petrology and geochemistry of neoproterozoic volcanic arc terranes beneath the atlantic coastal plain savannah river site south carolina the piedmont of south carolina and georgia is a complex mosaic of exotic terranes of uncertain provenance farther south and east these terranes form the basement beneath several kilometers of cretaceous and cenozoic sedimentary rocks commonly referred to as the atlantic coastal plain the distribution and geologic history of this hidden crystalline basement can be inferred only on the basis of limited exposures at the margins of the coastal plain onlap aeromagnetic lineaments that define basement trends in the subsurface and core data from wells that penetrate basement during the past 40 years basement cores aggregating more than 6 miles 10 000 m have been recovered from 57 deep wells at the department of energy s savannah river site these cores provide the only known samples of basement terranes that lie southeast of the fall line in central south carolina cores from the 57 deep wells along with structural trends defined by aeromagnetic lineaments allow us to define four distinct units within the basement beneath the coastal plain 1 the crackerneck metavolcanic complex greenstones and felsic

broadband measurements of the sources of explosions at stromboli volcano italy during september october 1997 21 three component broadband seismometers were deployed on stromboli volcano at radial distances of 0 3 2 2 km from the active crater to investigate the source mechanisms of strombolian explosions in the 2 50 s band the very long period vlp signals associated with explosions are consistent with two stationary sources repeatedly activated in time vlp particle motions are essentially linear and analyses of semblance and particle motions are consistent with a source centroid offset 300 m beneath and 300 m northwest of the active vents similar vlp waveforms are observed at all 21 stations indicating that the seismograms are source dominated the vlp ground displacement response to each explosion may be qualitatively interpreted as 1 pressurization of the conduit associated with the ascent of a slug of gas 2 depressurization of the conduit in response to mass withdrawal during the eruption and 3 repressurization of the conduit associated with the replenishment of the source with fluid

40 ar 39 ar ages from subsurface crystalline basement of the wiggins uplift and southwesternmost appalachian piedmont implications for late paleozoic terrane accretion during assembly of pangea

thermomechanical erosion of the lithosphere by mantle plumes a simplified semianalytic theory is presented that describes the process of lithosphere thinning through thermomechanical erosion by a hot mantle upwelling or plume the theory compares well with published numerical models but predicts that the rate of thinning is very dependent on the lateral scale of the upwelling and on the viscosity through the lithosphere asthenosphere transition a plume tail is likely to cause rapid local thinning reducing the lithosphere thickness substantially within a few million years plume heads or broadly spreading plume tail material are unlikely to cause significant thinning by this mechanism alone these results are consistent with geophysical evidence for localized thinning under the hawaiian volcanic chain but not under the broader hawaiian swell they are also qualitatively consistent with the distribution of basaltic volcanism in oceanic and continental hotspot tracks the theory predicts that thin continental lithosphere may be further thinned sufficiently by a plume tail to cause crustal melting within about 20 m y thus this mechanism may account for some delayed silicic magmatism on some slow continental plates higher thinning rates would have occurred in the archean

along strike magma mixing beneath mid ocean ridges effects on isotopic ratios abstract the effects of mixing processes on the isotopic variability of mid ocean ridge basalts are studied the processes considered are porous flow dispersion and convective mixing in magma chambers porous flow dispersion is capable of mixing magmas over distances of only a few tens of meters convective mixing on the other hand is found to produce mixing over scales of kilometers to hundreds of kilometers calculations of convective mixing are carried out for continuous magma chambers where mixing is limited by convective processes and for discontinuous chambers where mixing is limited by chamber size preliminary comparison of our calculations with observations along the mid ocean ridges shows that the calculations are consistent with the existence of a correlation between bathymetry and isotopic ratio at long but not at short wavelengths they are also capable of explaining a decrease in isotopic variability with increasing spreading rate

source mechanisms of explosions at stromboli volcano italy determined from moment tensor inversions of very long period data 1 seismic data recorded in the 2 30 s band at stromboli volcano italy are analyzed to quantify the source mechanisms of strombolian explosions during september 1997 to determine the source centroid location and source mechanism we minimize the residual error between data and synthetics calculated by the finite difference method for a point source embedded in a homogeneous elastic medium that takes topography into account two source centroids are identified each representative of the distinct event types associated with explosive eruptions from two different vents the observed waveforms are well reproduced by our inversion and the two source centroids that best fit the data are offset 220 and 260 m beneath and 160 m northwest of the active vents the source mechanisms include both moment tensor and single force components the principal axes of the moment tensor have amplitude ratios 1 1 2 which can be interpreted as representative of a crack if one assumes the rock matrix at the source to have a poisson ratio n 1 3 a value appropriate for hot rock both imaged cracks dip 60 to the northwest and strike northeast southwest along a direction parallel to the elongation of the volcanic edifice and a prominent zone of structural weakness as expressed by lineaments dikes and brittle structures for our data set the volume changes estimated from the moments are 200 m 3 for the largest explosion from each vent together with the volumetric source is a dominantly vertical force with a magnitude of 10 8 n consistent with the inferred movement of the magma column perched above the source centroid in response to the piston like rise of a slug of gas in the conduit index terms 7215 seismology earthquake parameters 7280 seismology volcano seismology 8419 8414 volcanology eruption mechanisms keywords very long period seismicity moment tensor inversions eruption mehanics

convective thinning of the lithosphere a model constrained by geoid observations abstract geoid observations in the oceans suggest that lithospheric thinning is effected by small scale convection within hot spot material trapped in dimples a few tens of kilometers deep at the base of the lithosphere significant thinning can occur within 5 ma if the viscosity of the convecting material is 10 16 pa s partial melting can enhance considerably the vigour of convection and the same rate of lithospheric thinning is obtained for a viscosity about five times higher these results are derived from convection models with a realistic temperature dependent rheology using the mean field approximation

