a mechanism for magmatic accretion under spreading centres the most active volcanic zone on earth occurs along the global mid ocean ridge system where the lithosphere is pulled apart and new oceanic crust is created at rates between 10 and 200 km myr 1 this volcanism is segmented and is concentrated along the axial valleys and highs of slow and fast spreading ridges respectively with transform fault zones separating and generally offsetting each active ridge segment volcanic activity may be nearly absent at the ridge transform intersection where a slow spreading ridge is offset and greatly reduced where a fast spreading ridge is offset implying thinner crust in these regions1 the source of magmas erupted along ocean ridges is the underlying mantle which undergoes decompression melting when rising to fill the gap between the spreading plates the resulting magma aggregates in the upper mantle and ascends to the crust due to its low density compared with the parent mantle rock the melt is believed to pool in crustal magma chambers whence it periodically erupts to the surface typically the formation ascent and aggregation of magmas along the mid ocean ridges is regarded two dimensionally and modelled in a section through the crust and mantle across the strike of the ridges see ref 2 here however we consider the problem with a three dimensional model for which we provide supporting geological evidence in which the magmas rise as a result of a gravitational instability modified rayleigh taylor in the underlying partial melt zone

gravity anomalies and flexure of the lithosphere at ascension island summary ascension island in the northern south atlantic forms the summit of a volcanic edifice 60 km in diameter which places a substantial load on the underlying young oceanic lithosphere an analysis of a combined data set of recent and historical surface gravity and bathymetry measurements on and around the island suggests that the lithosphere responds to this load by flexure equivalent to that of an elastic plate only z3 km thick and that the mean density of the volcanic edifice is 2500 kg m 3 a steep gravity gradient across the island cannot be explained by a simple flexural model and must be attributed to lateral density variations within the volcano itself the effective elastic thickness is considerably less than the expected z 12 km mechanical thickness of the 6 ma lithosphere loaded by the volcano and less even than zero age elastic thicknesses commonly observed at slow spreading ridges with axial rift valleys the unusually small elastic thickness may be attributed to the combined effects of the high curvature beneath the island which produces bending stresses that are limited by the yield stress envelope localized heating of the lithosphere during emplacement of the island and crustal thickening when these factors are taken into account the observed flexure is consistent with rheological models based on experimental rock mechanics

low temperature thermochronology of the northern cordillera real ecuador tectonic insights from zircon and apatite fission track analysis the post early cretaceous tectonic development of the northern andean segment north of 5 s is loosely constrained by a series of partially and fully reset k ar ages new apatite and zircon fission track data from three traverses across the cordillera real of ecuador reveal distinct periods of accelerated crustal cooling during the cenozoic fission track ages range from 65 to 14 ma zircon and 44 to 8 ma apatite with apatite mean track lengths ranging from 14 6 to 12 1 m these results record rapid cooling rates during 43 30 ma 23 15 ma and 10 0 ma occurring at temperatures below 275 c the events reflect up to 9 km of crustal exhumation in various regions of the cordillera in response to relative changes in the kinematics of the farallon nazca and south american plates the exhumation history of the cordillera real was not continuous but rather evolved during separate phases these phases persisted for 10 myr and are partly coincident with tectonic phases of the central andes although extend for longer time periods possibly as a result of isostatically driven crustal exhumation large spatial variations in the zircon and apatite fission track data within the cordillera real indicate that local fault bounded massifs have experienced different thermal histories since 43 ma major variations are not restricted to the regional scale and exist within individual terranes faulted slivers within terranes demonstrate highly variable exhumation histories suggesting that deformation was not dominated by terrane bounding faults additionally n s variations in exhumation depths suggest that ne sw trending faults have been active since 10 9ma

slow ridge hotspot interactions from global gravity seismic tomography and 87sr 86sr isotope data summary among the mantle hotspots present under oceanic areas a large number are located on or close to active oceanic ridges this is especially true in the slow spreading atlantic and indian oceans the recent availability of worldwide gravity grids and the increasing coverage of geochemical data sets along active spreading centres allow a fruitful comparison of these data with global geoid and seismic tomography models and allow one to study interactions between mantle plumes and active slow spreading ridges the observed correlations allow us to draw preliminary conclusions on the general links between surficial processes which shape the detailed morphology of the ridge axes and deeper processes active in the upper mantle below the ridge axial domains as a whole the interactions are first studied at the scale of the atlantic the mid atlantic ridge from iceland to bouvet island from the correlation between the zero age free air gravity anomaly which reflects the zero age depth of the ridge axis and sr isotopic ratios of ridge axis basalts the study is then extended to a more global scale the slow ridges from iceland to the gulf of aden by including geoid and uppermantle tomography models the interactions appear complex ranging from the evect of large and very productive plumes almost totally overprinting the long wavelength segmentation pattern of the ridge to that of weaker hotspots barely marking some of the observables in the ridge axial domain intermediate cases are observed in which hotspots of medium activity or whose activity has gradually decreased located at some distance from the ridge axis produce geophysical or geochemical signals whose variation along the axis can be correlated with the geometry of the plume head in the upper mantle such observations tend to preclude the use of a single hotspot ridge interaction model and stress the need for additional observations in various plume ridge configurations

drained deformation and failure due to cyclic pore pressures in soft natural clay at low stresses slow recurring downslope movements in northern climates are frequently referred to as creep movements and are usually related to outwards freezing followed by vertical thawing movements an alternative mechanism is examined in the reported test data undisturbed block samples of proglacial clay from a slope near yellowknife n w t have been tested by cyclically varying the pore water pressure in triaxial specimens by an amount u and measuring the resulting strains per cycle the specimens were initially anisotropically consolidated with normal and shear stresses corresponding to those in the moving mantle drainage was permitted throughout the testing this procedure represents changes that can occur in a natural slope from a seasonal groundwater level changes and b elevated pore water pressures that accompany thawing after 60 100 cycles the pore water pressure was systematically increased to the value uf at which the samples failed this occurred on a steep low stress envelope approximate

the tectonic evolution of the south atlantic from late jurassic to present an improved tectonic database for the south atlantic has been compiled by combining magnetic anomaly geosat altimetry and onshore geologic data we used this database to obtain a revised plate kinematic model starting with a new fit reconstruction for the continents around the south atlantic we present a high resolution isochron map from chron m4 to present fit reconstructions of south america and africa that require rigid continental plates result in substantial misfits either in the southern south atlantic or in the equatorial atlantic to achieve a fit without gaps we assume a combination of complex rift and strike slip movements 1 along the south american parana chacos basin deformation zone 2 within marginal basins in south america salado colorado basin and 3 along the benue trough niger rift system in africa these faults are presumed to have been active before or during the breakup of the continents our model describes a successive unzipping of rift zones starting in the southern south atlantic between 150 ma tithonian and approximately 130 ma hauterivian rifting propagated to 38 s causing tectonic movements within the colorado and salado basins subsequently between 130 ma and chron m4 126 5 ma the tip of the south atlantic rift moved to 28 s resulting in intracontinental deformation along the parana chacos basin deformation zone between chron m4 and chron mo 118 7 ma rifting propagated into the benue trough and niger rift inducing rift and strike slip motion after chron mo the equatorial atlantic began to open while rifting and strike slip motion still occurred in the benue trough and niger rift since chron 34 84 ma the opening of the south atlantic is characterized by simple divergence of two rigid continental plates

slip rate dependent melt extraction at oceanic transform faults crustal thickness differences between oceanic transform faults and associated mid ocean ridges may be explained by melt migration and extraction processes slow slipping transform faults exhibit more positive gravity anomalies than the adjacent spreading centers indicating relative thin crust in the transform domain whereas at intermediate spreading and fast spreading ridges transform faults are characterized by more negative gravity anomalies than the adjacent spreading centers indicating thick crust in the transform domain we present numerical models reproducing these observations and infer that melt can be extracted at fast slipping transforms but not at slow slipping ones melt extraction is modeled as a three step process 1 melt moves vertically through buoyancy driven porous flow enhanced by subvertical dissolution channels 2 melt accumulates in and travels along a decompaction channel lining a low permeability barrier at the base of the thermal boundary layer 3 melt is extracted to the surface when it enters a melt extraction zone a melt extraction width of 2 4 km and a melt extraction depth of 15 20 km are needed to fit the tectonic damages associated with oceanic plate boundaries that reach into the upper mantle our conclusions are supported by the different degrees of magmatic activities exhibited at fast slipping and slow slipping transforms as reflected in geological features geochemical signals and seismic behaviors we also constrain that the maximum lateral distance of crust level dike propagation is about 50 70 km

global systematics of unaveraged mid ocean ridge basalt compositions comment on global correlations of ocean ridge basalt chemistry with axial depth and crustal thickness by e m klein and c h langmuir

