis. These processes are accompanied by the formation of diagenetic carbonates, mostly Ca-rich dolomites and Mg-calcites. The downhole isotopic signatures of these carbonate cements display distinct successions that reflect the vertical evolution of the pore fluid environment. From the association of methane gas hydrates, burial depth, and low-chloride interstitial fluids, we suggest an additional process that could contribute to the characteristic chloride depletion in pore fluids of active margins: release of interlayer water from clays without a mineral phase change. The shelf sediments also contain a subsurface brine that stretches for more than 500 km from north to south over the area drilled. The source of the brine remains uncertain, although the composition of the oxygen isotopes suggests dissolution of evaporites by seawater.

Description: The tectonics of the southwestern Kuril arc are a result of the oblique subduction of the Pacific plate at the Kuril Trench. In association with forearc sliver migration caused by the oblique subduction, collision tectonics occur at the leading margin of the sliver and tensional tectonics take place at the tapering margin. As a result of the collision, a deep crustal section of island arc is observed at the leading margin of the forearc sliver. Tectonics of the Kuril arc related to oblique subduction are different from those of the western Sunda arc, where backarc spreading occurs at the leading margin. This difference is due to margin morphology of the oblique subduction zone.

Description: Deep fault zones are characterized by mylonitic rocks with strong preferred orientation of constituent minerals and retrograde mineral assemblages. Sonic velocities are consequently lower (for propagation directions normal to mylonite foliation) than in surrounding unmylonitized rocks. Synthetic seismograms computed for low-velocity, near-horizontal, thick mylonite zones of complex, laminated geometry show multicyclic reflections with amplitudes up to twice those generated by a single interface. Seismic characteristics of mylonite zones are sufficient to produce reflections in crystalline rocks, provided noise levels are relatively low.

Description: Recent geophysical observations of landslide movement support the hypothesis that processes involved in landslide faulting are analogous to those that operate in crustal-scale faulting. Relative to crustal faulting studies, quantitative seismic, geodetic, and creep meas­urements of landslide deformation may be made in a very short time with readily available instrumentation and at relatively minimal expense. Our results indicate that the displace­ment of landslide material occurs along discrete faults exhibiting a combination of brittle failure, indicated by slide quakes and creep events, and as stable sliding observed as steady-state creep. Although slide quakes were observed, a more steady-state failure pro­cess of relieving accumulating strain is indicated.

Description: The formation of marine opal-CT nodules or layers as early diagenetic deposits has been documented only in Antarctic deep-sea sediments. In contrast, porcellanites and cherts in land sections and Deep Sea Drilling Project and Ocean Drilling Program drill sites are usually found in sediment sections of Miocene age and older. During R.V. Polarstem cruises ANT-IX/3 and 4, young porcellanites were recovered for the first time in contact with their host sediment in two cores from the Atlantic sector of the southern ocean. Chemical and mineralogical studies of these deposits and their surrounding sediments have increased knowledge about very early chert formation. In both cores the porcellanites are embedded in sediments rich in opal-A with extremely low levels of detrital minerals, an environment that seems conducive to a rapid transformation of biogenic silica into porcellanites.

Description: Cogenetic volatile-rich alkali basalts and gabbros, hawaiites, and mugearites occur in the late Miocene age epizonal Porgera intrusive complex, which is temporally and spatially associated with rich gold-silver mineralization. The least evolved rocks show enrichments in light rare earth elements ([La/Yb]cn = 15-19) and other incompatible elements (e.g., Ba/La ≈ 8-10, La/Nb ≈ 0.6-0.7, Sr/Nd ≈ 25) characteristic of intraplate alkalic basalts and have isotopic compositions (87Sr/86Sr ≈ 0.7035, ϵNd ≈ +6, 206Pb/204Pb ≈ 18.66, 207Pb/204Pb ≈ 15.56, 298Pb/204Pb ≈ 38.55) consistent with derivation from a time-averaged depleted mantle source. The Porgera intrusive complex was emplaced at 6 Ma in Jurassic-Cretaceous shelf-facies sedimentary rocks near the edge of the Australasian plate. Intrusion appears to have occurred in a back-arc environment during subduction of an oceanic microplate segment on two sides, beneath the continental margin and an island arc. We suggest that this unusual tectonic setting promoted partial melting of asthenospheric source materials that were perhaps modified by deep (〉150 km) subduction processes to form alkalic magmas with intraplate character.