steady state secondary convection beneath lithospheric plates with temperature and pressure dependent viscosity we have constructed a thermomechanical model for upper mantle convection such that the thickness and structure of the lithosphere are determined self consistently by the heat transported by convection in this study of the interaction between the lithosphere and upper mantle strongly temperature and pressure dependent rheologies for both newtonian and non newtonian creep mechanisms are employed for a strictly temperature dependent rheology an insignificant amount of heat less than 12 5 mw m2 can be transported convectively for an interior viscosity 0 1021 pas compatible with postglacial rebound on the other hand for similar values of the interior viscosity steady heat fluxes between 20 and 40 mw m2 are produced by introducing pressure dependence into the rheology for the temperature and pressure dependent flow law the horizontally averaged interior temperature displays very little variation with the amount of heat evacuated once all of the rheological parameters are fixed this finding may have important ramifications for parameterized convection we employ both the single mode mean field approximation and the complete two dimensional equations using finite elements to obtain solutions for the various types of rheologies from evaluating the geophysically relevant observables such as topography free air gravity anomalies surface heat flow and stress fields in the lithosphere we find that the lateral variations of these quantities predicted by a non newtonian rheology are much smaller than those derived from a linear rheology these results suggest that surface variations of geophysical observables are more compatible with a non newtonian rheology in the upper mantle

viscosity and thickness of the sub lithospheric low viscosity zone constraints from geoid and depth over oceanic swells abstract the medium wavelength geoid to depth anomalies ratio gdr at oceanic hotspot swells has been found to increase from 0 5 m km to 5 m km according to the age of the lithosphere they occur on in order to interpret this trend the geoid and topography anomalies associated with mantle convective plumes crossing a sublithospheric low viscosity zone lvz have been derived from numerical models and a systematic investigation of the gdr dependence on the viscosity and depth extent of the lvz on the thickness and thermal structure of the lithosphere and on the rayleigh number has been conducted it is shown that for viscosity drops across the base of the lvz greater than one order of magnitude the gdr is strongly dependent on the depth of shallow interfaces such as the lithosphere athenosphere boundary and on the lvz s thickness consequently the empirical trend can be accounted for by the thickening of the lithosphere with age provided it occurs at the expense of a lvz whose base is at a fixed depth around 200 km in such a frame no significant variation with age of the lvz s viscosity is required by the gdr data best fit with the empirical trend is found for a lvz about 50 times less viscous than the underlying mantle the mantle flow starts to fluctuate when the local rayleigh number of the low viscosity layer exceeds the rayleigh number of the underlying mantle the fluctuations are initiated in the upper boundary layer in the diverging part of the plume at a distance of a few hundreds of kilometers from the main ascending current for viscosity contrasts in the range of 40 60 deduced from the present study the conditions for the development of these small scale instabilities are realized only where the lithosphere has not yet grown significantly downwards ages

contrasting accreted terranes in the southern appalachian orogen basement beneath the atlantic and gulf coastal plains and west african orogens abstract a variety of lithostratigraphic units may be outlined within the pre mesozoic crystalline basement of the atlantic and gulf coastal plains these include 1 a group of metamorphic rocks of variable grade together with deformed and retrogressed granite in southwestern alabama and southeastern mississippi wiggins uplift hornblende and biotite within higher grade units record 40ar 39ar post metamorphic cooling ages of 310 300 ma 2 a suite of contrasting igneous rocks granite basalt and agglomerate and serpentinite which occurs along the brunswick altamaha magnetic anomaly in southwestern alabama and 3 an extensive apparently coherent tectonic element the suwannee terrane comprised of undeformed granite in which biotite records 40ar 39ar post magmatic cooling ages of 530 525 ma low grade felsic metavolcanic rocks a suite of high grade metamorphic lithologies st lucie metamorphic complex in which hornblende yields 40ar 39ar post metamorphic cooling ages of 515 510 ma and a succession of lower ordovician middle devonian sedimentary rocks characterized by gondwanan fauna the west african orogens mauritanides bassarides and rokelides record a locally complex polyphase tectonothermal evolution the earliest event corresponded to westward rifting of a continental fragment from the west african craton at 700 ma this led to development of a rift facies lithotectonic succession which included sedimentary units and intracontinental igneous sequences rifting was limited and a western ensialic arc began to develop by 680 ma the associated convergence culminated in an episode of folding and metamorphism at 650 ma pan african i orogenesis following widespread deposition of late paleozoic glacial and flyschoid sediments a second tectonothermal event occurred between 550 and 500 ma pan african ii orogenesis the west african orogens were marked by general tectonic quiescence throughout most of the early and middle paleozoic late paleozoic 300 ma collision of gondwana and laurentia resulted in eastward translation of previously tectonized mauritanide units over their foreland and emplacement at highest structural levels of previously imbricated nappes which include sequences with uncertain palinspastic origins the late paleozoic hercynian transport was largely intracontinental and only westernmost portions of the exposed mauritanides record an associated penetrative tectonothermal overprint characteristics of pre mesozoic basement units which comprise the suwannee terrane in the florida subsurface suggest they represent extensions of the bassaride rokelide orogen there is no apparent record of paleozoic tectonothermal activity in the suwannee terrane this contrasts markedly with penetrative late paleozoic reworking of basement units in the wiggins uplift this suggests that a major dextral transcurrent fault was active during the late paleozoic and that proximal basement units were directly involved in collisional aspects of pangea assembly the various basement units of the coastal plain are not correlative with any of the non laurentian terranes exposed in the southern appalachian orogen e g carolina terrane of the eastern piedmont which accreted in the ordovician devonian to exterior positions along the eastern margin of the north american craton these exotic appalachian terranes were transported into their present structural positions during late paleozoic collision of gondwana and laurentia they are separated from gondwanan elements of the suwannee terrane by a suture approximately marked by the brunswick altamaha magnetic anomaly

compensation of swells and plateaus in the north pacific no direct evidence for mantle convection at intermediate and long wavelengths the ratio of geoid height to topography is sensitive to the depth and mode of compensation a low geoid topography ratio 8 m km in conjunction with a poor correlation between geoid height and topography is evidence of mantle convection after subtracting a reference geoid from the observed geoid previous studies have found a regular pattern of geoid highs and lows with a characteristic wavelength of 3000 4000 km since these geoid highs and lows were poorly correlated with topography and resulted in very high geoid topography ratios 10 20 m km they were believed to reflect the planform of mantle convection we show that the regular pattern of geoid highs and lows is an artifact caused by truncating the reference geoid at spherical harmonic degree 10 since the geoid spectrum is red the residual geoid is dominated by degree 11 when the harmonics of the reference geoid are rolled off gradually the regular pattern of geoid highs and lows disappears in the northeast pacific the new residual geoid reflects the lithosphere age offsets across the major fracture zones in the northwest pacific the residual geoid corresponds to isostatically compensated swells and plateaus we have calculated the geoid topography ratio for 10 swells and plateaus and have found a range of compensation depths the highest geoidaopography ratio of 5 5 m km occurs on the flanks of the hawaiian swell intermediate ratios occur in four areas including the midway swell these intermediate ratios reflect a linear combination of the decaying thermal swell and the increasing volume of airy compensated seamounts low geoid topography ratios occur over the remaining five areas e g emperor seamounts reflecting the absence of a thermal swell our findings do not support the hypothesis that the planform of mantle convection is evident in the geoid we see only indirect evidence of thermal plumes reheating the lower lithosphere