fe si oxyhydroxide deposits at a slow spreading centre with thickened oceanic crust the lilliput hydrothermal field 9 33 s mid atlantic ridge diffuse and focused low temperature fluids emanate at 9 33 s mid atlantic ridge and precipitate fe sioxyhydroxides that form chimneys mounds and flat lying deposits this extensive vent field named lilliput lies at the axial zone of a spreading segment with a significantly thickened crust 11 km theoretically much more heat needs to be removed from a thick crust spreading center compared to a spreading center with typical thickness of 6 km therefore settings with thickened crust should be favourable for supporting very powerful hydrothermal systems capable of producing large mineral deposits this is the first report on the composition of seafloor hydrothermal deposits at abnormally thickened oceanic crust due to hotspot ridge interaction our studies revealed that generally the lilliput hydrothermal deposits are very similar in morphology structure composition and lateral extent to other low temperature hydrothermal deposits of mid ocean ridges and intraplate volcanoes deposits at the lilliput vent field are composed of si containing goethite and ferrihydrite have very low contents of a number of transition and rare earth elements and show ree distribution patterns with negative ce and eu anomalies the speciation and precipitation of the main deposit forming elements fe and si at the hydrothermal field appear to be partially controlled by live microbes and exuded organic compounds the 18o values of the precipitated silica containing feoxyhydroxides point to low temperature formation and sr nd pb isotope variations suggest that the hydrothermal precipitates scavenged metals predominantly from the ambient seawater these findings are in agreement with the biogeochemical scenario for their precipitation

volcanic episodicity and a non steady state rift valley along northeast pacific spreading centers evidence from sea marc i sea marc i side looking sonar images and sea beam bathymetry along a 400 km stretch of the juan de fuca ridge crest provide evidence that excessive extrusive volcanism periodically builds a crestal ridge along the axis of seafloor spreading an elongate summit depression esd or rift valley is commonly observed in the spine of this crestal ridge the crestal ridge volcanic landform has a distinctive shape that is recognized in bathymetric contours both along the spreading axis and at least up to 30 km away from the axis the landform has a plan form shape that resembles a side view of an archer s bow with the long dimension of the bow form parallel to the strike of the ridge in cross section the bow form is flat on top and has steep flanks these bow form shapes can be explained by magma that rises into the crust at a discrete center and flows laterally into belts of ridge parallel dikes similar to icelandic fissure eruptions both the variable dimensions of the esd along axis of the juan de fuca ridge and the relationship among volcanic flow morphologies within and beyond the esd suggest the four different segments of the juan de fuca ridge presented in detail here display different stages in a cycle of oceanic crust accretion this cycle includes episodes in which there is 1 extrusive volcanic construction which widen the crestal ridge prior to the collapse of the summit depression 2 collapse within the summit region of the crestal ridge to form an esd during a phase of volcanic inactivity and 3 renewed magmatism in the esd as its floor widens by extension and brittle fracture of the upper crust this episodic model implies that the width of the young seafloor affected by volcanic extrusion or dominated by tectonic stretching varies through time

simple magma supply geometry inferred beneath a segment of the mid atlantic ridge the petrological characteristics of axial basalts along the global mid ocean ridge system shed light on the processes of magma supply involved in the formation of ocean crust several models of magma supply1 4 predict regular patterns of chemical variation along the strike of mid ocean ridge axes here we present chemical data from closely spaced samples of axial basalts from the mid atlantic ridge between the rio grande and moore fracture zones at 26 s this segment of the ridge is far from active hotspots and erupts normal mid ocean ridge basalt the samples show regular patterns of chemical variation along the ridge axis indicating systematic and correlated differences in depth and extent of partial melting and extent of shallow fractionation these patterns support the existence of a deep central supply system but preclude along axis melt migration and the presence of large well mixed chambers below this segment of the southern mid atlantic ridge

intraplate stresses and dynamical aspects of rifted basins abstract intraplate stresses play a important role during the syn and post rift evolution of sedimentary basins deviations from long term thermal patterns of post rift subsidence as well as the development of unconformities within rifted basins reflect to a large extent the temporal fluctuations of the regional stress fields in the lithosphere it appears that incorporation of intraplate stresses in dynamical models for basin development together with a quantification of the role of petrological changes in the crust lithosphere system can explain some of the observed shortcomings of thermal models of post rift basin subsidence late neogene accelerations in tectonic subsidence in the deeper parts of rifted basins in the northern atlantic and mediterranean regions could reflect a change in the level of intraplate stress over large areas of the globe non thermal contributions to the subsidence record affect estimates of crustal extension and consequently influence the depth at which hydrocarbon source rocks enter the maturity window stress induced changes in basement topography have also important consequences for the budget of fluid flow in the deeper parts of the sediment fill of the rifted basins as well as on the dynamics of diapirism

the spacing of rift axis highs dependence upon diapiric processes in the underlying asthenosphere abstract detailed bathymetric mapping has revealed a near harmonic distribution of intermediate wavelength morphologic highs on slow to fast spreading centers one model suggests that the highs may result from the thermal instabilities generated by the interaction of cold fracture zone walls with the axial asthenosphere this may force a deepening of the isotherms near the fracture zone and an uplift of the isotherms midway between the fracture zones a preferred model based on newly accumulated data suggests that the highs may be a result of upwelling within the asthenosphere underlying the ridge axis where a linear region of instability develops at the base of a partial melting zone less dense material at depths of 40 80 km may penetrate the overlying material at discrete and ideally evenly spaced points harmonically spaced upwellings should generate excess magma at discrete points on the ridge axis creating volcanic highs the spacing between highs may depend upon the continuity and thickness of the deep axial instability layer the temperature and viscosity ratios within the magma and the distance between major transform faults instability of the diapirs may stimulate the migration of the highs through time

geochemical studies of abyssal lavas recovered by dsrv alvin from eastern galapagos rift inca transform and ecuador rift 2 phase chemistry and crystallization history a diverse suite of lavas recovered by dsrv alvin from the eastern galapagos rift and inca transform includes mid ocean ridge tholeiitic basalts morb iron and titanium enriched basalts feti basalts and abyssal andesites rock types transitional in character ferrobasalts and basaltic andesites were also recovered the most mafic glassy basalts contain plagioclase augite and olivine as near liquidus phases whereas in more fractionated basalts pigeonite replaces olivine and iron titanium oxides crystallize plagioclase crystallizes after pyroxenes and iron titanium oxides in andesites possibly due to increased water contents or cooling rates apatite phenocrysts are present in some andesitic glasses ovoid sulfide globules are also common in many lavas compositional variations of phenocrysts in glassy lavas reflect changes in magma chemistry temperature of crystallization and cooling rate the overall chemical variations parallel the chemical evolution of the lava suite and are similar to those in other fractionated tholeiitic complexes elemental partitioning between plagioclase pyroxene and olivine glass pairs suggests that equilibration occurred at low pressure in a rather restricted temperature range various geothermometers indicate that the most primitive morb began to crystallize between 1150 and 1200 c with fo2 10 7 atm coexisting iron titanium oxides in more evolved lavas yield temperatures 1025 c to as low as 910 c withfo2 from 10 8 to 10 12 atm ph 2 o could have been as high as 1 kbar during andesite crystallization compositions of the lavas from the galapagos rift follow the experimentally determined 1 atm qfm liquid line of descent least squares calculations for the major elements indicate that the entire suite of lavas can be produced by fractional crystallization of successive residual liquids from a morb parent magma feti basalts represent 30 65 cumulative weight percent crystallization of plagioclase augite and olivine an additional 30 50 fractionation of pyroxenes plagioclase titanomagnetite and possible apatite is required to generate andesite from feti basalt liquids the presence of partially resorbed mafic xenocrysts in some andesites feti basalt inclusions in these xenocrysts high silica glass inclusions in basaltic andesites and the transitional chemistry of basaltic andesites are evidence that some magma mixing occurred during crystal fractionation the diversity of lava types recovered at single dive sites suggests that low pressure fractional crystallization is a very efficient process beneath the eastern galapagos rift and that isolated magma bodies must be present at shallow levels beneath the accretionary locus voluminous feti basalts erupted at the rift transform intersection are genetically related to the rift lavas but their restricted chemistry reflects different thermal and tectonic controls on their petrogenesis

petrologic consequences of rift propagation on oceanic spreading ridges abstract the production of anomalously differentiated lava compositions at several mid ocean spreading centers can be attributed to magmatic processes associated with propagating rifts the degree of differentiation attained by magmas beneath oceanic spreading ridges depends mainly on the balance between cooling rate and the supply rate of new magma to shallow chambers low supply rates and moderate cooling rates allow advanced degrees of closed system fractionation to occur high supply rates result in open systems in which magma compositions are buffered by frequent replenishment with new hot magma propagating rift tips are a special class of ridge transform intersection in which the balance between cooling and supply rates is conducive to the development of advanced degrees of differentiation over an expanded length of ridge this balance is affected by the spreading rate the propagation rate of the rift the length of the bounding transform and proximity to hotspots maximum compositional variability and maximum degree of differentiation occur within 50 km of propagating rift tips and subsequently diminish with increasing distance rifts that propagate through plates in directions approximating their absolute motion relative to the lower mantle are characterized by the presence of anomalously differentiated lavas over longer ridge segments than are rifts that propagate against their absolute motion geochemical anomalies may persist though changing in degree and extent for several million years on ridge segments that stop propagating the concept of magnetic telechemistry is generally supported by our study but in the vicinity of hotspots magnetic anomaly amplitude may be controlled more by bathymetric and or thickened magnetic layer effects than by geochemistry