Description: Fluid-inclusion and stable isotope evidence are presented for the transition from magmatic-related mesothermal to meteoric water-dominated epithermal activity at the giant Porgera gold deposit, Papua New Guinea. Reflecting this transition, Au-Ag mineralization occurs in two main stages: disseminated auriferous pyrite in phyllic alteration zones (stage I); and fault-related, quartz-roscoelite-cemented hydrothermal breccias and veins carrying locally abundant free gold and Au-Ag-tellurides (stage II). The deposit is spatially and temporally associated with a late Miocene (6 Ma) epizonal intrusive complex emplaced in continental crust immediately prior to an early Pliocene continent- island-arc collision. Stage I ore formation was associated in part with fluids of magmatic origin (˜200 to 〉500 °C, 7 to 12 wt% and 31 to 58 wt% NaCl equivalent [eq.], delta18O = 8.10/00 to 9.40/00, deltaD = -500/00 to -320/00) and appears to represent a new type of Au-rich, Cu-poor, porphyritic, intrusion- related mineralization associated with volatile-rich, mafic, alkalic magmatism in a continent island-arc collision environment. Stage II vein-type mineralization crosscuts this earlier disseminated orebody; it formed at depths of 2 to 3 km from lower temperature, lower salinity, isotopically exchanged ground waters (˜180 °C, 3 to 10 eq. wt% NaCl, delta18O = 3.10/00 to 6.40/00, deltaD = -620/00 to -340/00), similar to fluids from other Au-Ag-Te epithermal deposits. Gold in these late veins was probably remobilized from deeper stage I-type mineralization, and stable isotope and textural evidence suggest that Au was deposited following tectonically induced fluid phase separation.

Description: We present seismological evidence for tearing of the Pacific plate at the northern termination of the Tonga subduction zone. Seismicity cross sections indicate (1) abrupt termination of intermediate-depth seismicity along an east-west–trending zone coincident with the northern termination of the subduction zone and (2) shoaling of the subducted slab at its northern termination. Earthquake distribution and source-mechanism determinations indicate progressive downwarping and tearing of the Pacific plate as it enters the northernmost segment of the Tonga subduction zone. Source mechanisms for 57 events located along a narrow belt of high seismicity in northernmost Tonga indicate dip-slip faulting along near-vertical planes oriented ∼285°, coinciding with the observed direction of plate convergence. Precisely determined depths for 21 events (18–57 km) suggest that the plate is downwarped 〉15 km prior to initiation of tearing; depths of the 7 April 1995 (Ms =8) event and aftershocks suggest tearing of the plate may extend through the entire thickness of the oceanic lithosphere.

Description: The late Pleistocene tectonic history of the northern Peru convergent margin can be retraced using data collected during deep-sea dives of the submersible Nautile combined with a recent Hydrosweep survey conducted off Peru at lat 5°-6°S by the R/V Sonne. During the past 400 ka, a broad rollover fold formed in the middle slope area, in association with a major seaward-dipping detachment fault. A catastrophic debris avalanche occurred as the result of oversteepening of the landward flank of the rollover fold. The gravity failure of the slope, previously recognized by SeaBeam mapping, occurred at 13.8 ±2.7 ka and produced a destructive tsunami.