geoid and topography associated with sublithospheric convection negligible contribution from deep currents abstract the sources of geoid and topography anomalies in a convecting upper mantle with realistic temperature and pressure dependent viscosity are studied the results differ from those obtained in previous studies with layered depth dependent viscosity for a newtonian viscosity the topography and the geoid anomalies coming from below the low viscosity zone i e deeper than 250 km amount to 30 m and 10 cm respectively while they are reduced to 10 m and 10 cm for a non newtonian viscosity it represents at most 6 of the complete signal and affects very little the geoid over topography ratio the weakness of the contribution from the lower part of the cell is due to both small kernels and small lateral temperature variations at depth yet a linear regression of the complete geoid signal versus topography yields an apparent compensation depth shallower than the base of the lithosphere the damping of the vertical stress through a lithosphere with a depth dependent viscosity implies a departure from isostasy and is the cause of the shallow apparent compensation depths found in our model

stress fields and tectonic motions induced by time varying density anomalies in the lithosphere abstract we explore the extent to which a viscoelastic rheology of the lithosphere could affect the deviatoric stress and vertical deformation driven by deep seated time dependent density anomalies within the lithosphere these sources can be associated with fast density instabilities of thermal chemical or tectonic origin in particular we focus on the stress transfer from the ductile lower lithosphere to the elastic crust the model is radially stratified and employs the maxwell rheology stress transfer takes place from a wide region within the lower lithosphere to the thinner elastic top layer where it is amplified the time history of the source and the lithospheric viscosity play a crucial role in determining the time evolution of the stress and deformation patterns attention is drawn to the temporal rates of maximum shear accumulation which are interpreted as earthquake recurrence times for realistic values of the model and source parameters the increase of the deviatoric stress within the crust can be of a few bars on time scales of 10 3 years for lithospheric viscosities of around 10 22 to 10 23 pa s 1 lower levels of stress variations are found in the viscoelastic lithosphere these findings are consistent with the low levels of stress release and long recurrence times that characterize the intraplate seismicity commonly attributed to density instabilities as a specific application we considered the tectonic subsidence of the tyrrhenian basin from the rate of subsidence derived from the odp leg 107 drilling campaign we can estimate an upper bound for the lithospheric viscosity of around 5 10 22 pa s 1 which is appropriate for active tectonic regions

stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental summary of the south east georgia embayment a correlation of exploratory wells a continental offshore stratigraphic test cost well and six exploratory wells have been drilled in the south east georgia embayment the oldest rocks penetrated are weakly metamorphosed lower ordovician quartz arenites and silurian shales and argillites in the transco 1005 1 well and upper devonian argillites in the cost ge 1 well these marine strata which are equivalent to the tippecanoe sequence in florida underlie the post rift unconformity and represent part of a disjunct fragment of gondwana that was sutured to the north american craton during the late palaeozoic alleghanian orogeny the palaeozoic strata are unconformably overlain by interbedded non marine jurassic bajocian and younger sandstones and shales and marginal marine lower cretaceous sandstones calcareous shales and carbonates which contain scattered beds of coal and evaporite together these rocks are stratigraphically equivalent to the onshore fort pierce and cotton valley formations and rocks of the lower cretaceous comanchean provincial series the abundance of carbonates and evaporites in this interval which reflects marine influences within the embayment increases upwards eastwards and southwards the upper cretaceous part of the section is composed mainly of neritic calcareous shales and shaley limestones stratigraphically equivalent to the primarily marginal marine facies of the onshore atkinson cape fear and middendorf formations and black creek group and to limestones and shales of the lawson limestone and peedee formations cenozoic strata are primarily semiconsolidated marine carbonates palaeocene to middle eocene strata are commonly cherty middle miocene to pliocene strata are massive and locally phosphatic and glauconitic quaternary sediments are dominated by unconsolidated carbonate sands the effects of eustatic changes and shifts in the palaeocirculation are recorded in the upper cretaceous and tertiary strata

mixing by time dependent convection abstract two dimensional numerical flow models are employed to study the mixing of passive heterogeneities in the earth s mantle both simple kinematic models of time dependent flow and dynamic convection models are studied initially small blocks of tracers are inserted into the flow and their progressive dispersal is monitored through time some of the tracers also serve as infinitesimal strain markers three different regimes of mixing are observed a all heterogeneities are rapidly strained and stirred according to a turbulent mixing law where the size of a blob decreases exponentially with time b most heterogeneities are only slowly strained and possibly follow a laminar mixing law with a linear decrease with time of the size of a heterogeneity c the size reduction proceeds rapidly in part of the fluid but some poorly stirred islands persist for a long time all three regimes are found in various kinematic flow models while in the dynamic convection models only regime a is observed the effective strain rate in the exponential turbulent mixing law is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the average flow strain rate when the results from the dynamic convection models with variable viscosity are scaled to the upper mantle mixing over small length scales would be achieved after a few hundred million years for whole mantle convection with a significant increase of viscosity with depth mixing times could be in the order of 1 2 ga in the latter case it appears marginally possible that part of the isotopic heterogeneity observed in oceanic basalts has evolved within the convecting mantle rather than in physically separated reservoirs

heat flow observations on the bermuda rise and thermal models of midplate swells the bermuda rise is a broad topographic swell which is apparent in both residual depth and geoid anomaly maps of the western north atlantic the magnitudes of the depth and geoid anomalies associated with the bermuda rise are similar to the anomalies associated with other swells surrounding recent volcanic islands e g hawaii suggesting that despite the lack of recent volcanism on bermuda the rise has a similar origin to other midplate swells results are reported from 171 new heat flow measurements at seven carefully selected sites on the bermuda rise and the surrounding seafloor off the bermuda rise the basement depths are generally shallower and the heat flow higher than either the plate or boundary layer models predict with the measured heat flow apparently reaching a uniform value of about 50 mw m 2 on 120 m y old crust on the bermuda rise the heat flow is significantly higher 57 4 2 6 mw m 2 than off the swell 49 5 1 7 mw m 2 the magnitude of the anomalous heat flux 8 10 mw m 2 is comparable to that previously found along the older portion of the hawaiian swell near midway the existence of higher heat flow on both the hawaiian swell and bermuda rise indicates that these features fundamentally have a thermal origin the differences in the shape uplift and subsidence histories of the hawaiian swell and bermuda rise can be quantitatively explained by the different absolute velocities of the pacific and north american plates moving across a distributed heat source in the underlying mantle two dimensional numerical convection models indicate that the observed depth geoid and heat flow anomalies are consistent with simple convection models in which the lower part of the thermally defined plate acts as the upper thermal boundary layer of the convection