trace element and isotopic effects arising from magma migration beneath mid ocean ridges abstract the trace element concentrations and isotopic ratios in the magma erupted on mid ocean ridges may differ from those in the source material due to physical effects such as porous flow dispersion exchange of trace elements between the fluid and solid phases during magma migration and convective mixing in magma chambers these differences are in addition to those produced by better known processes such as fractional cyrstallization and partial melting the effects of the three former processes are described it is predicted that magma typically reaches the sub ridge magma chambers with a spatial heterogeneity only slightly reduced from that of the source material but with a subdued variation in time convective mixing then further reduces the spatial heterogeneity application of the results for convective mixing to a recent fourier analysis of 87 sr 86 sr variations along the mid atlantic ridge suggests that the falloff in amplitude of variation observed with decreasing wavelength in the mid atlantic ridge data cannot be explained by convective mixing in magma chambers instead it is postulated that this falloff is due to the mechanics of the production and or the solid state convective mixing of chemical and isotopic heterogeneities in the solid mantle

three dimensional flow beneath a slow spreading ridge axis a dynamic contribution to the deepening of the median valley toward fracture zones the axial valley along a slow spreading mid ocean ridge may be explained by a vertical pressure gradient due to viscous flow of asthenosphere upwelling in a relatively narrow conduit beneath the ridge axis along a ridge segment the axial valley floor deepens by as much as 2 3 km over distances of several tens of kilometers approaching a ridge transform intersection this deepening may be explained in part by a pressure gradient associated with horizontal flow in the ridge axis conduit vanishing vertical velocity on a conduit end wall at a ridge transform intersection results in reduced vertical flow within about one conduit width of the intersection horizontal flow along the conduit toward the intersection must occur to form lithosphere at a uniform rate along the ridge axis a simple model with a conduit of uniform width that terminates with vertical planar endwalls at ridge transform intersections is considered the model is based on an analytical solution for flow in a narrow conduit and boundary layer approximations for the flow structure near the vertical end walls this model indicates that the induced horizontal flow and pressure gradient extend for a distance along the ridge axis of several lithosphere thicknesses from an intersection for reasonable values of the conduit width and asthenosphere viscosity the model predicts that induced horizontal flow can contribute significantly to the deepening of an axial valley approaching an intersection

morphology and tectonics of the mid atlantic ridge 7 12 s 1 we present swath bathymetric gravity and magnetic data from the mid atlantic ridge between the ascension and the bode verde fracture zones where significant ridge hot spot interaction has been inferred the ridge axis in this region may be divided into four segments the central two segments exhibit rifted axial highs while the northernmost and southernmost segments have deep rift valleys typical of slow spreading mid ocean ridges bathymetric and magnetic data indicate that both central segments have experienced ridge jumps since 1 ma mantle bouguer anomalies mbas derived from shipboard free air gravity and swath bathymetric data show deep subcircular lows centered on the new ridge axes suggesting that mantle flow has been established beneath the new spreading centers for at least 1 myr inversion of gravity data indicates that crustal thicknesses vary by 4 km along axis with the thickest crust occurring beneath a large axial volcanic edifice once the effects of lithospheric aging have been removed a model in which gravity variations are attributed entirely to crustal thickness variations is more consistent with data from an axis parallel seismic line than a model that includes additional along axis variations in mantle temperature both geophysical and geochemical data from the region may be explained by the melting of small 200 km mantle chemical heterogeneities rather than elevated temperatures therefore there may be no ascension circe plume index terms 1517 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism magnetic anomaly modeling 3010 marine geology and geophysics gravity 3040 marine geology and geophysics plate tectonics 8150 8155 8157 8158

bedrock composition regulates mountain ecosystems and landscape evolution earth s land surface teems with life although the distribution of ecosystems is largely explained by temperature and precipitation vegetation can vary markedly with little variation in climate here we explore the role of bedrock in governing the distribution of forest cover across the sierra nevada batholith california our sites span a narrow range of elevations and thus a narrow range in climate however land cover varies from giant sequoia sequoiadendron giganteum the largest trees on earth to vegetation free swaths that are visible from space meanwhile underlying bedrock spans nearly the entire compositional range of granitic bedrock in the western north american cordillera we explored connections between lithology and vegetation using measurements of bedrock geochemistry and forest productivity tree canopy cover a proxy for forest productivity varies by more than an order of magnitude across our sites changing abruptly at mapped contacts between plutons and correlating with bedrock concentrations of major and minor elements including the plant essential nutrient phosphorus nutrient poor areas that lack vegetation and soil are eroding more than two times slower on average than surrounding more nutrient rich soil mantled bedrock this suggests that bedrock geochemistry can influence landscape evolution through an intrinsic limitation on primary productivity our results are consistent with widespread bottom up lithologic control on the distribution and diversity of vegetation in mountainous terrain

origin of differentiated volcanic and plutonic rocks from ascension island south atlantic ocean altered pre existing volcanic basement may have been melted or the first phase of felsic magmatism on ascension island in the assimilated during differentiation of some of the felsic magmas form of trachyte and rhyolite domes coulees lava flows and pyroclastic deposits created the central and eastern parts of the island between about 1 0 and 0 56 my ago the geochemical characteristics of the felsic rocks are largely consistent with an origin by fractional crystallization of high zr nb mafic magmas as

a hotspot model for iceland and the voring plateau the proximity of a hotspot to a spreading center may result in the channeling of atmosphere to the section of rise crest closest to the hotspot this produces more basalt and thicker crust at these locations thus forming a plateau over time the geometric constraints of such a model predict a unique orientation location and age progression for a plateau formed by this mechanism the hotspot will channel material to the closest part of the rise therefore the orientation of the plateau will differ from that of a hotspot track by the component of absolute motion perpendicular to the rise axis the plateau will be symmetric with respect to the location of the rise axis at the time of formation also the age progression of the plateau will be contemporaneous with the age of formation of the seafloor on either side because the plateau is seafloor just with thicker crust a set of reconstructions based upon magnetic isochrones and a fixed hotspot reference frame is presented for the norwegian greenland sea as a means of evaluating the model s predictions by locating the iceland hotspot reconstructing the relative positions of the greenland and european plates and then assuming material would be channeled from the hotspot to the closest section of the rise crest we can trace the tectonic evolution of the greenland faeroe and voring plateaus the model is able to locate the plateaus explain their orientations and predict an age progression that satisfies observed age determinations the analysis demonstrates that both plateaus could have been formed by the iceland hotspot with the greenland faeroe plateau being in effect a continuation of the voring plateau which was cut off due to transform motion between the northern and southern spreading centers

plate kinematics of the south atlantic chron c34 to present a high resolution seafloor spreading history of the south atlantic since chron c34 is constrained by a combination of seasat altimeter data and underway marine geophysical data a set of 45 finite rotation poles defines the relative position of africa and south america at roughly 2 m y intervals a set of 12 stage poles constrain the relative motion of these two plates at 5 to 10 m y intervals the position of the stage poles continuously migrates reflecting the continuously changing azimuths of the fracture zones major changes in spreading direction are observed in the late cretaceous and early cenozoic as the fracture zones sweep out broad s shaped curves similar to the pattern seen on the kane fracture zone in the central atlantic small offset fracture zones were found to be the most accurate recorders of changes in plate motion large offset fracture zones such as the agulhas falkland fracture zone were the least reliable recorders at 30 s spreading rates decrease throughout the late cretaceous from a high of 75 mm yr at the end of chron c34 to a low of 30 mm yr around chron c27 a period of slow spreading between chron c30 and chron c20 corresponds to a zone of fracture zone proliferation an increase in the amplitude of geoid anomalies over fracture zones greater relief on topographic profiles and locally evidence of intraplate crustal deformation spreading rates increase at chron c20 to about 50 mm yr and then gradually decrease during the late paleogene and neogene a comparison of synthetic fracture zones based on the south atlantic stage poles to the observed trends of fracture zones in the equatorial atlantic indicates that the vema and marathon fracture zones were generated by south atlantic spreading as opposed to central atlantic spreading at least as far back as 35 m y ago and possibly 50 m y ago

examples of multiple rock slope collapses from kofels otz valley austria and western norway abstract this paper describes the effects of large massive rock slope failures on subsequent slope stability three examples of large rock slope failures from the austrian alps and norway demonstrate that failure increases the probability of further collapses at kofels austria a holocene rock slope failure several km3 in size filled the otz valley the morphology of the deposits indicates that at least one subsequent failure occurred along the head scarp of the first failure most likely a slide of similar size debris of the second landslide slid over the older deposits forming the famous kofels frictionite at least three rock slope failures all of them in excess of 106 m3 occurred from the same mountainside within the last 6000 8000 years at tafjord in western norway the most recent of these failures in 1934 triggered a destructive tsunami five large failures with volumes 50 000m3 occurred at ramnefjell norway within 50 years two of them caused considerable damage and a large number of death due to the formation of destructive tsunamis two dimensional finite element models of rock slope stability before and after the kofels and tafjord landslides show that massive rock slope failures produce a irregular slopes parts of which are as steep or steeper than the slope before failure and which represent new zones of instability and b zones of weakness related to slow slope deformation and related cracking

segmentation of mid ocean ridges studies of mid ocean ridges in the pacific and atlantic oceans show that the volcanism that forms the oceanic crust along the spreading plate boundaries is concentrated at regular intervals related to spreading rate this observation and a new calculation for a rayleigh taylor type of gravitational instability of a partially molten mantle region growing under spreading centres yield reasonable estimates of upper mantle viscosities