Description: Two Nd and Pb isotope time series of hydrogenous ferromanganese crusts, one from the Tehuantepec Ridge in the deep eastern equatorial Pacific and the other from Blake Plateau in the shallow northwestern Atlantic, which cover the past 7–8 m.y., show no variations coincident with the final closure of the Panama gateway, estimated as ca. 3.5 Ma. The record of the Atlantic crust located in the present-day Gulf Stream shows a shift in isotope composition from ca. 8 to 5 Ma that is explained by a diminishing supply of Pacific water. It is argued that the major restriction of water-mass exchange through the Panama gateway occurred before 5 Ma and thus cannot serve as a direct cause of the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. The absence of a significant signature in the isotope records from the Pacific crust suggests that the volume of water exchanged with the Atlantic through shallow archipelagic straits of the gateway during the 3–4 m.y. prior to closure was too small to influence the radiogenic isotope composition of Pacific deep water.

Description: A combination of biostratigraphic markers (ammonites, inoceramid bivalves) and carbon isotope excursions is employed to establish a high-resolution correlation between the middle to late Cenomanian successions of the Western Interior Basin (USA) and the Anglo-Paris Basin (southern UK). Sequences identified from sedimentologic criteria in the Pueblo succession and elsewhere in the Western Interior Basin are shown to coincide precisely with globally recognized sea-level events and were therefore under eustatic control. This evidence refutes arguments that Cenomanian sequences in the Western Interior Basin were formed by local tectonic events. The interaction of longer-term tectonic movements and more rapid eustatic change may have simply enhanced the amount of erosion associated with sequence boundaries. A crossplot of radiometric ages derived from North American bentonites against an orbitally tuned time scale developed in the Anglo-Paris Basin provides support for the argument that the sequences were controlled by the 405-k.y.-long eccentricity cycle.

Description: The marine calcifying algae Emiliania huxleyi (coccolithophores) was grown in laboratory cultures under varying conditions with respect to the environmental parameters of temperature and carbonate ion concentration [CO32-] concentration. The Ca isotope composition of E. huxleyi's coccoliths reveals new insights into fractionation processes during biomineralization. The temperature-dependent Ca isotope fractionation resembles previous calibrations of inorganic and biogenic calcite and aragonite. Unlike inorganically precipitated calcite, the [CO32-] concentration of the medium has no significant effect on the Ca isotope composition of the coccoliths. These results indicate a decoupling of the chemical properties of the bulk medium and the calcifying vesicle. Cellular Ca pathways of E. huxleyi indicate that fractionation cannot occur at the crystal surface, as occurs during inorganic precipitation. The dominant processes leading to the observed Ca isotope fractionation pattern in E. huxleyi are most likely the dehydration of the Ca aquocomplex at the plasma membrane and the attachment of dissolved Ca to proteins of Ca channels. The independence of Ca isotope fractionation from [CO32-] and the small temperature dependence of E. huxleyi are also important for defining the isotopic signature of the oceanic Ca sink. Since coccolithophores contribute to about half the global CaCO3 production, a relatively uniform isotopic composition of the oceanic Ca sink is further supported.

Description: Apart from being popular holiday destinations, oceanic-island volcanoes such as Hawaii, Tahiti, or the Canaries provide magmas that yield valuable information about the interior of our planet. Until recently, studies have concentrated on the easily accessible, subaerial parts of the volcanoes, largely ignoring their earlier-formed, submarine parts. These submarine parts, however, provide critical information about how the mantle begins to melt and about the lowest-melting-point mantle components—information not available from the subaerial volcanoes but highly relevant for the chemical evolution of the whole mantle. We present here compositional information from small (〈500 m) volcanoes on the seafloor near Tahiti and Pitcairn Islands and show that these small volcanoes erupt only highly differentiated magmas. These early melts are derived exclusively from the most trace element–enriched, isotopically extreme mantle component, evidence that this component has the lowest melting temperature and is the first product of melting of a new batch of mantle. The geochemical mantle components (enriched mantle EM-I, EM-II) proposed in the 1980s to explain the compositional variations among oceanic volcanoes worldwide appear in reality to represent distinct rock masses in the mantle.

