variations in magmatic processes along the east greenland volcanic margin summary seismic velocities and the associated thicknesses of rifted and igneous crust provide key constraints on the rifting history the differentiation between non volcanic and volcanic rifted margins the driving force of magmatism at volcanic margins that is active or passive upwelling and the temperature anomaly in the lithosphere this paper presents two new wide angle seismic transects of the east greenland margin and combines the velocity models with a compilation of 30 wide angle seismic velocity models from several publications along the entire east greenland margin compiled maps show the depth to basement depth to moho crustal thickness and thickness of high velocity lower crust hvlc with velocities above 7 0 km s 1 first we present two new wide angle seismic transects which contribute to the compilation at the northeast greenland margin and over the oceanic crust between shannon island and the greenland fracture zone velocity models produced by ray tracing result in total traveltime rms misfits of 100 120 milliseconds and 2 values of 3 7 and 2 3 for the northern and southern profiles with respect to the data quality and structural complexity 2 d gravity modelling is used to verify the structural and lithologic constraints the northernmost profile awi 20030200 reveals a magma starved break up and a rapidly thinning oceanic crust until magnetic anomaly c21 47 1 ma the southern seismic transect awi 20030300 exhibits a positive velocity anomaly associated with the shannon high and a basin of up to 15 km depth beneath flood basalts between shannon island and the continent ocean boundary break up is associated with minor crustal thickening and a rapidly decreasing thickness of oceanic crust out to anomaly c21 the continental region is proposed to be only sparsely penetrated by volcanism and not underplated by magmatic material at all compared to the vast amount of magmatism further south break up is proposed to have occurred at the seaward boundaries of the continent ocean transition zones at between 50 and 54 ma propagating from north to south based on a joint analysis incorporating transects from the kejser franz joseph fjord and godthab gulf secondly the variation of the hvlc along the east greenland margin from 60 to 77 n and from transects of its conjugate margin shows inverted emplacement of prominent landward and seaward hvlc thickness portions from north to south in a distribution chart the differences in the hvlc distribution are attributed to one or more of the following three models in the first model it is inferred that a transfer zone detachment acts as a barrier to northward magma flow in the second model underplating results in thicker and highly intruded lower crust with several small scale feeder dykes that locally increase the lower crustal velocities in the third model a second magmatic event associated with the separation of the jan mayen microcontinent is considered lithospheric scale inhomogeneities might be responsible for the heterogeneous melt generation the inversion of the hvlc distribution in continental and oceanic domains and differences in its velocities

hatton bank northwest u k continental margin structure summary the continent ocean transition near hatton bank was studied using a dense grid of single ship and two ship multichannel seismic mcs profiles extensive oceanward dipping reflectors in a sequence of igneous rocks are developed in the upper crust across the entire margin at the landward shallowest end the dipping reflectors overlie continental crust while at the seaward end they are formed above oceanic crust beneath the central and lower part of the margin is a mid crustal layer approximately 5 km thick that could be either stretched and thinned continental crust or maybe newly formed igneous crust generated at the same time as the dipping reflector sequence beneath this mid crustal layer and above a well defined seismic moho which rises from 27 km continental end to 15 km oceanic end across the margin the present lower crust comprises a 10 15 km thick lens of material with a seismic velocity of 7 3 to 7 4 kds we interpret the present lower crustal lens as underplated igneous rocks left after extraction of the extruded basaltic lavas a considerable quantity of new material has been added to the crust under the rifted margin the present moho is a new boundary formed during creation of the margin and cannot therefore be used to determine the amount of thinning

crustal structure off norway 62 to 70 north abstract extensive geophysical surveys have been undertaken on the volcanic passive continental margin offshore norway between 62 and 70 n during the last 25 years three main margin segments have been identified the lofoten vesteralen margin the voring margin and the more margin the main features of the margins are prominent marginal highs including seaward dipping reflector sequences and an up to 22 km thick volcanic and transitional crust prominent escarpments the voring plateau escarpment and the faeroe shetland escarpment and up to 12 km deep post jurassic sedimentary basins east of the escarpments velocity depth solutions from about 250 sonobuoys expanding spread profiles and refraction profiles have been compiled and contoured isovelocity horizon contour maps and velocity transects outline a crust which broadly thickens from an oceanic crust with a normal oceanic type velocity structure to a ca 35 km thick continental crust with a continental velocity structure beneath the norwegian coast anomalous features include local crustal thickening below the more and vering marginal highs and high velocity bodies in the lower crust in the extension of the precambrian lofoten vesteralen archipelago the free air seasat derived gravity anomalies show a good correlation with the high velocity bodies and show prominent ne trending highs from the rockall plateau porcupine plateau region over the more voring and lofoten vesteralen margins to the southwestern barents sea