mesozoic plate tectonic reconstructions of the central south atlantic ocean the role of the west and central african rift system abstract the mesozoic opening history of the central equatorial and south atlantic oceans is closely linked in time and space to the development of the cretaceous rift system in west and central africa geological and geophysical studies of the west and central african rift system indicate it to be dominated by a set of sinistral and dextral strike slip zones diverging from the gulf of guinea and terminating as extensional rift basins in niger and sudan plate tectonic studies of the opening history of the atlantic basins indicate four stages of development stage 1 the jurassic opening of the central atlantic stage 2 the early cretaceous 130 119 ma opening of the south atlantic with rifting propagating deep into africa via the benue trough stage 3 the opening of the equatorial atlantic 119 105 ma and stage 4 the linkage of these oceanic basins and development of a single opening mid oceanic rift system as seen today the west and central african rift system continued to develop until the end of the cretaceous i e into stage 4 when rifting was terminated by a compressional shear deformation event causing the folding of sediments in the benue trough and reactivation of the central african shear zone and extensional tectonics in the basins of southern sudan this event correlates with an important change in the relative opening of the atlantic basins during tertiary recent times the west african rift system has not been active however during this period domal uplift and volcanism have occurred in central cameroon and western sudan and a very active phase of volcanism has occurred within the last 10 ma along the present day cameroon volcanic line although these uplift and volcanic events indicate thermal processes in the upper mantle there is as yet no clear link between their development and plate tectonic processes

along axis dynamic topography constrained by major element chemistry abstract variations in thickness and density of both the crust and the associated uper mantle have been derived from a compilation of zero age major element composition along the mid atlantic ridge the east pacific rise and the southeast indian ridge assuming isostatic compensation the axial depth computed from major element data correctly agrees with observed axial depth discrepancies are essentially located near hotspots such as iceland and azores the residual topography expressed as the difference between observed and compensated axial depth has a root mean square of 426 m along the three spreading axes which is below the resolution power of the method this insignificant topography which is assumed to contain the dynamic surface topography associated with mantle convection bears an important constraint on the relative variations of the dynamic topography predicted by models of mantle circulation

high resolution geological mapping towards an understanding of post glacial development and holocene sedimentation processes in the eastern gulf of finland an emodnet geology case study

geological model of the aknes rockslide western norway abstract aknes is known as the most hazardous rockslide area in norway at present and is among the most investigated rockslides in the world representing an exceptional natural laboratory this study focuses on structural geology and the usage of geophysical methods to interpret and understand the structural geometry of the rockslide area the interpretations are further used to build a geological model of the site this is a large rockslide with an estimated volume of 35 40 million m 3 derron et al 2005 defined by a back scarp a basal shear zone at about 50 m depth and an interpreted toe zone where the sliding surface daylights the surface the rockslide is divided into four sub domains experiencing extension in the upper part and compression in the lower part structural mapping of the area indicates that the foliation of the gneiss plays an important role in the development of this rockslide the upper boundary zone of the rockslide is seen as a back scarp that is controlled by and parallel to the pre existing steep foliation planes where the foliation is not favourably orientated in regard to the extensional trend the back scarp follows a pre existing fracture set or forms a relay structure the foliation in the lower part dipping 30 to 35 to s sse seems to control the development of the basal sliding surface with its subordinate low angle trust surfaces which daylights at different levels the sliding surfaces are sub parallel to the topographic slope and are located along mica rich layers in the foliation geophysical surveys using ground penetrating radar gpr refraction seismic and 2d resistivity profiling give a coherent understanding of undulating basal sliding surface in the subsurface the geophysical surveys map the subsurface in great detail to a depth ranging from 30 40 m for gpr to approximately 125 m for refraction seismic and 2d resistivity profiling this gives a good control on the depth and lateral extent of the basal sliding surface and its subordinate low angle thrusts drill cores and borehole logging add important information with regard to geological understanding of the subsurface fracture frequency fault rock occurrences geophysical properties and groundwater conditions both in outcrops and or drill cores constrain the geometrical and kinematic model of aknes rockslide

isostatic compensation of tectonic features of the mid atlantic ridge 25 27 30 s we investigate the isostatic compensation of tectonic features along the mid atlantic ridge 25 27 30 s through a detailed examination of the relationship between bathymetry and gravity anomalies the study area includes three ridge segments spreading at an average full rate of 35 mm yr their flanks out to about 6 m y old crust and the intervening rio grande and moore fracture zones in a three dimensional analysis of gravity and sea beam bathymetry data we focus on crustal thickness variations and mantle density anomalies by removing from the observed fields the predicted contribution of simple crustal and mantle models positive residual gravity anomalies over the northern wall of the rio grande fracture zone indicate that in spots the crust is 2 3 km thinner than average there in contrast to the moore fracture zone where little thinning is observed the greater than average depths of the fracture zones as a whole are not locally compensated by thin crust but the deepest basins within the active transform parts of the fracture zones are partially compensated by thin crust or cooler mantle a narrow linear ridge that crosses one of the inactive branches of the moore fracture zone had been suggested to be the product of an episode of excess volcanism but is found to be underlain by thinner not thicker crust there is no indication of thicker crust beneath topographic highs at the inside corners of ridge transform intersections presumably these highs are dynamically maintained as must be the median valleys characteristic of most the length of the ridge segments judging from the absence of axial residual gravity anomalies there is a residual gravity low associated with an unusually shallow 15 to 20 km section of the ridge segment between the rio grande and moore offsets where the median valley virtually disappears our analysis suggests that while part of the anomalous elevation of this section of the ridge axis is attributable to excess volcanism and a thicker crust much of the elevation contrast is simply caused by the diminution of the dynamic mechanism responsible for median valley formation two dimensional fourier transforms of the gravity and bathymetry fields show that seafloor topography is strongly aligned parallel to either ridges or transforms while density anomalies are more randomly oriented this implies that the tectonic processes that control the gross ridge transform topography are not the dominant control on the magmatic processes that determine the upper mantle and crustal density structure statistical analysis of the coherence between the gravity and bathymetry fields indicates that the average effective elastic plate thickness in the study area is about 6 km

fine tuning the calibration of the early to middle eocene geomagnetic polarity time scale paleomagnetism of radioisotopically dated tuffs from laramide foreland basins age calibration of the early to middle eocene geomagnetic polarity time scale remains highly uncertain due to conflicting magnetostratigraphic radioisotopic and astrochronologic results in this study new paleomagnetic polarity determinations of 29 ash fall tuffs preserved in strata of five laramide foreland basins were used in conjunction with previously published 40 ar 39 ar ages from the same tuffs to evaluate eight different calibration models for the early to middle eocene part of the geomagnetic polarity time scale reliable paleomagnetic information was recovered from 23 tuffs of which 17 showed normal polarity and six showed reversed polarity after comparison of the models with the paleomagnetic and radioisotopic data from the tuffs and an array of independent chronostratigraphic observations the new willwood model is herein selected as the best alternative to the current geomagnetic polarity time scale calibration for the early to middle eocene three important implications are apparent in our proposed model first the early eocene is shortened by 0 6 m y and the middle eocene is lengthened by 0 8 m y compared with the 2004 geomagnetic polarity time scale also the early eocene climatic optimum is estimated to have lasted from 52 9 to 50 7 ma 1 m y longer than previously suggested and overlapping in time with the inferred age of the wasatchian bridgerian faunal transition our new model agrees with a previous astronomical model when it is tied to the oldest proposed age for the paleocene eocene thermal maximum at 56 33 ma

temporal and spatial variability of seafloor spreading processes in the northern south atlantic the paper reports the results of an aeromagnetic study of the mid atlantic ridge in the northern south atlantic the study consists of 38 000 km of low altitude magnetics tracks centered on the ridge covering nearly 700 000 km2 south of ascension island most tracks extend out to crust of anomaly 5b age large areal coverage coupled with high resolution allows comparison of crustal generation processes over space along ridge strike and time across strike temporal heterogeneities revealed in the data include a pattern of change in spreading rate and direction of plate motion the total spreading rate increased sharply at 10 ma and then decreased between 6 ma and the present the time variation of spreading rate is similar to that seen in other areas such as the north atlantic and the southern and eastern pacific the plate boundary has evolved over time in response to the shift in plate motion direction through fragmentation and rotation of ridge segments between fracture zones in several cases the location of the spreading axis has shifted through jumps or propagation across fracture zones the periods of plate boundary modification correlate with the increase and decrease in spreading rate spatial heterogeneities are caused by the influence of the ascension hotspot on the mid atlantic ridge in the northern portion of the study area and include two apparent seamount chains formed by the hotspot ascension island and several of the seamounts appear to have been produced some distance away from the hotspot location presently about 225 km southeast of ascension island by channeled subaxial magma flow beneath the spreading center the seamount chains therefore do not mark hotspot tracks large local variations in spreading rate and degree of asymmetry along strike are also found