Description: A large number of mound-shaped structures that originated from mud extrusions is present along the convergent continental margin off Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Active fluid venting is indicated by the existence of CH4- and H2S-rich pore fluids as well as associated benthic fauna and authigenic carbonates. End-member fluid samples from all mounds are significantly depleted in dissolved Cl and other major elements, suggesting a general process of freshwater addition and thus a common source of the fluids. Our data clearly rule out dilution by gas hydrate dissociation as a dominant source of the freshwater. Enrichments of the fluids in B (up to 2 mmol/L) and inversely correlated δ18O vs. δD values point to clay-mineral dehydration as the cause for these anomalies. Calculations assuming a δ18O vs. δD equilibrium between the pore fluid and clay minerals at depth of formation indicate temperatures of dehydration between 85 and 130 °C. This temperature range is in agreement with the B enrichments and the presence of thermogenically formed CH4. Because temperatures above 50 °C are not reached within the sediment cover of the upper plate, the fluids most likely form within the subducted sediments and flow upward along deep-seated faults from ≥12 km depth. Mound-related fluid expulsion may contribute significantly to the recycling of mineral-bound water.

Description: Aragonitic clathrites are methane-derived precipitates that are found at sites of massive near-seafloor gas hydrate (clathrate) accumulations at the summit of southern Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia margin. These platy carbonate precipitates form inside or in proximity to gas hydrate, which in our study site currently coexists with a fluid that is highly enriched in dissolved ions as salts are excluded during gas hydrate formation. The clathrites record the preferential incorporation of 18O into the hydrate structure and hence the enrichment of 16O in the surrounding brine. We measured δ18O values as high as 2.27‰ relative to Peedee belemnite that correspond to a fluid composition of −1.18‰ relative to standard mean ocean water. The same trend can be observed in Ca isotopes. Ongoing clathrite precipitation causes enrichment of the 44Ca in the fluid and hence in the carbonates. Carbon isotopes confirm a methane source for the carbonates. Our triple stable isotope approach that uses the three main components of carbonates (Ca, C, O) provides insight into multiple parameters influencing the isotopic composition of the pore water and hence the isotopic composition of the clathrites. This approach provides a tool to monitor the geochemical processes during clathrate and clathrite formation, thus recording the evolution of the geochemical environment of gas hydrate systems.

Description: The origin of coastal and high-elevation marine gravels on the Hawaiian islands of Lanai and Molokai is controversial, because the vertical tectonics of these islands is poorly constrained. The gravels are either from eustatic highstands or were left by massive tsunamis from offshore giant landslides. In contrast, at Kohala on the island of Hawaii, where continuous subsidence is well established, lithofacies analysis and dating of a fossiliferous marine conglomerate 1.5–61 m above present sea level support a tsunami origin and indicate a runup of 〉400 m 〉6 km inland. The conglomerate age, 110 ± 10 ka, suggests a tsunami caused by the ca. 120 ka giant Alika 2 landslide from nearby Mauna Loa volcano.

Description: Studies of paleo–sea level and past climate have focused upon proxy methods in ice and deep-sea cores and more direct information provided by past shorelines, in some cases preserved as raised or submerged reef deposits in tropical areas. Paleo-shorelines need to be constrained by accurate tectonic history because these environments and their marine deposits can be confused with past tsunami deposits and vice versa. A maximum 21-m-high extensive emerged reef on Oahu, Hawaii, U-series dated to 334 ± 17 ka, together with a mean U-series age of 335 ± 22 ka (n = 5) for slightly higher, energetic shoreline deposits nearby, suggest a marine isotope stage 9 (MIS 9) highstand, and extend the earlier work indicating a linear uplift for Oahu of 0.060 ± 0.001 mm/yr over the past 500 k.y. Five of the past six major emerged interglacial highstand reefs on Oahu have been identified, and these data provide little evidence for past maximum sea levels significantly greater than 2 m above the sea level datum at that time. There is currently no evidence for a MIS 11 highstand on Oahu.