a crustal study off lofoten n norway by use of 3 component ocean bottom seismographs abstract twenty four 3 component ocean bottom seismographs obs were used in august 1988 in a combined seismic refraction and reflection study off lofoten n norway the purpose of the experiment was to map the crustal structure from the continental shelf to the oceanic crust off lofoten the very high data quality is demonstrated by the strong p wave and shear wave reflections as well as converted waves from the moho observed on the continental shelf these arrivals are observed continuously from near vertical to wide angle incidence very high seismic sea floor velocities in this area 3 1 km s to 5 1 km s indicates absence or very thin sequences of mesozoic sediments the 5 1 km s refractor coincides with the base cretaceous reflection interpreted from the multichannel reflection data the crystalline continental crust is here divided in layers with velocities of 6 0 km s 6 4 km s and 6 8 km s respectively on the seaward side of the escarpment tertiary sediments varying in thickness from 1 0 1 5 km are situated on top of a 1 5 2 0 km thick layer of flood basalt containing seaward dipping reflectors a layer with velocity of 6 7 km s is observed above the lower crust which in this area is found to have a velocity as high as 7 3 km s these high velocities indicate that the crust in this area is of oceanic origin or alternatively the high velocity layer in the lower crust might represent a magmatic body underplating highly thinned and intruded continental crust seven obss were deployed in the area that was covered by landward flowing basalt deposited during the early eocene breakup between norway and greenland the survey was partly performed to investigate whether this method can be used to map structures below the basalt which is impenetrable with conventional seismic reflection techniques the obs data contain considerable information about structures below the flood basalt pre opening sediments up to 4 0 km thick are indicated below the 1 0 2 5 km thick landward flowing basalt the velocities of the crystalline portion of the crust are found to be similar to those observed under the continental shelf 6 0 6 8 km s which implies that the crust east of the escarpment is of continental origin the crystalline crust is strongly thinned in this area showing a minimum thickness of about 6 km the depth to the moho increases from about 15 km in the western part of the area to about 26 km on the continental shelf the success of the obs survey indicates that such measurements can become an important tool in investigations on passive volcanic margins and potentially in other areas where highly reflective surfaces make the reflection technique inefficient

crustal structure of the lofoten continental margin off northern norway from ocean bottom seismographic studies summary in 1988 an extensive geophysical experiment was performed on the lofoten passive continental margin which was formed by the continental break up between greenland and northern norway at 58 ma the geological units of the outer lofoten margin are characterized by seaward dipping reflectors sdrs and landward flood basalt which extends up to 100 km landwards of sdrs in this study we obtain the p wave velocity structure beneath the lofoten basin the sdrs and the landward flood basalt by use of ocean bottom seismograph refraction profiling and we also discuss the formation of the northern norwegian passive continental margin in the lofoten basin the crust is of oceanic type consisting of sedimentary layers oceanic laver 2 4 9 5 5 km s 1 layer 3a 6 3 6 8 km s 1 and layer 3b 7 0 7 1 km s 1 beneath the sdrs the crustal layers are identical to those of the lofoten basin but the thickness of the lower crust which represents the same velocity as layer 3b increases to 5 km towards the continent side and a high velocity lower crustal layer 7 3 km s 1 is formed at the base of the crust the ocean continent transition zone is situated between the landward side of the sdrs and the northward continuation of the voring plateau escarpment in this region the velocity of the lower crust gradually decreases and approaches the lower crustal velocity beneath the lofoten islands 6 8 km s 1 the model also indicates that the high velocity layer disappears in this region comparing our model with the crustal structure on the voring margin it is clear that the lower crustal body 7 km s 1 thickens southwards along the northern norwegian continental margin recent results from petrological and geophysical studies of the generation of the oceanic crust have shown that increasing the temperature of the upwelling asthenospheric material increases the thickness of the oceanic crust we interpret this as that the oceanic crust in the southern area in the voring lofoten margin was generated by hotter material than that of the northern area

the silver deposits at cobalt and gowganda ontario ii an experiment in age determinations employing radiometric and paleomagnetic measurements u pb analyses of primary baddeleyite and vein related secondary rutile separated from a nipissing diabase sill at the castle mine gowganda yield ages of 2217 5 1 6 and 2217 0 6 ma respectively the data allow for the possibility that i the vein formed at essentially the same time as diabase intrusion defined within the limits of the intercept age or ii the vein could have formed up to 8 1 ma later than intrusion paleomagnetic analyses of the diabase suggest that it is part of the older n2 phase of this widespread intrusive event paleomagnetic analyses of a pre vein granite dike intrusive into the diabase provide a minimum time interval of 20 000 50 000 years separating intrusion and vein formation 40ar 39ar analyses of silicates obtained from ore veins in the cobalt camp yield highly disturbed age spectra paleomagnetic analyses of altered wall rocks to ore veins in both the castle mine and the cobalt camp provide a wide range of apparent ages inconsistent with the u pb data the 4

self affine scaling and subsurface response to snowmelt in steep terrain abstract the use of local scaling transformations is proposed as a framework for modeling the geometry and dynamic response of subsurface flow from steep hillslopes the study site is the upper sheep creek watershed a first order sub basin in the reynolds creek experimental watershed southwest idaho the goal of the research is to gain insight into the evolution of snowmelt subsurface flow and runoff generation in this rugged volcanic terrain in this phase of the study rescaling geometrically proportional self affine surface and bedrock slope profiles provide an analytical framework for defining the shape volume and dynamic changes of saturated flow for this hillslope system rescaling self affine hillslope trajectories along a stream reach collapses the flow domain to a unit cube a dynamic model for hillslope runoff is proposed and implications for modeling topographic controls on the snowmelt process are suggested