offshore extent of gondwanan paleozoic strata in the southeastern united states the suwannee suture zone revisited abstract the recognition of the suwannee terrane in southeastern north america was a critical step in advancing our current understanding of the tectonic evolution of ocean basins unfortunately further clarification of the boundaries of the suwannee terrane has proven difficult due to the thick coastal plain cover limited well log analyses and a paucity of seismic reflection data onshore we present the results from a new compilation and analysis of legacy marine seismic reflection refraction and well data from offshore the southeastern united states which reveals in the subsurface a previously unmapped lower paleozoic sedimentary section spanning the continental shelf from florida to north carolina previously only identified in two deep offshore wells cost ge 1 and transco 1005 1 this paleozoic platform sequence is identified in seismic reflection profiles as a package of low frequency sub horizontal laterally continuous reflectors which are clearly discordant with and distinct from the overlying mesozoic and cenozoic stratigraphy above the post rift unconformity pru the inferred base of the paleozoic sequence is marked by the downward diminution of parallel seismic reflectors as well as an increase in seismic velocities to 6 km s observed on numerous offshore seismic refraction surveys while clearly deformed in some areas these paleozoic strata are generally sub horizontal range in thickness from 4 to 6 km and can be mapped continuously over an area in excess of 130 000 km 2 similar sedimentary rocks have been recognized from onshore exploration wells in florida since the 1930s and were subsequently identified to be part of the suwannee basin within the larger exotic suwannee terrane of gondwanan affinity recognition of the presence and extent of these gondwanan strata offshore implies 1 the inferred position of the suwannee suture zone offshore lies 200 km further north approximately along the boundary between the carolina terrane and the charleston terrane 2 previously identified terranes brunswick charleston suwannee northern florida are likely distinct crustal blocks but their amalgamation predates deposition of the overlying paleozoic section of the suwannee basin 3 collectively this crust represents the gondwanan continent based on the size and presence of a stable platform stratigraphy nominally doubling the size of the last sutured terrane the suwannee terrane

new cocorp profiling in the southeastern united states part ii brunswick and east coast magnetic anomalies opening of the north central atlantic ocean new cocorp profiles on the coastal plain of georgia and northern florida support the hypothesis that the brunswick anomaly marks a late paleozoic suture they do not support the alternate view that this anomaly is caused by a mesozoic rift basin the trend of the brunswick anomaly relative to the appalachian gravity gradient indicates that in westernmost georgia and adjacent alabama african basement suwannee terrane is in proximity to autochthonous north american basement grenville farther east one or more paleozoic accreted terranes intervene between the north american and african sides of the orogen offshore the brunswick anomaly closely parallels the east coast magnetic anomaly this relationship implies that the east coast magnetic anomaly marks not only the present continental oceanic crustal transition but also the northward continuation of the late paleozoic suture between north america and africa transitional crust beneath the carolina trough baltimore canyon trough and correlative parts of the african atlantic margin is thus likely to have formed within a preexisting suture zone the dramatic change in character of the u s atlantic margin southward from the carolina trough to the blake plateau probably reflects the fact that two different types of prerift crust are juxtaposed in this region

seismic precursors of the february 10 1990 eruption of kelut volcano java abstract kelut volcano eastern java indonesia erupted on february 10 12 1990 seismic activity and an increase of temperature and acoustic noise in the crater lake appeared three months before the eruption and were the main precursory signs of this eruption during the pre eruptive stage the number of events was eight per day on average and the cumulative seismic energy released was 5 6 10 15 erg these low values are uncommon for an andesitic volcano seismic activity mainly consisted of swarms of very shallow volcano tectonic earthquakes many of which were part of seismic multiplets in the last three weeks before the eruption seismic activity remained at a very low level this quiescent period was followed 24 hours prior to the eruption initiation by an intense swarm of low energy events which progressively became continuous spasmodic tremor most of the data obtained during the pre eruptive stage are consistent with a process of fracturation of a shallow and low strength plug blocking the eruptive conduit before the eruption several observations suggest that water is an important element in the preeruptive and eruptive phenomena at kelut volcano in particular the monochromatic events observed at kelut are characterized by one narrow peak in their spectra the estimations of q value and impedance contrast for these events suggest that the fluid which fills the source resonator could be water

emplacement age of post tectonic granites in southern guinea west africa and the peninsular florida subsurface implications for origins of southern appalachian exotic terranes the coyah granite of guinea intruded western portions of the rokelide orogen following a tectonothermal event at ca 550 ma it records a biotite muscovite plus whole rock rb sr isochron age of 533 7 m y mswd 1 6 which is interpreted to closely date crystallization the osceola granite represents a major lithotectonic element in the pre cretaceous crystalline basement of peninsular florida five biotite concentrates from cuttings recovered from four wells penetrating the pluton record 40ar 39ar plateau ages ranging between 527 4 1 9 m y and 534 6 2 0 m y petrographic characteristics of the four samples suggest relatively rapid post magmatic cooling and the plateau ages are interpreted to closely date emplacement of the pluton similarities in age and petrographic characteristics combine to suggest that the coyah and osceola granites were initially part of a sequence of plutons emplaced along the northwestern margin of the gondwana continent portions of this terrane amalgamated with laurentia during late paleozoic assembly of pangea various exotic lithotectonic terranes which had previously accreted or were at least proximal to the north american craton were transported to their present structural position in the southern central appalachian orogen during this collision

very long period seismic signals and caldera formation at miyake island japan over a period of roughly 40 days starting on 8 july 2000 a caldera structure 1 7 kilometers in diameter developed by means of gradual depression and expansion of the summit crater at miyake island japan at the same time very long period vlp seismic signals were observed once or twice a day source mechanism analyses of the vlp signals show that the moment tensor solutions are smooth step functions over a time scale of 50 seconds with dominant volumetric change components we developed a model to explain the caldera and the vlp signals in which a vertical piston of solid materials in the conduit is intermittently sucked into the magma chamber by lateral magma outflow this model offers potential for making quantitative estimations of the characteristic physical properties of magma systems