societal need for improved understanding of climate change anthropogenic impacts and geo hazard warning drive development of ocean observatories in european seas society s needs for a network of in situ ocean observing systems cross many areas of earth and marine science here we review the science themes that benefit from data supplied from ocean observatories understanding from existing studies is fragmented to the extent that it lacks the coherent long term monitoring needed to address questions at the scales essential to understand climate change and improve geo hazard early warning data sets from the deep sea are particularly rare with long term data available from only a few locations worldwide these science areas have impacts on societal health and well being and our awareness of ocean function in a shifting climate substantial efforts are underway to realise a network of open ocean observatories around european seas that will operate over multiple decades some systems are already collecting high resolution data from surface water column seafloor and sub seafloor sensors linked to shore by satellite or cable connection in real or near real time along with samples and other data collected in a delayed mode we expect that such observatories will contribute to answering major ocean science questions including how can monitoring of factors such as seismic activity pore fluid chemistry and pressure and gas hydrate stability improve seismic slope failure and tsunami warning what aspects of physical oceanography biogeochemical cycling and ecosystems will be most sensitive to climatic and anthropogenic change what are natural versus anthropogenic changes most fundamentally how are marine processes that occur at differing scales related the development of ocean observatories provides a substantial opportunity for ocean science to evolve in europe here we also describe some basic attributes of network design observatory networks provide the means to coordinate and integrate the collection of standardised data capable of bridging measurement scales across a dispersed area in european seas adding needed certainty to estimates of future oceanic conditions observatory data can be analysed along with other data such as those from satellites drifting floats autonomous underwater vehicles model analysis and the known distribution and abundances of marine fauna in order to address some of the questions posed above standardised methods for information management are also becoming established to ensure better accessibility and traceability of these data sets and ultimately to increase their use for societal benefit the connection of ocean observatory effort into larger frameworks including the global earth observation system of systems geoss and the global monitoring of environment and security gmes is integral to its success it is in a greater integrated framework that the full potential of the component systems will be realised highlights societies increasingly depend on timely information on ecosystems and natural hazards data is needed to improve climate related uncertainty and geo hazard early warning observatory networks coordinate and integrate the collection of standardised data ocean observatories provide opportunity for ocean science to evolve

hotspot tracks and the early rifting of the atlantic abstract many hotspot tracks appear to become the locus of later rifting as though the heat of the hotspot weakens the lithosphere and tens of millions of years later the continents are split along these weakened lines examples are the west coast of greenland east coast of labrador madeira hotspot the south coast of mexico north coast of honduras guyana hotspot and the south coast of west africa north coast of brazil st helena hotspot a modern day analog of a possible future rift is the snake river plain where the north american continent is being pre weakened by the yellowstone hotspot track this conclusion is based on reconstructions of the motions of the continents over hotspots for the past 200 million years the relative motions of the plates are determined from magnetic anomaly isochrons in the oceans and the motion of one plate is chosen ad hoc to best fit the motions of the plates over the hotspots however once the motion of this one plate is chosen the motions of all the other plates are prescribed by the relative motion constraints in addition to the correlation between the predicted tracks and sites of later continental breakup exposed continental shields correlate with the tracks their exposure may be the result of hotspot induced uplift which has led to erosion of their former platform sediment cover

ridge segmentation and the magnetic structure of the southern mid atlantic ridge 26 s and 31 35 s implications for magmatic processes at slow spreading centers along axis profiles of three dimensional magnetic inversions for the mid atlantic ridge mar 31 35 s show low magnetization near the middle of ridge segments and high magnetization at the segment tips for three adjacent spreading segments thus there is an inverse relation between axial magnetization and axial topography the ridge segment at 26 s on the mar has the same inverse relationship between magnetization and topography the common occurrence of this relationship suggests that it reflects a fundamental process of crustal accretion at the mar we analyze the rock magnetic properties from 42 locations within the four ridge segments in the south atlantic to constrain the inherent trade off between source intensity and source thickness in the magnetization model the natural remanent magnetization nrm intensities from the four ridge segments averaged together correlate with the magnetic inversion profiles this finding implies that changes in the magnetization of the extrusives may account for much of the observed magnetic anomaly amplitude variation a direct correlation of feo content and magnetization suggests that magnetic anomaly amplitudes may be an indicator of feti rich basalts at the slow spreading mar even though the iron content of the basalts from high magnetization areas is not as high as observed at pacific spreading centers despite the different magma plumbing systematics of the pacific spreading centers and the mar it appears that the segment scale magma system of the mar also results in segment scale crustal magnetization variations further evidence that the axial magnetic variations result from source intensity variations is that older isochrons have higher intensities near the ridge discontinuities similar to the behavior on axis between 0 and 5 ma the decay in magnetization is 50 independent of location within a spreading segment

seismic anisotropy of oceanic upper mantle shear wave splitting methodologies and observations we develop methodologies to obtain accurate measurements of shear wave splitting and apply these techniques to examine the pattern of oceanic upper mantle anisotropy to obtain high quality estimates of receiver splitting at island stations we devise a stacking method that finds the optimum splitting parameters and 95 error region for teleseismic shear wave phases from a suite of earthquake events to obtain additional measurements in oceanic regions we develop techniques to measure splitting parameters and errors for ss phases that sample upper mantle anisotropy at their bounce points however we find the data are often of low resolution and anomalous characteristics are sometimes found that make splitting difficult to interpret ten second splitting of ss is observed across the banjo seismic array but we cannot unambiguously attribute this signal to mantle anisotropy at the bounce the receiver splitting methods are used to assess the adequacy of a two anisotropic layer model for the pacific region with fast polarization azimuth in the lithosphere oriented in the fossil spreading direction and in the asthenosphere oriented in the absolute plate motion direction this model has been proposed to explain surface wave data in the pacific ocean but our splitting results demonstrate that oceanic anisotropy patterns are more heterogeneous than would be predicted while the island splitting measurements could reflect the influence of individual hotspot upwellings hotspot effects do not appear to be universally dominant we propose that splitting observations alternatively indicate broad scale differences in the underlying character of oceanic upper mantle anisotropy associated with coherant patters of lithospheric structure and asthenospheric flow in particular splitting surface wave models and regional studies all support a model where lithospheric anisotropy throughout the south pacific has been erased or reoriented toward the absolute plate motion direction whereas more limited observations in the north pacific indicate that the fossil lithospheric signature appears to be preserved

modified cam clay modelling of temperature effects in clays the cam clay model for isothermal mechanical behaviour of clays has been extended to take account of the effects of temperature on stress strain behaviour the assumptions used in constructing the new model are based on published results and on new data presented in the paper the model allows prediction of how heating and cooling af fect volume changes pore water pressures and strengths for both normally consolidated and overconsolidated saturated clays it permits modelling of observed reductions in the overconsolidation ratio with increasing temperature the model provides accessible qualitative explanations for temperature effects that were previously difficult to understand it will also allow easy implementation for quantitative modelling in triaxial stress fields results predicted by the model are compared with data collected by the authors at temperatures up to 100 c the model does not account for changes that occur in clay minerals at higher temperatures for example in bentonites at temperatures higher than about 150 c

detailed rockslide mapping in northern norway with small baseline and persistent scatterer interferometric sar time series methods rockslides have a high socioeconomic and environmental importance in many countries norway is particularly susceptible to large rockslides due to its many fjords and steep mountains one of the most dangerous hazards related with rock slope failures are tsunamis that can lead to large loss of life it is therefore very important to systematically identify potential unstable rock slopes traditional landslide monitoring techniques are expensive and time consuming differential satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar is an invaluable tool for land displacement monitoring improved access to time series of satellite data has led to the development of several innovative multitemporal algorithms small baseline sb methods are based on combining and inverting a set of unwrapped interferograms that are computed with a small perpendicular baseline in order to reduce spatial phase decorrelation another well proven technique is the persistent scatterer interferometric method psi that is based on analysis of persistent point targets in this paper we apply both approaches to study several rockslide sites in troms county in the far north of norway moreover we take the opportunity to address the difference and similarities between the sb and the psi multitemporal insar methods for displacement studies in rural terrain

tectonic evolution of ridge axis discontinuities by the meeting linking or self decapitation of neighboring ridge segments recent deep tow sea beam and seamarc ii studies indicate that ridge axis discontinuities along the east pacific rise evolve in several different ways where magmatic pulses along the spreading center happen to meet head on a low point or saddle point occurs along the axial depth profile of the spreading center where the magmatic pulses misalign overlapping spreading centers develop and two distinct evolutionary paths are possible one spreading center tip may cut through to and link with the adjacent en echelon ridge chopping off the opposing ridge tip as proposed by macdonald and fox 1983 in addition either spreading center may cut inside or outside of itself repeatedly decapitating its own ridge tip crack propagation studies show that the crack propagation force g drops significantly when the ratio of crack overlap to crack offset l w exceeds 3 applying this relation to spreading centers we suggest that propagation of the individual spreading center tips may stall when l w is greater than 3 if linkage has not yet occurred then the next magmatic pulse that propagates along the ridge may be deflected away from the path of the existing ridge tip decapitating the ridge tip in a process we call self decapitation subsequent magmatic pulses may be deflected or derailed from the existing path of the ridge because freezing of the axial magma chamber near ridge axis discontinuities creates a core of coherent unfaulted gabbroic rock along the spreading axis which is strong relative to the intensely faulted lithosphere on either side of the frozen magma chamber in addition the local stress field rotates near the discontinuity so that subsequent magma pulses and associated cracking fronts will tend to deflect away from the preexisting path of the ridge for propagating rifts which represent first order changes in plate boundary geometry l w remains 1 5 so that g is maintained near its maximum value and episodes of continued propagation in the same direction are enhanced

high resolution inversion for south atlantic plate kinematics using joint altimeter and magnetic anomaly data we present an inversion for plate kinematics that solves for finite rotation parameters using fracture zone fz and magnetic anomaly location data jointly we define misfit functions that incorporate properties unique to each data type in particular the fz misfit function does not depend upon alignment of conjugate fz traces in the same way as magnetic lineations under the finite rotations this property is useful for fz locations in which the signals on conjugate sides of the ridge may include systematic differences or where data from one side of the ridge are sparse or missing formal error bounds estimated for the pole parameters show that the magnetic and fz data are complementary in their information content error bounds computed for the joint inversion are substantially smaller than for either the fz or magnetics data used separately indicating that simultaneous use of the data in an inversion is crucial we apply this method to seasat altimeter data and magnetic anomaly picks in the south atlantic we solve for finite poles corresponding to magnetic anomalies 5 6 8 13 21 22 25 30 33 33r and 34 these define a smooth path over the past 84 m y indicating that the plate motions have not been as erratic as found previously