crustal structure of edoras bank continental margin and mantle thermal anomalies beneath the north atlantic we discuss the structure of the continent ocean transition of the edoras bank area of the ne atlantic margin and the influence of the iceland mantle plume during continental breakup edoras bank lies close to the present day limit of influence of the iceland plume sequences of seaward dipping reflectors imaged on multichannel seismic profiles are well developed over much of the margin they form aerially extensive dipping sheets with individual reflectors imaged on margin parallel profiles as laterally continuous and subhorizontal features we interpret them as basalt flows extruded from linear fissure vents close to sea level at the time of continental breakup a crustal velocity model for the margin was developed by travel time modeling of wide angle refractions and reflections recorded on digital ocean bottom hydrophones and the structure confirmed by gravity modeling oceanic crust formed immediately after breakup is 10 km thick and exhibits classic layer 2 and layer 3 seismic velocities the crustal thickness increases to the se reaching 17 km beneath the continental fragment of edoras bank the continent ocean transition is dominated in the lower crust by a lens up to 8 km thick of high velocity material 7 2 7 5 km s 1 which exhibits a very low velocity gradient it extends over a 60 km wide region beneath the seaward dipping reflectors the high velocities and densities of the lower crust are probably caused by igneous rock with a high mgo content that underplated the margin or heavily intruded pre existing crustal material during continental breakup both the addition of large quantities of melt to the margin and the subsidence curves inferred from postrift sediments sampled by deep sea drilling project dsdp boreholes on the margin indicate the presence of abnormally hot mantle beneath the area at the time of continental breakup comparison of the structure and subsidence history of the edoras bank margin with other areas of the nw european margin allows us to deduce the spatial extent and temporal variation of the thermal anomalies caused by the iceland mantle plume during and following continental breakup we find that at the time of breakup a thin layer of anomalously hot asthenospheric mantle 150 c hotter than normal lay beneath the 2000 km long rift extending from the lofoten margin off norway in the north to the edoras bank margin in the south over a period of 5 10 m y following the onset of rifting the mantle thermal anomaly decayed rapidly to only 50 c or so above normal as the thin layer of abnormally hot mantle decompressed beneath the rift and produced a large pulse of magmatism

structure of the jan mayen microcontinent and implications for its evolution an extensive seismic survey using ocean bottom seismographs obs was performed in the area across the jan mayen basin north atlantic from the jan mayen ridge to the iceland plateau the jan mayen ridge and surrounding area are considered to be a fragment of a continent which was separated from greenland just prior to magnetic anomaly 6 this study presents the crustal structure of the jan mayen microcontinent and the ocean continent transition to the west of the jan mayen ridge the crustal structures from the centre of the jan mayen ridge to the jan mayen basin are characterized by a deep sedimentary basin a thin basaltic layer within the sedimentary section and extreme thinning of the continental crust towards the iceland plateau the obs data indicate that a continental upper crust v p 5 8 6 1 km s 1 and lower crust v p 6 7 6 8 km s 1 underlie the deep sedimentary basin the thickness of the continental lower crust varies significantly from 12 km beneath the jan mayen ridge to almost zero thickness beneath the northwestern part of the jan mayen basin an ocean continent transition zone is found at the western edge of the jan mayen basin within the 10 km wide transition zone crustal velocities increase towards the iceland plateau and approach the velocities of the oceanic crust obtained at the iceland plateau that is 3 8 5 1 km s 1 oceanic layer 2a 5 9 6 5 km s 1 oceanic layer 2b and 6 8 7 3 km s 1 oceanic layer 3 the crustal model indicates very thin oceanic crust 5 km immediately oceanwards of the ocean continent transition zone beneath the iceland plateau the oceanic crust is thicker 9 km than the typical thickness of normal oceanic crust this might imply that the oceanic crust at the iceland plateau has been generated by asthenospheric material slightly hotter than normal from the crustal structure obtained by the present study it is proposed that the western part of the jan mayen ridge may be referred to as a non volcanic continental margin generated by a long duration of rifting even if the asthenospheric material upwelling along the margin were hotter than normal only small amounts of magmatic intrusions and extrusions would have been generated because of significant conductive cooling under the long duration of rifting

multicomponent magnetizations in nipissing diabase near temagami ontario and structural and thermal history of the grenville front the nipissing diabase nd sampled 2 km northwest of the grenville front near temagami ontario has four distinct components of natural remanent magnetization nrm the lowest unblocking tempera

magma productivity and early seafloor spreading rate correlation on the northern voring margin norway constraints on mantle melting abstract continental rifting at the voring margin off mid norway was initiated during the earliest eocene 54 ma and large volumes of magmatic rocks were emplaced during and after continental breakup in 2003 a marine survey collecting ocean bottom seismometer single channel reflection and magnetic data was conducted on the norwegian margin to constrain continental breakup and early seafloor spreading processes the profile described here crosses the northern part of the voring plateau and the crustal velocity model was constructed through a combination of ray tracing and forward gravity modeling the latter corrected for the thermal effects remaining from the seafloor spreading we found a maximum igneous crustal thickness of 18 km decreasing to 6 5 km over the first 6 m y after continental breakup both the volume and the duration of excess magmatism are about twice as large as that of the more margin south of the east jan mayen fracture zone which offsets the two margin segments by 170 km a similar reduction in magmatism occurs to the north over an along margin distance of 150 km to the lofoten margin but without a margin offset both the geochemical data and the mean p wave velocity indicate that there is active mantle upwelling combined with a moderate temperature increase during the earliest mantle melting at the voring margin the mean p wave velocity versus crustal thickness also indicates that there is a transition from convection dominated to temperature dominated magma production 2 m y after breakup the magnetic data were used to derive plate half spreading rates for the northern voring margin which are very similar to that obtained at the more margin there is a strong correlation between magma productivity and early plate spreading rate suggesting a common cause a model for the breakup related magmatism should be able to explain this correlation but also the magma production peak at breakup the along margin magmatic segmentation and the active mantle upwelling proposed end member hypotheses comprise elevated upper mantle temperatures caused by a hot mantle plume or edge driven small scale convection fluxing mantle rocks through the melt zone edge driven convection does not easily explain these observations but a mantle plume model in which buoyant plume material flows laterally to pond in the rift topography at the base of the lithosphere close to breakup time is promising when the continents break apart the hot and buoyant plume material can flow up into the rift zone from surrounding areas as the rift transits to drift and the excess temperature of this material will then cause excess magmatism which dies off as the rift restricted material is spent the buoyancy of the plume material may in addition cause active upwelling which can increase the melting furthermore and also increase the force on the plate boundaries to enhance plate spreading rate this conceptual model explains how both excess magmatism and spreading rate will be reduced similarly with time as the plume material is consumed by plate spreading and thus correlate