anomalous heat flow and geoid across the cape verde rise evidence for dynamic support from a thermal plume in the mantle summary we describe results from 200 heat flow measurements across the cape verde rise in the north atlantic they show that the heat flow through normal 125 myr old crust is 45 5 3 4mwm 2 close to the prediction for a lithospheric plate model heat flow increases towards the centre of the rise reaching a maximum of 16 4 mw m 2 above the normal oceanic value the concommitant geoid anomaly at the centre of the rise is 7 6 0 3 m and the depth anomaly is 1900 200 m the anomalous heat flow geoid and bathymetric values are used to constrain a variety of theoretical models of hot spot mechanisms lithospheric reheating models alone whether involving transient or sustained thinning of the lithosphere fail to model the broad heat flow anomaly and the long duration of uplift and volcanism observed on the cape verde rise axisymmetric convection models provide a better fit to the observed data and suggest that the swell is a consequence primarily of dynamic uplift generated by an ascending thermal plume in the underlying mantle uplift caused by expansion of the solid lithosphere is of smaller importance the observed geoid bathymetry and heat flow anomalies are reproduced well using convection models with upper mantle viscosities of 2 4 times 1020 pa s and a coefficient of thermal expansion in the range 2 0 2 5 times 10 5 k 1 the effect of melting in the ascending plume is to buffer the heat flow anomalies in the case of the cape verde rise partial melting is minimal but its effect on other hotspots will be to limit observed heat flow anomalies at the surface to less than 20 25 mw m 2

is the brunswick magnetic anomaly really the alleghanian suture the southeastern margin of the united states presents a complex picture of accreted paleozoic terranes and a rift related mesozoic overlap assemblage buried by a thick veneer of coastal plain sediments basement terranes have been defined on the basis of drilling and geophysical data their relationship to each other and to plate tectonics is in debate the brunswick magnetic anomaly in georgia has been cited as the location of the late paleozoic suture between north america and a continental fragment with african affinities known from the northern florida subcrop this paper poses a new plate model for this region based upon the following assumptions 1 that deep well tests furnish a reasonable data set for the discrimination of various basement rock types across the region and 2 that the brunswick anomaly is the outboard limit of the north american piedmont avalon terrane we propose that the area between the northwest limit of african rocks and the trace of the brunswick anomaly is a region of crustal overlap as african related rocks were overthrust to the northwest the original irregular outline of the north american continental margin and the landward extensions of oceanic fracture zones are intimately related to the kinematics of suspect terranes in the appalachian orogen the implications of the model suggest that differential shortening during collision and differential extension during subsequent rifting accommodate movements on repeatedly activated transforms

crustal structure across the brunswick magnetic anomaly offshore georgia from coincident ocean bottom and multi channel seismic data we present results from a coincident wide angle and deep penetrating multichannel reflection seismic experiment conducted on the continental shelf of the southeast georgia embayment over 5000 air gun shots were recorded by a 6 km long towed streamer and six ocean bottom seismic instruments along a 250 km north south profile crossing the brunswick magnetic anomaly bma these data indicate a transition in seismic properties across the bma including higher seismic velocities south of the bma particularly in the upper crust 7 15 km depth and a transition from reflective to transparent crust from north to south we interpret this transition to indicate an increased mafic content in crust south of the bma magnetic modeling based on our seismic results indicates that the bma may be explained as an edge effect anomaly of the more mafic upper crust we suggest that the increased mafic content toward the south is due to rift related mafic intrusion an alternative interpretation is discussed in which the seismic transition across the bma is related to an alleghanian suture athough there is no direct indication in the data for the association of the bma and an alleghanian suture along our profile such an association cannot be ruled out the southern portion of the profile crosses the margin hinge zone where we observe seaward dipping reflectors similar to those observed along the northern blake plateau basin and carolina trough hinge zones which have been interpreted as volcanic sequences our seismic data include no evidence for very high velocity 7 0 km s mid crust to lower crust inboard of the hinge zone such as is observed in the carolina trough outboard of the hinge zone this indicates that the volume of emplaced mafic material changes dramatically across the hinge zone and suggests that rift related magmatic processes along the margin were highly focused

source mechanism of long period events at kusatsu shirane volcano japan inferred from waveform inversion of the effective excitation functions abstract we investigate the source mechanism of long period lp events observed at kusatsu shirane volcano japan based on waveform inversions of their effective excitation functions the effective excitation function which represents the apparent excitation observed at individual receivers is estimated by applying an autoregressive filter to the lp waveform assuming a point source we apply this method to seven lp events the waveforms of which are characterized by simple decaying and nearly monochromatic oscillations with frequency in the range 1 3 hz the results of the waveform inversions show dominant volumetric change components accompanied by single force components common to all the events analyzed and suggesting a repeated activation of a sub horizontal crack located 300 m beneath the summit crater lakes based on these results we propose a model of the source process of lp seismicity in which a gradual buildup of steam pressure in a hydrothermal crack in response to magmatic heat causes repeated discharges of steam from the crack the rapid discharge of fluid causes the collapse of the fluid filled crack and excites acoustic oscillations of the crack which produce the characteristic waveforms observed in the lp events the presence of a single force synchronous with the collapse of the crack is interpreted as the release of gravitational energy that occurs as the slug of steam ejected from the crack ascends toward the surface and is replaced by cooler water flowing downward in a fluid filled conduit linking the crack and the base of the crater lake

thermal origin of the hawaiian swell heat flow evidence and thermal models the lithospheric reheating hypothesis for the origin of the hawaiian swell has been tested by heat flow measurements along the swell between hawaii and midway ninety five measurements at eight carefully selected sites show that the heat flux on the swell increases systematically from near normal values 52 2 mw m 2 near hawaii to values near midway 59 2 mw m 2 about 20 25 higher than normal for lithosphere of that age 110 m y this heat flow pattern is qualitatively consistent with a deep seated thermal anomaly created in a lithospheric plate moving across a fixed heat source modeling of the heat flow and bathymetry data on the hawaiian swell strongly suggest that the swell is caused by a rapid heating within 40 to 50 km depth of normal 90 m y old lithosphere over a relatively broad 500 1000 km region near hawaii this model is also consistent with gravity and geoid anomalies associated with the swell which require a low density region in the lower lithosphere and with flexure studies of seamounts in the hawaiian chain which indicate that the rigidity of the lithosphere is not significantly reduced by the reheating appendices a c are available with entire article on microfiche order from american geophysical union 2000 florida avenue n w washington d c 20009 document j82 005 1 00 payment must accompany order