morphology and tectonics of the mid atlantic ridge 25 27 30 s from sea beam and magnetic data high resolution sea beam bathymetry and sea surface magnetic data have been collected between 25 s and 27 30 s on the mid atlantic ridge analysis of the morphology and structure of the ridge axis and flanking terrain as well as the results of a three dimensional inversion of sea surface magnetic data are presented this 227 km long portion of the mid atlantic ridge is offset 42 km by the right lateral rio grande transform at 25 40 s and 9 5 km by the left lateral nontransform moore discontinuity at 26 30 s a third nontransform discontinuity the midway discontinuity exists near 26 12 s and is defined by a small displacement of the axial magnetization distribution and the disruption in the along strike continuity of ridge parallel terrain elements although the detailed survey presented in this paper extends out to only 5 to 7 m y old crust a regional compilation of magnetic data from this area by cande et al 1988 indicates that the relative positions and dimensions of the spreading cells have characterized this part of the mid atlantic ridge for at least the past 55 m y the offsets dimensions and geometries however have changed markedly because of prolonged differential asymmetric spreading between segments between and within the accretionary units that are spreading at uniform rates 35 mm yr total opening rate the morphology of the ridge axis varies dramatically from a well defined rift valley 20 25 km wide 1 1 5 km deep to an axial swell that rises 1500 m above the adjacent valley floor the axial magnetic structure is also highly variable along strike the inversion solution shows a series of generally linear short wavelength 10 km magnetization highs within the central brunhes anomaly over each of the four segments in the survey area these anomalies are interpreted to be the central anomaly magnetization high that is observed over the neovolcanic zones of many of the world s mid ocean spreading centers the distinct axial magnetization highs can extend out to 2 m y old crust at ridge discontinuity intersections suggesting that in some instances they may also be the product temporal variations in the geochemistry of the extrusive rocks e g highly fractionated and strongly magnetized basalts enriched in iron and titanium the magnetic inversion shows that the central anomaly is locally attenuated at the minimum depth points of three of the four spreading segments in the survey area both inversion and forward modeling of magnetic data show that topography alone cannot produce the anomalously low values observed in the case of an axial swell centered at 26 s attenuation of the central anomaly is attributed to the effective thinning of the source layer by demagnetization effects of a crustal thermal anomaly and or a zone of substantial alteration taken together the bathymetric data and magnetic modeling document strong along axis gradients in crustal and upper mantle properties

bilateral topographic symmetry patterns across aphrodite terra venus western aphrodite terra venus is characterized by a series of parallel linear structural discontinuities 2000 4000 km in length and 100 200 km wide which strike at high angles to the general topographic trend of the aphrodite terra highlands the broad characteristics of the cross strike discontinuities csds are similar to both strike slip fault zones and terrestrial oceanic fracture zones in an effort to distinguish between these two hypotheses topographic profiles were taken across aphrodite terra to test for bilateral symmetry of the type associated with thermal boundary layer topography at divergent plate boundaries on earth in addition to a broad bilateral symmetry at a range of angles across aphrodite terra detailed bilateral symmetry is observed within domains between linear discontinuities in directions generally parallel to the strike of the discontinuities in addition within a domain the centers of symmetry of several profiles define a linear rise crest that is oriented normal to the bounding csds and terminates against them furthermore linear rise crests are offset in a right lateral sense along the csds between domains by 200 1200 km if the discontinuities represent strike slip movement then retrodeformation of the axes of symmetry along the csds to form a straight line should form a broadly symmetrical topographic high instead when the topography is retrodeformed the edges of the highlands are characterized by distinctive misfits of topography at the edge of the rise where it intersects the csds the nature and configuration of the csds the characteristics of the topography and topographic patterns including bilateral topographic symmetry generally parallel to csds within domains the existence of linear rise crests defined by the axes of bilateral symmetry within domains and the offsets of these linear rise crests between domains all suggest that western aphrodite terra on venus is similar to terrestrial oceanic divergent plate boundary environments and that the cross strike discontinuities are analogous to oceanic fracture zones rather than strike slip faults

the memory of the accreting plate boundary and the continuity of fracture zones a detailed aeromagnetic anomaly map of the mesozoic seafloor spreading lineations southwest of bermuda reveals the dominant magnetic grain of the oceanic crust and the character of the accreting boundary at the time of crustal formation the magnetic anomaly pattern is that of a series of elongate lobes perpendicular to the fracture zone flowline trends the linear sets of magnetic anomaly peaks and troughs have narrow regions of reduced amplitude anomalies associated with the fracture zones during the period of mesozoic geomagnetic polarity reversals when 1200 km of central north atlantic seafloor formed the atlantic accreting boundary consisted of stationary elongate spreading center cells that maintained their independence even though sometimes only minor spatial offsets existed between cells normal oceanic crustal structure was formed in the spreading center cells but structural anomalies and discontinuities characteristic of fracture zones were formed at their boundaries which parallel flowlines of mesozoic relative plate motion in the central north atlantic we suggest that the memory for a stationary pattern of independent spreading center cells resides in the young brittle lithosphere at the accreting boundary where the lithosphere is weakest here each spreading center cell independently goes through its cylce of stress buildup stress release and crustal accretion after which its memory is refreshed the temporal offset between the peaks of the accretionary activity that takes place within each cell may provide the mechanism for maintaining the independence of adjacent spreading center cells through times when no spatial offset between the cells exists

interpretation of open system petrogenetic processes phase equilibria constraints on magma evolution we have used a computer model traces to simulate low pressure differentiation of natural basaltic magmas in an attempt to investigate the chemical dynamics of open system magmatic processes our results in the form of simulated liquid lines of descent and the calculated equilibrium mineralogy were determined for perfect fractional crystallization fractionation paired with recharge and eruption prf fractionation paired with assimilation afc and fractionation paired with recharge eruption and assimilation fear these simulations were calculated in an attempt to assess the effects of combinations of petrogenetic processes on major and trace element evolution of natural systems and to test techniques that have been used to decipher the relative roles of these processes if the results of prf calculations are interpreted in terms of a mass balance based fractionation model e g bryan et al 1969 it is possible to generate low residuals even if one assumes that fractional crystallization was the only active process in effect the chemical consequences of recharge are invisible to mass balance models pearce element ratio analyses however can effectively discern the effects of prf versus simple fractionation the fractionating mineral proportions and therefore bulk distribution coefficients d of a differentiating system are dependent on the recharge or assimilation rate comparison of the results of simulations assuming constant d with the results calculated by traces show that the steady state liquid concentrations of some elements can differ by a factor of 2 to 5 if the prf simulation is periodic with episodes of mixing separated by intervals of fractionation parallel liquidus mineral control lines are produced most of these control lines do not project back to the parental composition this must be an important consideration when attempting to calculate a potential parental magma for any natural suite where magma chamber recharge has occurred most basaltic magmas cannot evolve to high silica compositions without magnetite fractionation small amounts of rhyolite assimilation assimilation fractionation 0 1 however can drive evolving basalts to more silica rich compositions if mass balance models are used to interpret these synthetic afc data low residuals are obtained if magnetite is added to the crystallizing assemblage this approach works even for cases where magnetite was not a fractionating phase thus the mass balance results are mathematically correct but are geologically irrelevant

marine tectonics processes at mid ocean ridges the use of multibeam echo sounders and various side looking sonar systems has greatly increased our knowledge and understanding of mid ocean ridge mor processes since the last iugg review on mid ocean ridge research macdonald 1983 the extensive use of swath mapping tools such as sea beam deep tow seamarc i and ii the application of multichannel seismic reflection techniques to the detection of axial magma chambers and the use of satellite data in the study of oceanic lithosphere have rejuvenated marine tectonics and have generated and stimulated a large number of important contributions this review will focus on what we feel were the major developments in marine tectonics with an emphasis on mid ocean ridges in the last four years certain topics such as marine seismicity and satellite studies are only briefly mentionned for reference and will be covered in greater detail in other reviews because of the exponential growth in the number of publications related to mors during 1982 1986 only a few references pertinent to each of the major research topics will be quoted in the text as examples but the reader will find an extensive bibliography at the end of the text references published prior to 1982 were added only where appropriate

crenulated seafloor evidence for spreading rate dependent structure of mantle upwelling and melting beneath a mid oceanic spreading center abstract the availability of dense geosat gm satellite altimetry data south of 30 s 1 provides the first opportunity to compare at 25 km resolution seafloor generated at ridges spreading with a wide range of spreading rates the axis of the slow spreading southwest indian ridge as well as the seafloor that it has generated has a distinctly crenulated appearance this crenulated seafloor shows regularly spaced gravity lineations in the spreading direction crenulations that record stationary centers of mantle upwelling over the life of the southwest indian ridge a similar pattern of crenulation is seen along sections of the slow spreading northern mid atlantic ridge but along the faster intermediate spreading southern mid atlantic ridge while regularly spaced highs are apparent along sections of the spreading axis stationary crenulation does not persist off the axis this pattern implies that the faster spreading southern mid atlantic ridge has variable centers of time dependent upwelling that migrate along the ridge crenulations are not visible near the axis of the fast spreading pacific antarctic ridge crenulation amplitudes decrease strongly with increasing spreading rate the absence of crenulation at high spreading rate could be due to a 3d 2d transition in flow structure or the effect of mechanisms to redistribute crust along axis while crenulations are not ubiquitous even at slowly spreading ridges where they exist they provide a time record to observe the characteristics of mid ocean ridge upwelling melting and melt migration not only beneath active spreading centers but through a much longer spreading history