early cenozoic crust at the norwegian continental margin and the conjugate jan mayen ridge multichannel seismic profiles at the voring plateau margin off norway and the northern jan mayen ridge have provided a framework for the early tertiary evolutionary history of these areas which were adjacent prior to the opening of the norwegian sea we propose that their paleogene evolution is quite similar and that the two acoustic basement reflectors ee and jo were formed in the early eocene by extrusion of flow basalts from the time of opening to about anomaly 23 time oceanic seafloor was generated by icelandic type spreading during that time the central jan mayen fracture was the main transform the seaward dipping reflector sequences are flow basalts generated by the icelandic spreading the existence of less well developed dipping sequences seaward of the primary ones probably reflects that these regions submerged later because of higher initial elevation during the early eocene subaerial spreading episode which is related to the north atlantic volcanic province basalt flows also covered the adjacent thinned and heavily intruded continental crust it is proposed that the continent ocean boundary is located just landward of anomaly 24b a short distance seaward of the voring plateau escarpment reflector k is only recognized landward of this boundary in a region of transitional crust the escarpment experienced syndepositional faulting and the most elevated parts of the voring marginal high did not subside below shallow water depths before oligocene miocene time we suggest that the voring margin and the jan mayen ridge represent volcanic passive margins the evolution of this margin type may relate to initial uplift due to rifting in previously thinned crust

seismic constraints of the formation process on the back arc basin in the southeastern japan sea to clarify the formation process of the back arc basin in the japan sea which is located next to the northwestern pacific a seismic survey using ocean bottom seismographs and an air gun array was undertaken in areas from the northern yamato basin to the coast of the northeastern japan island arc off awa shima island the crust beneath the northern yamato basin off awa shima island is approximately 16 km thick the upper and lower crusts are respectively about 5 km thick with a steep velocity gradient and about 10 km thick with a gentle velocity gradient in the basin there are very few units with p wave velocity of 5 4 6 0 km s corresponding to the continental upper crust the crustal structure of the northern yamato basin has characteristics of thicker oceanic crust the high velocity lowermost crust in the northern yamato basin with 7 2 7 4 km s might show melt formed by a slightly high mantle temperature during the opening of the basin however the crust beneath the areas from the sado ridge to the coast which is approximately 25 26 km thick is slightly thinner than that of the continental crust and island arc crust the crustal structure beneath this area is inferred to be a rifted continental and or a rifted island arc crust

continent ocean transition and voluminous magmatic underplating derived from p wave velocity modelling of the east greenland continental margin summary deep seismic refraction data were gathered across the entire east greenland rifted margin north of the jan mayen fracture zone between 72 n and 75 n in 2003 investigations of the deep crustal structure of this continental margin provide constraints on the formation of the margin and its structural evolution during and after late cretaceous early tertiary rifting and continental break up we present here the results along two profiles located in the prolongation of the godthab gulf and the kejser franz joseph fjord regional p wave velocity models were derived from forward traveltime modelling of land stations and ocean bottom hydrophone obh recordings for the first time long deep seismic sounding transects off east greenland provide a full insight into the crustal architecture of the transition from continental to oceanic crust a mean result is the identification of voluminous magmatic underplating which is wider and thicker than previously thought p wave velocities of the underplated material range between 7 1 and 7 4 km s 1 and the horizontal extents on the profiles are 225 and 190 km the maximum thickness of the underplated material is 15 16 km furthermore the p wave velocity models reveal a 120 130 km wide continent ocean transition zone cot based on an interpretation of the extent of cretaceous syn rift sediments mixed with basaltic intrusions and the lateral increase of velocities in the crustal layers excess magmatism must have been present during a long term rifting process accompanying the extension of the continental crust and giving rise to the voluminous magmatic underplating a consequence of our interpretation of the seismic refraction data is a likely rift propagation in the greenland sea from north to south additionally a comparison of p wave velocity models of the east greenland margin and voring margin reveals significantly asymmetric crustal architectures the voluminous magmatic underplating and asymmetrical conjugate margins formations are considered as a mirror of complex pre and syn rift processes

a three dimensional geophysical model of the crust in the barents sea region model construction and basement characterization summary barents50 a new 3 d geophysical model of the crust in the barents sea region has been developed by the university of oslo norsar and the u s geological survey the target region comprises northern norway and finland parts of the kola peninsula and the east european lowlands novaya zemlya the kara sea and franz josef land terminate the region to the east while the norwegian greenland sea marks the western boundary in total 680 1 d seismic velocity profiles were compiled mostly by sampling 2 d seismic velocity transects from seismic refraction profiles seismic reflection data in the western barents sea were further used for density modelling and subsequent density to velocity conversion velocities from these profiles were binned into two sedimentary and three crystalline crustal layers the first step of the compilation comprised the layer wise interpolation of the velocities and thicknesses within the different geological provinces of the study region linear relationships between the thickness of the sedimentary rocks and the thickness of the remaining crystalline crust are observed we therefore used the separately compiled area wide sediment thickness data to adjust the total crystalline crustal thickness according to the total sedimentary thickness where no constraints from 1 d velocity profiles existed the barents50 model is based on an equidistant hexagonal grid with a node spacing of 50 km the p wave velocity model was used for gravity modelling to obtain 3 d density structure a better fit to the observed gravity was achieved using a grid search algorithm which focussed on the density contrast of the sediment basement interface an improvement compared to older geophysical models is the high resolution of 50 km velocity transects through the 3 d model illustrate geological features of the european arctic the possible petrology of the crystalline basement in western and eastern barents sea is discussed on the basis of the observed seismic velocity structure the barents50 model is available at http www norsar no seismology barents3d