flattening of the oceanic topography and geoid thermal versus dynamic origin summary the origin of the flattening of the seafloor bathymetry and geoid at old ages is still a matter of debate is this departure from the square root of age law induced by dynamic uplift of the lithosphere linked to the flow in the mantle or by cooling of the lithosphere different from that predicted for an infinite half space the amplitude of the dynamic uplift should strongly decrease at short wavelengths and should not be correlated with the seafloor age on a local scale therefore in order to eliminate the dynamic signal the cooling of the lithosphere is studied here by means of depth age and geoid age relationships computed from high pass filtered bathymetric geoid and age fields or from local dtopography d and dgeoid dage slopes the geoid age and depth age relationships obtained here are in good agreement with those previously deduced from global non filtered data at all observation scales a significant departure from the half space solution is found however the data are not sufficiently accurate to discriminate between the plate and chablis constant heat flow at the base of the lithospheric isotherm models our results support the existence of small scale convection supplying heat at the base of the old oceanic lithosphere

flexure modelling at seamounts with dense cores summary the lithospheric response to seamounts and ocean islands has been successfully described by deformation of an elastic plate induced by a given volcanic load if the shape and mass of a seamount are known the lithospheric flexure due to the seamount is determined by the thickness of an elastic plate te which depends on the load density and the age of the plate at the time of seamount construction we can thus infer important thermomechanical properties of the lithosphere from te estimates at seamounts and their correlation with other geophysical inferences such as cooling of the plate whereas the bathymetry i e shape of a seamount is directly observable the total mass often requires an assumption of the internal seamount structure the conventional approach considers the seamount to have a uniform density e g density of the crust this choice however tends to bias the total mass acting on an elastic plate in this study we will explore a simple approximation to the seamount s internal structure that considers a dense core and a less dense outer edifice although the existence of a core is supported by various gravity and seismic studies the role of such volcanic cores in flexure modelling has not been fully addressed here we present new analytic solutions for plate flexure due to axisymmetric dense core loads and use them to examine the effects of dense cores in flexure calculations for a variety of synthetic cases comparing analytic solutions with and without a core indicates that the flexure model with uniform density underestimates te by at least 25 per cent this bias increases when the uniform density is taken to be equal to the crustal density we also propose a practical application of the dense core model by constructing a uniform density load of same mass as the dense core load this approximation allows us to compute the flexural deflection and gravity anomaly of a seamount in the wavenumber domain and minimize the limitations recognized from the analytic tests then the dense core model is applied to predict the lithospheric flexure beneath howland island in the tokelau seamount chain these results are compared with the predictions of the uniform density model based on age dating of howland and the age of the seafloor traditional te versus age curves predict the elastic plate thickness beneath the seamount to be around 20 km which is comparable to the best dense core model of te 26 km however the best uniform density model is found at te 12 km which is significantly less than the predicted from our investigations of synthetic and real seamount cases we conclude that the dense core model approximates the true mass distribution of a seamount better than the uniform density model finally we suggest that the role of underplating in flexure modelling may need to be reexamined because the dense core model predicts substantially less deflections than the uniform density model without requiring additional buoyancy caused by underplated material

response of a hydrothermal system to magmatic heat inferred from temporal variations in the complex frequencies of long period events at kusatsu shirane volcano japan we investigate temporal variations in the complex frequencies frequency and quality factor q of long period lp events that occurred at kusatsu shirane volcano central japan we analyze lp waveforms observed at this volcano in the period between 1988 and 1995 which covers a seismically active period between 1989 and 1993 systematic temporal variations in the complex frequencies are observed in october november 1989 july october 1991 and september 1992 january 1993 we use acoustic properties of a crack filled with hydrothermal fluids to interpret the observed temporal variations in the complex frequencies the temporal variations in october november 1989 can be divided into two periods which are explained by a gradual decrease and increase of a gas volume fraction in a water steam mixture in a crack respectively the temporal variations in july october 1991 can be also divided into two periods these variations in the first and second periods are similar to those observed in november 1989 and in september november 1992 respectively and are interpreted as drying of a water steam mixture and misty gas in a crack respectively the repeated nature of the temporal variations observed in similar seasons between july and november suggests the existence of seasonality in the occurrence of lp events this may be caused by a seasonally variable meteoritic water supply to a hydrothermal system which may have been heated by the flux of volcanic gases from magma beneath this volcano

tomography the geoid and plate motions the dynamics of the earth s mantle and its relationship to mantle structure as revealed by seismic tomography the geoid and plate motions are discussed in a critical review of u s research from the period 1987 1990 sections are devoted to plates and mantle convection seismic anomalies flow and the geoid subducted slabs and the 670 km discontinuity the physical properties of the mantle plumes and computational and experimental modeling efforts also included is a comprehensive bibliography for the period 248 refs

topography and geoid anomalies due to density heterogeneities at the base of the thermal lithosphere application to oceanic swells and small wavelength geoid lineations summary the surface topography gravity and geoid associated with loads situated at the base of the thermal lithosphere are computed the model lithosphere is composed of a viscous lower layer with depth dependent viscosity overlain by an elastic lid when the viscosity varies strongly with depth the amplitude of the surface topography decreases rapidly as the wavenumber characterizing the mass anomaly increases the response for this two layer lithosphere differs substantially from the response computed for the loading from below of an elastic lid if the 200km wavelength geoid anomalies observed in the oceans are due to convective instabilities at the base of the lithosphere a positive geoid anomaly with an amplitude reaching 30 to 50cm is expected over a cold downwelling for ages greater than 10 myr no detectable topography associated with the lineations should be present for ages greater than 20 myr our model predicts that some topographic anomalies might be visible for younger ages if 1000 km broad swells are due to light material at a depth of about 100 km the associated geoid over topography ratios are quite reduced compared to those predicted by the long wavelength linear relationship usually employed for estimating the apparent compensation depth