the international bathymetric chart of the southern ocean ibcso version 1 0 a new bathymetric compilation covering circum antarctic waters the international bathymetric chart of the southern ocean ibcso version 1 0 is a new digital bathymetric model dbm portraying the seafloor of the circum antarctic waters south of 60 degrees s

magmatism and continental break up in the south atlantic high precision40ar 39ar geochronology abstract a detailed ar ar study of the parana etendeka continental flood basalts cfb has been undertaken using laser spot analysis data provide information not only on the age of the samples but also on the variability of the non radiogenic ar component and state of alteration the results indicate the parana etendeka cfb were erupted over 10 million years between 137 and 127 ma providing a minimum overall eruption rate of 0 1 km3 yr 1 this is an order of magnitude less than that previously proposed for this the deccan and siberian cfb provinces but it is similar to estimates for hawaii iceland and the columbia river cfb in detail the new ar ar analyses indicate that magmatism within the parana etendeka province migrated from nw to se prior to and during the opening of the south atlantic providing an explanation for the asymmetry of the cfb lavas about the south atlantic moreover chemically defined magma types were erupted at different times in different places and so within the paranathey may not be used as reliable chronostratigraphic units rather such magmatic units may reflect the extent of compositionally distinct source regions in the uppermost mantle and indicate that partial melting took place over a wide area under the paranabasin the nw se migration of the onset of magmatism might be interpreted as a plume trace but the inferred rate of movement is 3 times faster than that inferred from subsequent magmatism on the rio grande rise it is argued that the onset of magmatism reflected extensional tectonics normal to the ponta grossa dyke swarm given that magmatism preceded the main phase of rifting and that extension across the ponta grossa was moderate current plume models have difficulty in predicting sufficient melting within the asthenosphere

geochemistry of lau basin volcanic rocks influence of ridge segmentation and arc proximity side scan sonar imaging of the central lau basin sw pacific has revealed a central lau spreading centre clsc propagating southwards at the expense of an eastern lau spreading centre elsc with a small intermediate lau spreading centre ilsc forming a relay between the two volcanic rocks sampled along these spreading centres and from two adjacent seamounts are glassy to fine grained pillow lavas and sheet flows of basalts ferrobasalts and andesites the evolved rocks are mostly confined to the propagating tip of the clsc and can be explained by a high rate of cooling relative to magma supply as invoked for magma genesis at propagating ridges elsewhere compared with equivalent rocks from the eastern pacific the most evolved members of the clsc suite require similarly high degrees 90 of fractional crystallization from their basaltic parents fractional crystallisation cannot however account for the compositional differences between clsc and elsc lavas whereas the composition of the clsc lavas lies just within the compositional spectrum of typical n morb the elsc lavas are distinctly enriched in alkali and alkaline earth elements reach oxide and apatite saturation at lower fe ti and p concentrations and generally show greater vesicularity despite slightly greater depths of eruption all indicative of a water rich subduction component they also have lower contents of ni sc na and fe and higher contents of si at a given mgo concentration that indicate a more depleted and more hydrous mantle beneath the elsc compared with the clsc these results provide further evidence that beneath the central lau basin the source composition changes progressively from morb type to island arc tholeiite type as the subduction zone is approached both eastwards from the clsc to elsc and southwards along the elsc to the valu fa ridge they also indicate that the composition of the subduction component may vary systematically away from the arc with th lree ba rb and h as h2o all present close to the arc only ba rb and h2o present at intermediate distances and just h2o perceptible at the furthest distances

long term growth and subsidence of ascension island constraints on the rheology of young oceanic lithosphere the dating of material from deep boreholes drilled in volcanic ocean islands allows constraints to be placed on their growth and long term subsidence rates we dated lavas from a 3 km geothermal borehole at ascension island by the laser heating 40ar 39ar technique the samples yield ages of up to 3 4 ma and volcanic growth rates of 0 4 km myr the transition from submarine to subaerial eruption occurs at 710 m below present sea level and 2 5 ma since 2 5 ma there has been 430 500 m of subsidence over and above the expected 190 260 m due to lithospheric cooling plausible elastic thicknesses and growth histories would generate a maximum elastic subsidence since 2 5 ma of 200 m we infer that the subsidence includes a component of viscous relaxation resulting from rapid loading prior to 2 5 ma and place constraints on the timescale of this relaxation and hence the viscosity of the underlying lithosphere

strontium neodymium and lead isotope constraints on near ridge seamount production beneath the south atlantic studies1 7 of seamounts near the east pacific rise epr have shown that although most seamount lavas are petrographically and chemically identical to mid ocean ridge basalt they are chemically and isotopically more diverse than those erupted on the rise axis they are also generally more primitive higher mgo content and in some cases more depleted in incompatible elements than the axial basalts this indicates that although near ridge sea mounts and the epr share a common mantle source there must be significant differences in their magma supply processes sea mounts are probably built by small batches of melt that rise rapidly to the surface preserving evidence of heterogeneity in the mantle source region by contrast the processes of melting and melt segregation storage and extrusion along the fast spreading 9 13 cm yr 1 epr are more efficient in mixing and homogenizing basalt compositions1 7 here we show that the relationship of strontium neodymium and lead isotope data between seamounts in the south atlantic and the nearby axis of the slow spreading mid atlantic ridge mar is similar to that seen in the pacific this indicates that the processes leading to formation of near ridge seamounts are similar at a wide range of spreading rates differences in the specific isotope signatures of lavas from near ridge seamounts and axes of the epr and mar reflect regional differences in the upper mantle source of mid ocean ridge basalts

morphological characteristics and emplacement mechanism of the seamounts in the central indian ocean basin abstract the morphotectonic features of the central indian ocean basin ciob provide information regarding the development of the basin multibeam mapping of the ciob reveals presence of abundant isolated seamounts and seamount chains sub parallel to each other and major fracture zones along 73 e 79 e and 75 45 e morphological analyses were carried out for 200 seamounts that occur either as isolated edifies or along eight sub parallel chains the identified eight parallel seamount chains that trend almost north south and reflecting the absolute motion of the indian plate probably originated from the ancient propagative fractures inspite of the differences in their height the seamounts of these eight chains are morphologically correlatable in the study area the seamounts are clustered north and south of 12 s latitude interestingly in the area north of 12 s area ii 9 12 s the seamounts are distinctly smaller 400 m height whereas the area south of 12 s area i 12 15 s has a mixed population of seamounts the normalized abundance of the ciob seamount is 976 seamounts 10 6 km 2 but on a finer scale this value varies from 500 to 1600 seamounts 10 6 km 2 which is less than the seamount concentrations of the pacific and atlantic oceans 9000 to 16 000 seamounts 10 6 km 2 three categories of seamounts are present in the ciob e g 1 single peaked 2 multi peaked and 3 composite the study indicate that single peaked seamounts are dominant 89 while multi peaked is less 8 and composite ones are rare 3 in the ciob the progressive northward movement of the indian continent caused collision between india and asia at around 62 ma ago a majority of the near axis originated seamounts in the ciob seemed to have formed as a consequence of the temporally widespread cretaceous 65 ma to late eocene

ridge jumps and propagations in the south atlantic ocean the normal pattern of mid ocean ridge divergent plate boundaries comprises straight spreading segments with narrow zones of crustal accretion bounded by transform faults where these segments are offset normally the configuration of spreading segments and transform faults is stable for long periods but in places on fast and medium rate spreading ridges the transform offsets have propagated along the ridge axis as some spreading segments have grown at the expense of adjacent ones1 7 although such behaviour has hitherto not been well documented on slow spreading ridges we have mapped multiple ridge jumps and propagating rifts in two areas of the slow spreading 18 mm yr 1 half rate south atlantic ridge crest we attribute this anomalous behaviour in the south atlantic to the presence of hotspots near our study areas causing elevated asthenospheric mantle temperatures and lateral mantle flow with consequent excess volcanism and disruption of the normally well focused melt delivery processes at the ridge crest

mapping the shallow water seabed habitat with the shoals the scanning hydrographic operational airborne light detection and ranging lidar survey shoals consists of a bathymetric lidar system that provides high precision measurements of water depth although the acquisition is focused on depth accuracy the return signal i e waveform contains other relevant information because of integration signatures from the water surface the water column and the seabed this paper highlights the benthic characterization in extracting statistical parameters derived from the bottom backscatter and classifying them in implementing a specific unsupervised classification it is significantly proven that the signals derived from habitat described as statistically homogeneous throughout ground truth analysis are similar within an intrahabitat view whereas they are different between themselves