crustal structure and evolution of the southern voring basin and voring transform margin ne atlantic abstract the dominantly passive volcanic voring and more margins ne atlantic are separated by the 200 km long voring transform margin vtm the southern voring basin and the vtm have been studied by use of four regional ocean bottom seismograph obs profiles combined by gravity modelling the models demonstrate a complex pattern of magmatism along the transform margin the distribution of magmatism seems to be related to the existence and trend of a lower crustal 8 km s body interpreted as eclogitized rocks present in the southern voring basin early tertiary breakup related magmatic leakage across the continent ocean transition cot appears to be facilitated where this layer is absent these results support earlier workers who have concluded that the jan mayen fracture zone originated from a caledonian zone of weakness we propose that partly eclogitized rocks were uplifted into the lower crust close to this zone during the caledonian orogeny and that this body acted as a barrier to magma emplacement during the late cretaceous early eocene phase of rifting breakup the eclogitized terrain also appears to have caused northeastward channeling of the late cretaceous early tertiary intrusions within the voring basin an up to 10 km thick pre cretaceous sedimentary basin in the southern voring basin may be genetically related to the ns trending late paleozoic and mesozoic rift basins in north east greenland

baked contact test demonstrates primary nature of dominant n1 magnetisation of nipissing intrusions in southern province canadian shield abstract nipissing diabase sills cone sheets and dykes define a major episode of igneous intrusion in the southern province of the canadian shield at about 2200 ma the dominant n1 remanence of these intrusions has been established in several palaeomagnetic studies and hence is a key tie point for the north american apparent polar wander path yet the age of this magnetisation remains very controversial positive baked contact tests reported for the n1 remanence have often been dismissed as inconclusive and the n1 palaeopole attributed to overprinting during the hudsonian orogeny 1900 1800 ma due to its position on a widely accepted polar wander path for north america previous baked contact studies utilise sediments of the huronian supergroup as host rock the remanence of these sediments is often difficult to interpret in this study a positive baked contact test is described for an n1 nipissing sill or cone sheet using stably magnetized mafic dykes of the matachewan swarm as host thus the n1 remanence is primary and no longer supports the time calibration of polar wander paths which assume that it is a 1900 1800 ma overprint

the t reflection and the deep crustal structure of the voring margin offshore mid norway seismic reflection data along volcanic passive margins frequently provide imaging of strong and laterally continuous reflections in the middle and lower crust we have completed a detailed 2d seismic interpretation of the deep crustal structure of the voring margin offshore mid norway where high quality seismic data allow the identification of high amplitude reflections locally referred to as the t reflection using a dense seismic grid we have mapped the geometry of the t reflection in order to compare it with filtered bouguer gravity anomalies and seismic refraction data the t reflection is identified between 7 and 10 s sometimes it consists of one single smooth reflection however it is frequently associated with a set of rough multiple reflections displaying discontinuous segments with varying geometries amplitudes and contact relationships the t reflection seems to be connected to deep sill networks and is locally identified at the continuation of basement high structures or terminates over fractures and faults the spatial correlation between the filtered positive bouguer gravity anomalies and the deep dome shaped reflections indicates that the latter represent a high impedance boundary contrast associated with a high density and velocity body in 50 of the outer voring margin the depth of the mapped t reflection is found to correspond to the depth of the top of the lower crustal body lcb which is characterized by high p wave velocities 7 km s we present a tectonic scenario where a large part of the deep crustal structure is composed of preserved upper continental crustal blocks and middle to lower crustal lenses of inherited high grade metamorphic rocks deep intrusions into the faulted crustal blocks are responsible for the rough character of the t reflection whereas intrusions into the ductile lower crust and detachment faults are likely responsible for its smoother character deep magma intrusions can be responsible for regional metamorphic processes leading to an increasing velocity of the lower crust to more than 7 km s the result is a heterogeneous lcb that likely represents a complex mixture of pre to syn breakup mafic and ultramafic rocks cumulates and sills and old metamorphic rocks such as granulites and eclogites an increasing degree of melting towards the breakup axis is responsible for an increasing proportion of cumulates and sill intrusions in the lower crust

north atlantic volcanic margins dimensions and production rates early tertiary lithospheric breakup between eurasia and greenland was accompanied by a transient 3 m y igneous event emplacing both the onshore flood basalts of the north atlantic volcanic province navp and huge extrusive complexes along the continent ocean transition on the rifted continental margins seismic data show that volcanic margins extend 2600 km along the early eocene plate boundary in places underlain by high velocity 7 2 7 7 km s lower crustal bodies quantitative calculations of navp dimensions considered minimum estimates reveal an areal extent of 1 3 106 km2 and a volume of flood basalts of 1 8 106 km3 yielding a mean eruption rate of 0 6 km3 yr or 2 4 km3 yr if two thirds of the basalts were emplaced within 0 5 m y the total crustal volume is 6 6 106 km3 resulting in a mean crustal accretion rate of 2 2 km3 yr thus navp ranks among the world s larger igneous provinces if the volcanic margins are considered the velocity structure of the expanded crust seaward of the continent ocean boundary differs from standard oceanic and continental crustal models based on seismic velocities this volcanic margin crust can be divided into three units of which the upper unit corresponds to basaltic extrusives the regionally consistent velocity structure and geometry of the crustal units suggest that the expanded crust including the high velocity lower crust which extends some distance landward of the continent ocean boundary was emplaced during and subsequent to breakup the volcanic margin crust was formed by excess melting within a wide zone of asthenospheric upwelling probably reflecting the interaction of a mantle plume and a lithosphere already extending