the effect of a shallow low viscosity zone on the apparent compensation of mid plate swells abstract a simple model for mid plate swells is that of convection in a fluid which has a low viscosity layer lying between a rigid bed and a constant viscosity region finite element calculations have been used to determine the effects of the viscosity contrast the layer thickness and the rayleigh number on the flow and on the perceived compensation mechanism for the resulting topographic swell as the viscosity decreases in the low viscosity zone the effective local rayleigh number for the top boundary layer of the convecting cell increases also because the lower viscosity facilitates greater velocities in the low viscosity zone the low viscosity layer produces proportionally greater horizontal flow near the conducting lid causing the base of the conducting lid to appear like a free boundary the change in the local rayleigh number and in the effective boundary condition both cause the top boundary layer to thin through a green s function analysis we have found that the low viscosity zone damps the response of the surface topography to the temperature anomalies at depth whereas it causes the gravity and geoid response functions to change sign at depth counteracting the positive contributions from the shallower temperature variations by increasing the viscosity contrast the conbined effects of the thinning of the boundary layer and the behaviour of the response functions allow the apparent depth of compensation to become arbitrarily small therefore shallow depths of compensation cannot be used to argue against dynamic support of mid plate swells furthermore we compared the distribution of the effective compensating densities which is used to obtain the geoid to that of pratt compensation which is often used to calculate the depth of compensation from geoid and topography data for mid plate swells for all of our calculations including those with no low viscosity layer the effective gravitational mass distribution is more complex than assumed in simple pratt models so that the pratt models are not an appropriate gauge of the compensation mechanism

a jurassic granite from southern georgia u s a silicic extension related magmatism along the southeastern coastal plain abstract ion microprobe shrimp u pb dating of single zircon grains extracted from granite cuttings from the subsurface of southeastern georgia pierce co yields a well defined crystallization age of documentclass aastex usepackage amsbsy usepackage amsfonts usepackage amssymb usepackage bm usepackage mathrsfs usepackage pifont usepackage stmaryrd usepackage textcomp usepackage portland xspace usepackage amsmath amsxtra usepackage ot2 ot1 fontenc newcommand cyr renewcommand rmdefault wncyr renewcommand sfdefault wncyss renewcommand encodingdefault ot2 normalfont selectfont declaretextfontcommand textcyr cyr pagestyle empty declaremathsizes 10 9 7 6 begin document landscape 159 pm 3 end document ma 2 confirming the presence of mesozoic silicic magmatism in the northern suwannee terrane revision of suwannee terrane subcrop age province boundaries is required by these data the granite is 20 40 m yr younger than subsurface diabases in the same r

upper mantle heterogeneities and dynamics the width of geochemical and residual elevation anomalies along the mid ocean ridge system decrease as both the distance between migrating ridge segments and related hotspots and the local geochemical dispersion in the anomalies increase these observations provide further evidence that flows of mantle plumes in the upper mantle are deflected by migrating ridge sinks once they override hotspots

depth and geoid anomalies over oceanic hotspot swells a global survey the broad depth and geoid anomalies associated with 23 hotspot swells in oceanic areas have been analyzed maximum height and geographical extent of the topographic swell and of the geoid anomaly as well have been measured for each hotspot the results indicate a clear increase of the topographic swell height with age of the underlying lithosphere from values in the range 300 500 m at young ages to values in the range 1 500 2 000 m at ages larger than 100 ma the geoid anomaly amplitude also increases with plate age from nearly zero close to mid ocean ridges to 6 8 m over old plates on the other hand the geographical extent of the swell does not show any clear relationship with plate age the mean lateral extent of swells range from 1 000 to 1 500 km swells located close to spreading ridges show a significant non zero depth anomaly but are associated with negligible geoid signal these results complete those of a previous study where the apparent compensation depth of oceanic hotspot swells was showed to increase linearly with the square root of plate age and coincide roughly with the base of the thermal lithosphere this trend may either be interpreted in terms ofmore lithospheric thinning or dynamical support besides both seem necessary to explain the observed bathymetry in proportion evolving with aging of the lithosphere less

40ar 39ar constraints on chronology of augusta fault zone movement and late alleghanian extension southern appalachian piedmont south carolina and georgia

integration of cocorp deep reflection and magnetic anomaly analysis in the southeastern united states implications for origin of the brunswick and east coast magnetic anomalies integration of magnetic anomaly analysis with cocorp deep reflection data from the southeastern united states provides three new constraints on the interpretation of the brunswick and east coast magnetic anomalies as well as on the reflection data these are as follows 1 the source of the brunswick anomaly lies within the deep crust this anomaly is not caused by a mesozoic rift basin as proposed by some workers 2 a simple seaward dipping high susceptibility slab model can explain both the brunswick and east coast magnetic anomalies the along strike change in character of the two anomalies results largely from a change in azimuth of the source body 3 beneath the southeastern united states this source body dips south lies immediately on the south flank of the prominent southward dipping reflective zone revealed on cocorp surveys and was previously associated with the alleghanian suture between north america and africa these results imply that a dipping highly magnetized zone in the upper plate of the alleghanian suture is responsible for both the brunswick and east coast magnetic anomalies the high susceptibility material responsible for these anomalies might be mafic lower continental or oceanic crust thrust upward during alleghanian continental collision or mafic igneous material intruded into the upper plate of the suture zone during subsequent mesozoic rifting or both the latter hypothesis implies that the alleghanian suture acted as a zone of weakness a repository which was reactivated to control the site of ultimate atlantic rifting and possibly initial sea floor spreading

suspect terranes and accretionary history of the appalachian orogen the north american connection or the grenvillian continental crust that separated from eastern north america during the initiation of the appalachian orogenic cycle is poorly defined within the present orogen a variety of terranes occur outboard of the north american miogeocline all structurally uncoupled and therefore suspect stratigraphic analysis indicates that appalachian accretion progressed from the miogeocline outward the boundaries of the earliest accreted western terranes are marked by melange and ophiolite complexes later boundaries between eastern terranes are steep mylonitic zones and brittle faults accretionary events defined by stratigraphic analysis correspond to times of major deformation plutonism and metamorphism in the history of the orogen