major element constraints on melting differentiation and mixing of magmas from the galapagos 95 5 w propagating rift system projections in the pseudo quaternary system diopside plagioclase olivine quartz di pl ol q are used in this paper as a base on which to plot additional compositional petrologic or tectonic variables used in this manner the projections provide a sensitive means of displaying and evaluating the chemical variability of mid ocean ridge basalt morb suites such as that of the galapagos 95 5 w propagating rift system and allow mantle controls on the chemical variability of morb to be distinguished from the predominant effects of shallow level crystal fractionation and mixing primitive lavas mg 63 from the 95 5 w region form a broadly linear array within the di pl ol q tetrahedron parallel to the di ol join in terms of two recent high pressure studies of morb petrogenesis stolper 1980 takahashi and kushiro 1983 the primitive liquids in this array are not primary but have evolved by less than 10 olivine fractionation from an array of primary liquids which separated from residual mantle over a range of pressures between 10 20 kb with appropriate assumptions as to residual lithology and mg of residual olivine the nature and origin of 95 5 w primary magmas can be deduced 1 lavas of the normal rift are derived from a broad range of primary magmas that separated from compositionally uniform in terms of major elements mantle over a pressure range of 10 20 kb 2 beneath the newly forming propagating rift melting is initiated perhaps by pressure release at shallow depth 9 11 kb degree of melting and source composition appear similar to those for the normal rift within a few km of the propagating rift tip this shallow source is joined by a second deeper 11 12 kb more iron rich source both sources persist for at least 100 km along the propagating rift but the deeper source appears to become dominant farther behind the tip maximum pressure for melt separation anywhere beneath the propagating rift is less than 15 kb in addition to these source effects the projections allow a more complete description of the shallow level fractionation and mixing effects along the propagating rift primitive lavas of restricted composition erupted near the rift tip give way within 2 3 km to an increasingly diverse suite of lavas characterized by variable extents of fractionation and by numerous single mixing events consistent with magmatic evolution in small only occasionally interconnected magma bodies beyond 15 km the diversity gradually declines toward a restricted population of cpx saturated lavas which characterizes the propagating rift beyond 75 km and is consistent with the presence of a large well mixed magma chamber in this region

volcano tectonic events and sedimentation since late miocene times at the mohns ridge near 72 n in the norwegian greenland sea abstract the combined analysis of structural and magnetic data from the mohns ridge near 72 n in the norwegian greenland sea shows the existence of different phases of seafloor spreading from anomaly 5a 12 ma which represents the limit of the magnetic survey onwards for the period comprised between anomaly 5 9 ma and anomaly 3a 6 5 ma most particularly a dramatic drecrease of spreading rate is observed by as much as 50 between anomaly 3a and 2a 3 2 ma an acceleration of spreading is observed together with a global uplift of the acoustic basement this latter period may correspond to a local enhancement of tectono volcanic activity the existence of ridges located at 25 and 50 km from the ridge axis and parallel to it suggests that both the beginning 5 4 5 ma and the end 3 2 5 ma of this phase were marked by intense volcanism in the sedimentary basins of the survey area two at least intra sedimentary horizons appear at respectively 140 160 ms and 340 360 ms two way travel time beneath the sediments surface using an inferred value of sedimentation rate of 50 70 m myr the age of the first horizon between 3 and 2 ma corresponds to the beginning of mid pliocene glaciations in the northern hemisphere the age of the second one between 6 5 and 4 5 ma to the pliocene miocene boundary our data and other data from other areas indicate that the three major sources of sediments western spitzbergen margin bear island trough and storfjord trough which supply the mohns ridge area near 72 n have been dramatically more active after 5 5 ma in addition local unconformities recorded in the single channel seismic sections indicate that some tectonic event occurred off axis little after the date corresponding to the deposition of the second horizon s2 if one accepts that the knipovich ridge migrated eastward 6 5 ma ago it can be hypothesized that the tectonic release of the lena trough knipovich ridge mohns ridge system forced the sediment production to increase at each one of the three sediment sources after the miocene pliocene transition

age progressive volcanism in the new england seamounts and the opening of the central atlantic ocean radiometric ages k ar and oar 39ar methods have been determined on dredged volcanic rocks from seven of the new england seamounts a prominent northwest southeast trend ing volcanic lineament in the northwestern atlantic ocean the oar 39ar total fusion and increnental heating ages show an increase in seamount construction age from southeast to northwest that is consistent with northwestward motion of the north american plate over a new england hot spot between 103 and 82 ma a linear volcano migration rate of 4 7 cm yr fits the seamount age distribution these ages fall within a longer age progression from the corner seamounts 70 to 75 ma at the eastern end of the new england seamounts to the youngest phase of volcanism in the white mountain igneous province new england 100 to 124 ma the new england hot spot estimated from the new radio metric ages and motion of north america in the hot spot reference frame to be near 28on 33ow probably generated a short line of mid to late tertiary age seamounts on the african plate but appears to be presently inactive the hot spot reference frame is used to calculate the motion of the north american plate away from the african plate from early cretaceous time to the present rominent magnetic anomalies recorded in the central atlantic seafloor give the positions of the spreading ridge for a bange of known ages hot spots that now underlie the african plate in the eastern central atlantic new england canary madeira cape verde azores could have produced cretaceous seamount and island chains on the north american plate during the early opening of the central atlantic each of these hot spots has been overridden by spreading ridges at pre dictable times some of these hot spot crossings are expressed as geochemical anomalies in the oceanic crust now far removed from spreading ridges

magnetic telechemistry and magmatic segmentation on the southern east pacific rise results from axial dredges and a profile inversion of magnetic anomaly data along the axis of the east pacific rise epr at 13 23os provide an estimate of the average degree of fractionation for the extrusive layer at this ultrafast spreading 145 mm yr full rate ridge we find a high correlation rd 0 81 between dredge mean feo total iron as feo and natural remanence for 34 axial dredges with multiple samples having coincident geochemical and magnetic data we attribute this good correlation to detailed sampling spanning the full range of cooling related magnetization changes within a flow and to the young age 0 6 ka of these axial samples which effectively minimizes time dependent magnetization changes due to geomagnetic intensity or alteration a composite axial magnetic anomaly profile shows large amplitude up to 400 nt fluctuations with wavelengths of 50 200 km which theoretical considerations suggest can reliably be related to the magnetization directly beneath the ship for much of the southern epr seismic data provide independent limits on the axial thickness 259 55 m and the pattern of off axis thickening of the extrusive magnetic source layer these data also provide evidence for an axial magma lens that effectively eliminates anomaly contributions from deeper magnetic sources inversion of the axial magnetic anomaly data utilizing these geophysical constraints yields a magnetization solution which through use of the regression relating feo and natural remanence may be related to the average degree of differentiation of the extrusive source layer the magnetic data reveal a pattern of magmatic segmentation that closely parallels the tectonic segmentation of the ridge suggesting that magma supply may be an important control on the average degree of differentiation of the extrusive layer 1998 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

axial processes along a segment of the east pacific rise 10 12 n axial segments of the east pacific rise are made up of individual volcanoes each volcano has a distinct magma composition and shows a systematic variation in the fractional crystallization with distance along the axis from the central chamber hydrothermal venting lava morphology and tectonics also vary along the axis lavas erupted near transform faults from the tips of propagating rifts in overlapping spreading centres and from near axis seamounts have different and variable compositions

crustal structure of ascension island from wide angle seismic data implications for the formation of near ridge volcanic islands abstract the study of the internal structure of volcanic islands is important for understanding how such islands form and how the lithosphere deforms beneath them studies to date have focused on very large volcanic edifices e g hawaiian islands marquesas but less attention has been paid to smaller islands which are more common ascension island a 4 km high volcanic edifice with a basal diameter of 60 km is located in the equatorial atlantic 8 s 90 km west of the mid atlantic ridge on 7 ma oceanic lithosphere we present results of a wide angle seismic profile crossing the island revealing a crustal thickness of 12 13 km an overthickened layer 3 7 km thick and little evidence of lithospheric flexure together these results suggest ascension island may be older than previously assumed and may have begun forming at an on axis position around 6 7 ma this hypothesis is further supported by the presence of a young 1 4 km high edifice directly adjacent to the mid atlantic ridge with a volume about 1 7 that of ascension island possibly representing the earliest stages of seamount formation excess magmatism appears to be related to the tectonic setting at the ridge fracture zone intersection

the active part of charlie gibbs fracture zone a study using sonar and other geophysical techniques a short survey with gloria side scan sonar and other geophysical instruments has revealed new information about charlie gibbs fracture zone between 29 and 36 w the traces of two transform faults have been clearly delineated they fit small circles about the pole of rotation with an rms error of only about 1 km but they do not always follow the deepest parts of the transform valleys the transforms are joined by a short spreading center at 31 45 w the median transverse ridge appears to have been produced by normal seafloor spreading at this center and bears identifiable vine matthews magnetic anomalies a transverse ridge along the eastern inactive part of the northern transform may be an intrusive feature considerable thicknesses of sediment appear to have been deposited in the northern transform valley from norwegian sea overflow water passing through the fracture zone but transverse ridges have prevented the sediment reaching the southern valley

crustal thickness on the mid atlantic ridge bull s eye gravity anomalies and focused accretion spreading segments of the mid atlantic ridge show negative bull9s eye anomalies in the mantle bouguer gravity field seismic refraction results from 33 s indicate that these anomalies can be accounted for by variations in crustal thickness along a segment the crust is thicker in the center and thinner at the end of the spreading segment and these changes are attributable to variations in the thickness of layer 3 the results show that accretion is focused at a slow spreading ridge that axial valley depth reflects the thickness of the underlying crust and that along axis density variations should be considered in the interpretation of gravity data