crustal structure of the northern part of the voring basin mid norway margin from wide angle seismic and gravity data abstract three regional ocean bottom seismograph obs profiles with a total of fifteen recovered obss were acquired in the northern part of the voring basin mid norway margin in 1996 the data have been modelled by inversion and forward modelling of the obs vertical components p waves the velocity is found to increase downwards within the sedimentary layers due to increasing depth of burial confining pressure within the two deepest sedimentary layers there seems to be an increase of 0 5 1 km s in velocity northwestwards this increase is most likely caused by high velocity sill intrusions in the sedimentary rocks emplaced during the rift episode leading to early eocene opening of the ne atlantic the presence of significant amounts of sills seems to terminate close to the nyk high along profile 5 dip profile and close to a dome northwest of the shelf edge along profile 6 dip profile the velocity in the top of this dome is anomalously high 3 4 km s at only 1 km depth beneath the seafloor suggesting that the high consists of volcanic rocks or heavily intruded sedimentary rocks the relatively low velocities derived from within the upper crystalline crust 5 9 6 2 km s confirms that the crust is of continental origin within the lower crust there seems to be a clear increase in velocity northwestwards from about 7 0 km s to about 7 4 km s suggesting that the amount of high velocity intrusions underplating in the lower crust decreases landwards the modelling of the strike profile profile 7 suggests that the transition from a lower crust dominated by magmatic intrusions to a more undisturbed continental lower crust is located approximately beneath this profile the model for profile 7 ties closely southwestwards to the models derived from obs data acquired in 1992 and northeastwards to lofoten obs data acquired in 1988 the models indicate that the thick magmatic intrusions in the sedimentary rocks and lower crust extend further landwards in the area of the 1992 survey and that the transition zone is related to the surt lineament the distribution of magmatic rocks thus seems to correlate strongly with pre breakup structures in addition to the p wave modelling gravity modelling has been performed along all profiles the gravity modelling confirmed all main aspects of the obs models and provided constraints on the crustal structures towards the ends of the profiles

extent of grenvillian remanence components in rocks of the southern province early aphebian gowganda sedimentary rocks and intruding nipissing diabase sills were sampled for paleomagnetic study at 88 sites 500 cores 1000 specimens along two 42 km long profiles extending north from the grenville front into the cobalt plate of the southern structural province in the river valley lake temagami area of ontario after af demagnetization a postfolding pre nipissing 2200 ma remanence was found in eight of the 37 gowganda sediment sites that were 2 km north of the front giving a pole at 109 w 63 n dp 10 dm 19 the nippissing diabase from 2 km north of the front retains a stable antiparallel prefolding n1 remanence direction in 22 of 40 sites giving a pole position of 85 w 17 s dp 6 dm 10 these south and down remanence directions found in the southern portion of the plate contrast with the antiparallel north and up directions found in the northern portion thereby indicating the occurrence of either two nearly cogenetic nipissing intrusive events or

proterozoic paleomagnetism in the nipigon embayment of northern ontario pillar lake lava waweig troctolite and gunflint formation tuffs abstract by using unusual combinations of demagnetization techniques proterozoic paleomagnetic vectors and paleopoles are provided for two recently discovered post tectonic proterozoic units near armstrong northern ontario and also for well dated gunflint formation which by previous techniques yielded problematical paleomagnetic data the first paleomagnetic data are provided also for the seagull pluton and inspiration sills characteristic remanent magnetizations chrm for the pillar lake lavas indicate a keweenawan age more specifically 1000 1040 ma by comparison with the well established apwp for the late proterozoic superior craton four combinations of demagnetization techniques yield declinations in the range 108 133 and inclinations in the range 65 to 70 n 100 which define paleopoles near 200 w 48 n corresponding to a location on the keweenawan apwp near 1040 ma in the underlying basement a recently discovered proterozoic igneous complex the waweig troctolitic complex yields new paleomagnetic data with declination and inclination 42 54 n 14 defining a paleopole at 238 w 09 n its ages may be 1400 1600 or 2000 ma by comparison with the presently available ambiguous and sparsely populated apwp the first paleomagnetic results for the seagull pluton u pb age 1113 ma yield a mean declination of 87 4 75 7 n 32 corresponding to a keweenawan paleopole near 233 42 n consistent with other paleopoles near 1200 ma tuffs of the oft studied but problematical gunflint formation u pb age1878 ma yielded stable and presumably primary vectors using several different demagnetization techniques on the same specimens their mean primary declination and inclination 303 48 8 n 17 yields a paleopole now located near 178 w 42 n comparable with the published locations of paleopoles of 2000 ma of broader interest we recognized that low temperature demagnetization preceding conventional demagnetization techniques enhanced the isolation of characteristic vectors combining the conventional techniques thermal and af demagnetization also improved the resolution of characteristic vectors not achieved by other means low grade metamorphism affected the non tectonized proterozoic cover to the canadian shield due to burial or hydrothermal effects obfuscating or erasing primary vectors in some lithologies and especially at certain sites

a u pb age for mineralized nipissing diabase gowganda ontario concordant baddeleyite and rutile analyses from mineralized nipissing diabase at gowganda s castle mine yield a u pb age of baddeleyite is a primary phase of the diabase therefore the age dates the magmatic emplacement the genesis of rutile is less certain rutile could have formed during an episode of alteration veining and ag mineralization in which case the u pb age would also date the secondary event and demonstrate that ag mineralization was related to the nipissing magmatism however a primary magmatic origin of the rutile cannot be completely excluded for now thus the u pb age may not constrain the time of ag mineralization further research is needed to clarify this point