three dimensional mantle flow beneath mid ocean ridges we have studied the development of multiscalar mantle flow beneath mid ocean ridges using a three dimensional numerical technique modeling includes various modes of heating and the shear flow induced by plate motion away from a spreading center with and without transform offsets the computational box consists of two layers differing in their viscosities it is shown than when flow is generated by heat sources located for the most part in the lower layer convective cells have horizontal dimensions proportional to the entire thickness of the box it is only when flow is driven by buoyancy forces in the top layer or by transient cooling along the top interface that transverse rolls are found to be confined within the lop low viscosity layer these rolls remain generally located far from the ridge plane except in the case of a viscosity contrast of 3 orders of magnitude between the bottom and top layers we conclude that segmentation beneath mid ocean ridges requires both strong viscosity contrasts and the lack of deep convective flow marine geophysical observations suggest that mantle upwelling beneath mid ocean ridges is two dimensional sheetlike beneath intermediate fast and hotspot influenced spreading centers and three dimensional plumelike beneath slow spreading centers and ridges overlying cold regions of the mantle such as the australian antarctic discordance we propose that these observations can be explained by variations in the viscosity structure and temperature of the mantle along the mid ocean ridge system models including a transform offset show that the active portion of the transform is a region of mantle downwelling the toroidal flow induced by the offset shifts the plumes away from the ridge crests the effects of the toroidal field are strongly magnified when the return flow cannot penetrate in the lower layer due to a large viscosity contrast stresses generated by the flow partly explains the development of inside corner highs and the evolution of transform faults

active lithospheric thinning abstract this paper starts with a discussion of the physical mechanisms capable of inducing a rapid upward migration of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary two models based on a thermomechanical destabilization of the lower lithosphere are proposed first we consider the enhancement of small scale sublithospheric convection modes by a hot thermal plume a perturbation of a few hundred degrees is found to thin the lithosphere and generate uplift within a few tens of million years this efficient erosion from below only stops when it reaches a layer of low density such as the crust or some depleted mantle material second we show that passive lithospheric stretching leads to an unstable lithospheric configuration on the sides of the rift the denser unstretched lithosphere is subject to a lateral convective penetration by the hotter asthenospheric mantle material coming from the rift zone this lateral destabilization generates uplift of the shoulders natural examples can be found along passive continental margins a good example is given by the uplift of the scandinavian caledonides following the break up in the north atlantic

convective thinning of the lithosphere a mechanism for the initiation of continental rifting thinning of the lithosphere by heat carried convectively to its base is a possible mechanism for the initiation of continental rifting the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary marks the transition from a quasi rigid behavior of the mantle on geological time scales to a viscous one the boundary lies at or close to the solidus of the mantle material and its position is a function of temperature and pressure additional heat carried to the boundary will cause it to rise and the lithosphere to thin a one dimensional model is used to study the upward movement of the boundary from an initial equilibrium position as a consequence of an increase in the heat flux from the convecting mantle the ratio of the amount of thinning to the initial thickness is directly proportional to the increase in heat flux from the asthenosphere and inversely proportional to the difference between the final subcrustal geothermal gradient and the slope of the transition temperature profile the rate of thinning is determined by the initial and final equilibrium thicknesses the thermal diffusivity the transition temperature profile and the plume temperature profile it depends only slightly on any latent heat associated with the lithosphere asthenosphere transition during a large fraction of the time between the initial and final equilibrium states the lithosphere thins at a rate which is inversely proportional to the square root of time t even 300 km thick lithospheres may be thinned to 50 km or crustal thicknesses in tens of million years by the heat advected by mantle plumes this heat contributes to an enhanced surface heat flow because of the constant level of radioactive heat production in the crust the ratio of the final to the initial surface heat flow increases much less than the ratio of the final to the initial heat flow from the asthenosphere for large increases in asthenospheric heat flow the lithosphere is almost thinned to the crust before any significant change of surface heat flow occurs uplift due to thermal expansion upon lithospheric thinning is of the order of 102 103 m a rayleigh taylor instability acting on the thinning lithosphere may further increase thinning rates and cause magmatic intrusions of the lithosphere and surface volcanism

small scale convection and divergent plate boundaries this paper explores the suggestion that observations of large igneous crustal thickness at rifted volcanic margins may in part be explained by small scale convection in the upper mantle this may increase the delivery of magma to the overlying lithosphere without the need for anomalously high mantle temperatures this concept is quantitatively assessed by numerical modeling of the flow caused by divergent plate motions in a viscous temperature and pressure dependent nonlinear fluid significant time dependent small scale convection is generated at the lower model viscosities and or higher temperatures and or sharper rift geometries these models can provide the required thick igneous crust observed at volcanic margins however they also give excessive variations in the thickness of igneous crust within the ocean basin and are therefore unacceptable an additional factor we have explored is the recent suggestion that the oceanic mantle may become dehydrated when melt is generated and removed this increases its viscosity by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude in the melting zone above 80 km the high viscosity lid stabilizes the flow and provides a more uniform oceanic crustal thickness while at the same time allowing for vigorous small scale convection during the early history of the rift and the delivery of thick igneous crust against the margin this factor coupled to the models for flow described above allow the main features of volcanic margins to be simulated besides the thick igneous crust predicted at the margins these models suggest that time dependent small scale convection below the margin may persist for tens of million years following the onset of seafloor spreading and that there may be coupling between this flow at the margin and that at the ridge axis the periodicity of this time dependent convection is primarily dictated by the model viscosities the models suggest that episodicities of tens of million years are reasonable these episodicities may be reflected in the record of vertical motions at rifted margins

crustal structure of the southeast georgia embayment carolina trough preliminary results of a composite seismic image of a continental suture and a volcanic passive margin new deep penetration multichannel seismic reflection data combined with refraction results and magnetics modeling support a hypothesis that the carolina trough is a mesozoic volcanic passive margin exhibiting a seaward dipping wedge and associated underplating the structure of carolina platform continental crust is consistent with the late paleozoic continental collision that produced the appalachians but imbrication has had no obvious effect on shallower structures produced by mesozoic extension and volcanism the origin of prominent magnetic anomalies crossing the southeast georgia embayment can be explained by processes attending mesozoic separation of africa and north america and is not related to a paleozoic continental suture as previously postulated

magma accumulation in the ascending mantle summary the most important factors which control the accumulation of primary magma in the mantle are 1 the degree of partial melting required for permeability which is suggested as10 20 2 the creep properties of the partially molten mantle the type of creep probably being nabarro herring creep 3 the type of flow of the ascending mantle material the flow may be parallel or divergent dependent on the depth 4 the depth of extension of the feeder dykes depending on the tensional stress distribution with depth and the rheological properties of the mantle it is shown that the partially molten mantle becomes stratified into layers of magma and residuum the layers of residuum being one or several metres thick the stratified mantle constitutes the primary source of magma a dispersed source system is formed in ascending convection currents while a large magma chamber is formed in ascending plumes the small diffusion rates imply that the melting is of a fractional type rather than batch melting