convective partial melting 1 a model for the formation of thick basaltic sequences during the initiation of spreading stretching and thinning of continental lithosphere during rifting and initiation of seafloor spreading cause upwelling of mantle rocks into a pressure temperature environment where partial melting occurs the amount of melt liberated is however insufficient to account for the thickness of igneous crust emplaced near the continent ocean boundary at some passive margins these igneous structures are known from seismic reflection and deep refraction studies on numerous passive margins worldwide seismic studies also suggest that the transition from continental to oceanic crust on these volcanic margins is relatively abrupt their evolution apparently does not include a prolonged extensional phase preceding the inception of spreading to account for these observations we propose a model for the generation of partial melt in which the lateral temperature contrasts evoked by rifting and asthenospheric upwelling drive convection in the upper mantle deep hot mantle material is transported upward by the convection and hence much larger volumes flow through the region where partial melting occurs than during passive upwelling numerical calculations show that convective partial melting can provide substantial additions to melting due to passive upwelling alone using this model we propose an evolutionary scheme for volcanic passive margins emphasize the contrast with nonvolcanic margins and describe conditions which might lead to the development of both types

are buoyancy forces important during the formation of rifted margins summary profiles of crustal thickness across rifted continental margins are examined in an attempt to understand the key observations and controlling parameters crustal stretching factor profiles from rifted continental margins supplemented by isochron data for early seafloor spreading have been used to determine a correlation between strain rate e and stretching factor despite the different methods assumptions and data sources our e relationship for rifted margins is consistent with that observed by newman and white for intracontinental rift basins the e relationship we derive is also consistent with the dynamic models of newman and white which include thermorheological strain hardening and strain softening but omit crustal buoyancy forces generated by lateral crustal thickness variations whilst crustal buoyancy forces are not included in the above dynamic models the e data do not necessarily preclude their importance simple numerical models of buoyancy force evolution show that for the first 30 myr after rifting the thermally derived buoyancy forces within the lithosphere that assist extension are larger than the crustal buoyancy forces that oppose extension this rift push force acts as a positive feedback mechanism is of the order of 3 10 12 nm 1 and dominates over the opposing crustal buoyancy forces immediately after rifting it is therefore clear that the delocalising effects of the crustal buoyancy force are dominant over a restricted range of conditions namely at low strain rate and at long times after rifting histograms of the lateral pressure gradients derived from crustal thinning factors along rifted margins show a dominant peak at 0 05 0 3 kpa m 1 and a significant secondary peak at 0 8 0 3 kpa m 1 the lower lateral pressure gradient peak corresponds to thinned parts of the continental crust which is adjacent to unstretched continental crust and may define the edge of a zone of thermal strain softening independent observations show that narrow margins are associated with rapid strain rates and are consistent with thermal strain softening predicted by thermorheological models however the dominant near zero pressure gradient peak is consistent with the operation of crustal buoyancy force processes during rifting which attempt to remove variations in crustal thickness

geomorphic controls on regional base flow the subsurface hydrological response plays an important role in the hydrology of humid regions in particular the physical relationship between base flow dynamics and the fluctuations in spatially averaged water table depth as described by the groundwater rating curve determine to a significant extent the nature of statistical persistence of hydrological anomalies in the unconfined aquifers level and river flow in this paper we propose that the scale and shape of the groundwater rating curve reflect some of the geomorphological characteristics of the region such as relief drainage density and the hypsometric distribution of the elevation field these connections between geomorphology and hydrology of river basins are investigated using a simple model of unconfined groundwater flow applied to synthetic basins as well as observed basins from illinois

the effect of the large scale mantle flow field on the iceland hotspot track abstract fluid dynamical simulations were carried out in order to investigate the effect of the large scale mantle flow field and the depth of the plume source on the structure of the iceland plume through time the time dependent location and shape of the plume in the earth s mantle was calculated in a global model and it was refined in the upper mantle using a 3d cartesian model box global flow was computed based on density heterogeneities derived from seismic tomography plate motion history served as a velocity boundary condition in both models hotspot tracks of the plume conduits and the plume head were calculated and compared to actual bathymetry of the north atlantic if a plume source in the lowermost mantle is assumed the calculated surface position of the plume conduit has a southward component of motion due to southward flow in the lower mantle depending on tomography model assumed plume age and buoyancy the southward component is more or less dominating plume models having a source at the 660 km discontinuity are only influenced by flow in the upper mantle and transition zone and hence rather yield westward hotspot motion many whole mantle plume models result in a v shaped track which does not match the straight greenland iceland faroe ridge models without strong southward motion such as for a plume source at 660 km depth match actual bathymetry better plume tracks were calculated from both plume conduits and plume heads a plume head of 120 k anomalous temperature gives the best match between plume head track and bathymetry

the hatton bank continental margin ii deep structure from two ship expanding spread seismic profiles summary the continent ocean transition adjacent to hatton bank was studied using a dense grid of single ship and two ship multichannel seismic profiles the interpretation of the explosive expanding spread profiles esps which were shot as part of this survey are discussed here in detail extensive seaward dipping reflectors are developed in the upper crust across the entire margin these seaward dipping reflectors continue northwards on the faeroes and voring margins where they have been shown to be caused by basaltic lavas as well as on the conjugate margin of east greenland the dipping reflectors are an important feature of the rifting history of the margin and show that extensive volcanism was associated with the extension the esps show clear seismic arrivals out to ranges of 100 km wide angle moho reflections can be seen on all the lines as well as good mid and lower crustal arrivals the determination of seismic velocity structure was constrained by ray tracing and by amplitude modelling using reflectivity synthetic seismograms the results from the esps show that there is a thick region of lower crustal material beneath the margin with an unusually high crustal velocity of 7 3 7 4 km s this lower crustal material reaches a maximum thickness of 14 km beneath the central part of the margin and is terminated at depth by the moho the lower crustal lens of high velocity material is interpreted as underplated or intruded igneous rocks associated with the large volumes of extrusive basaltic lavas now seen as dipping reflectors on the margin

paleomagnetism u pb geochronology and geochemistry of marathon dykes superior province and comparison with the fort frances swarm we report the first detailed study of the paleomagnetism u pb geochronology and major element geochemistry of paleoproterozoic north trending marathon dykes north of lake superior the paleomagnetic and geochemical results demonstrate that marathon dykes can be divided into two subsets one of normal magnetic polarity the other of reverse polarity normal and reverse marathon paleomagnetic poles at 43 n 196 e dm 9 dp 7 number of dykes n 16 and 51 n 175 e dm 9 dp 6 n 12 respectively are statistically distinct and may indicate different ages of normal and reverse dyke emplacement a u pb baddeleyite age of ma has been obtained at a normally magnetized marathon paleomagnetic site the reversely magnetized marathon dykes are undated but have a paleopole rather close to that of the reversely magnetized ma fort frances dykes and major element geochemical signatures as portrayed on jensen plots that are identical to those of the fort frances swarm therefore reverse marathon an

the hatton bank continental margin iii structure from wide angle obs and multichannel seismic refraction profiles summary in two recent papers normal incidence and expanding spread profiles esps shot across the hatton bank passive continental margin showed seaward dipping reflectors in the upper crust and elevated velocities in the lower crust the reflectors were interpreted as subaerial basalt flows and the high velocities as underplated or intruded igneous material in the lower crust a recent gravity model shows high densities in the lower crust supporting the velocity model in this study we present the forward modelling of two wide angle seismic refraction datasets shot perpendicular to strike and through the esp midpoints the final velocity model across the margin is consistent with all the seismic datasets but differs in some important respects from the esp based model a high velocity volcanic pile is outlined mid way up the continental slope and the inferred velocities in the lower cnst are slightly lower the differences between the two models can be explained by the three dimensional nature of the margin the esps were modelled assuming that the sub sediment structure was invariant along strike the final velocity model is used to obtain an estimate of the total thickness of melt accreted across the margin which is calculated to thicken from zero at hatton bank to about 12 km mid way down the continental slope at the bottom of the continental slope the adjacent igneous section forming the oceanic crust is about 18 km thick and thins rapidly northwestwards to 11 km as the oceanic crust thins its seismic velocity decreases this suggests that it is less mafic and that there is a post rift decrease in the percentage of mantle melting this decrease may be explained by a decrease in asthenospheric temperature and or by a reduction in volatile content

lateral variations in tectono magmatic style along the lofoten vesteralen volcanic margin off norway abstract the 400 km long passive continental margin west of the lofoten vesteralen archipelago off northern norway links the volcanic rifted voring margin and the sheared w barents sea margin multi channel seismic reflection profiles supplemented with crustal velocity gravity and magnetic anomaly data are used to outline the regional setting and main tectono magmatic features a well defined along strike margin segmentation comprising three segments characterized by distinct crustal properties structural and magmatic styles sediment thickness and post opening history of vertical motion is revealed the margin segments are governed by changes in fault polarity on late jurassic early cretaceous border faults and are separated by coeval cross margin transfer zones which acted as persistent barriers to rupture propagation and reflect the trend and character of older structural heterogeneities the transfer zones spatially correlate to small offset early opening oceanic fracture zones implying a structural inheritance from one rift episode to another culminating with lithospheric breakup at the paleocene eocene transition the pre seafloor spreading margin structural evolution is governed by the older predominantly late jurassic early cretaceous structural framework however the margin also provides evidence for mid and late cretaceous extension events that are poorly understood elsewhere off norway furthermore the lofoten vesteralen post breakup subsidence history contrasts with the adjacent margins reflecting breakup in thicker crust and a diminishing volume of high velocity lower crust emplaced during breakup

a two state integral balance model for soil moisture and groundwater dynamics in complex terrain a dynamical model is devised for a hydrologic system where unsaturated and saturated storage serve as the principal control on rainfall runoff and where complex topography drainage area and variable depth of moisture penetration describe the flow geometry the model is formed by direct integration of the local conservation equation with respect to the partial volumes occupied by unsaturated and saturated moisture storage respectively this yields an integral balance model in just two state variables the relationship of the dynamical model to field data in complex terrain is found through a joint probability density for terrain features this serves as a volume weighting function to construct conditional averages for the state variables and fluxes over a specified range of terrain features the scale of averaging could range from hillslopes to river basins two examples of the joint probability of terrain features altitude and aspect are demonstrated for valley ridge and appalachian plateau digital elevation models the strategy of a dynamical model formed by conditional averages of state variables with respect to terrain features is proposed as a way of simplifying the dynamics while preserving the natural spatial and temporal scales contributing to runoff response the parametric form of the storage flux or constitutive relationships for the proposed model is determined from numerical experiments in a simple hillslope flow geometry the results show that a competitive relation exists between unsaturated and saturated storage except for the lowest precipitation rates saturation overland flow is proposed to be a storage feedback relation solutions to the integral balance model are presented in terms of the phase portrait which represents all possible solution trajectories in state space the timing and magnitude of peaks in the runoff hydrograph from pulse type input events demonstrate quick flow from near stream saturated storage saturation overland flow including rejected rainfall storage feedback and late time infiltration from upslope subsurface flow