328 resultados para Submarine Pipelines
Resumo:
This study presents a systematic analysis and interpretation of autonomous underwater vehicle-based microbathymetry combined with remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video recordings, rock analyses and temperaturemeasurements within the PACManus hydrothermal area located on Pual Ridge in the Bismarck Sea of eastern Manus Basin. The data obtained during research cruise Magellan-06 and So-216 provides a framework for understanding the relationship between the volcanism, tectonismand hydrothermal activity. PACManus is a submarine felsic vocanically-hosted hydrothermal area that hosts multiple vent fields locatedwithin several hundredmeters of one another but with different fluid chemistries, vent temperatures and morphologies. The total area of hydrothermal activity is estimated to be 20,279m**2. Themicrobathymetrymaps combinedwith the ROV video observations allow for precise high-resolution mapping estimates of the areal extents of hydrothermal activity.We find the distribution of hydrothermal fields in the PACManus area is primarily controlled by volcanic features that include lava domes, thick andmassive blocky lava flows, breccias and feeder dykes. Spatial variation in the permeability of local volcanic facies appears to control the distribution of venting within a field.We define a three-stage chronological sequence for the volcanic evolution of the PACManus based on lava flow morphology, sediment cover and lava SiO2 concentration. In Stage-1, sparsely to moderately porphyritic dacite lavas (68-69.8 wt.% SiO2) erupted to form domes or cryptodomes. In Stage-2, aphyric lava with slightly lower SiO2 concentrations (67.2-67.9 wt.% SiO2) formed jumbled and pillowed lava flows. In the most recent phase Stage-3, massive blocky lavaswith 69 to 72.5wt.% SiO2were erupted throughmultiple vents constructing a volcanic ridge identified as the PACManus neovolcanic zone. The transition between these stages may be gradual and related to progressive heating of a silicic magma following a recharge event of hot, mantle-derived melts.
Resumo:
Submarine basalts are difficult to date accurately by the potassium-argon method. Dalrymple and Moore (1968) and Dymond (1970), for example, showed that, when the conventional K-Ar method is used, pillow lavas may contain excess 40Ar. Use of the 40Ar/39Ar step-heating method has not overcome the problem, as had been hoped, and has produced some conflicting results. Ozima and Saito (1973) concluded that the excess 40Ar is retained only in high temperature sites, but Seidemann (1978) found that it could be released at all temperatures. Furthermore, addition of potassium, from seawater, to the rock after it has solidified can result in low ages (Seidemann, 1977), the opposite effect to that of excess 40Ar. Thus, apparent ages may be either greater or less than the age of extrusion. Because of this discouraging record, the present study was approached pragmatically, to investigate whether self-consistent results can be obtained by the 40Ar/39Ar step-heating method.
Resumo:
Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic sediments deposited on the eastern and western sides of the Shatsky Rise show similar clay assemblages of chlorite, illite, mixed layers, smectite, kaolinite, and palygorskite, and a similar vertical differentiation into three units. The deep-sea pelagic red clay is dominated by terrigenous components, which suggests that diagenesis is minor in this part of the western North Pacific and that eolian supply is very important. The role of the Shatsky Rise as a submarine barrier is of minor importance. The volcanic contribution to the clay component appears very small, as in some other parts of the Pacific Ocean. Stratigraphic correlations between Sites 576 and 578, which can be made from mineralogical data, partly offset the rareness of biostratigraphic markers.
Resumo:
The Baltic coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is located in the transition Zone between the region of Fennoscandian Uplift and the Central European Depression. In relation to the eustatic sea-level rise, the northeast coast shows a slower inundation, while for the southwestern area a faster transgression is indicated, which can be attributed to crustal movements. To determine the spatial and temporal differences since the onset of the Littorina Transgression, three relative sea-level curves have been established along a transect parallel to the gradient of upliftlsubsidence. The Wismar Bay area is one endpoint of the transect demonstrating today 10 Abb., 2 Tab. a relative sea-level rise of 1.4 mm/a. To determine the relative sea-level curve for the Wismar Bay, two sites were investigated on Rustwerder Spit (Poel) and Redentin. They provided reliable depth-age data, while the stratigraphy was additionally supported by lithological/geochemical, pollen, diatom and macrofossil data. Additional evidence was provided by archaeological submarine surveys and excavations. Comparing the new relative sea-level curve with a curve from the Vorpommern coast, it can be shown that for the period from 4000 cal BC until present, the differences between the two curves are caused by a constant neotectonic movement, while for the older periods an increasing isostatic component must be taken into account.
Resumo:
Igneous rocks from the Philippine tectonic plate recovered on Deep Sea Drilling Project Legs 31, 58 and 59 have been analyzed for Sr, Nd and Pb isotope ratios. Samples include rocks from the West Philippine Basin, Daito Basin and Benham Rise (40-60 m.y.), the Palau-Kyushu Ridge (29-44 m.y.) and the Parece Vela and Shikoku basins (17-30 m.y.). Samples from the West Philippine, Parece Vela and Shikoku basins are MORB (mid-ocean ridge basalt)-like with 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7026 - 0.7032, 143Nd/144Nd = 0.51300 - 0.51315, and 206Pb/204Pb = 17.8 - 18.1. Samples from the Daito Basin and Benham Rise are OIB (oceanic island basalt)-like with 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7038 - 0.7040, 143Nd/144Nd = 0.51285 - 0.51291 and 206Pb/204Pb = 18.8 - 19.2. All of these rocks have elevated 207Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb compared to the Northern Hemisphere Regression Line (NHRL) and have delta207Pb values of 0 to +6 and delta208Pb values of +32 to +65. Lavas from the Palau-Kyushu Ridge, a remnant island arc, have 87Sr/86Sr = 7032 - 0.7035, 143Nd/144Nd = 0.51308 - 0.51310 and 206Pb/204Pb = 18.4 - 18.5. Unlike the basin magmas erupted before and after them, these lavas plot along the NHRL and have Pb-isotope ratios similar to modern Pacific plate MORB's. This characteristic is shared by other Palau-Kyushu Arc volcanic rocks that have been sampled from submerged and subaerial portions of the Mariana fore-arc. At least four geochemically distinct magma sources are required for these Philippine plate magmas. The basin magmas tap Source 1, a MORB-mantle source that was contaminated by EMI (enriched mantle component 1 (Hart, 1988, doi:10.1016/0012-821X(88)90131-8)) and Source 2, an OIB-like mantle source with some characteristics of EMII (enriched mantle component 2 (Hart, 1988)). The arc lavas are derived from Source 3, a MORB-source or residue mantle including Sr and Pb from the subducted oceanic crust, and Source 4, MORB-source or residue mantle including a component with characteristics of HIMU (mantle component with high U/Pb (Hart, 1988)). These same sources can account for many of the isotopic characteristics of recent Philippine plate arc and basin lavas. The enriched components in these sources which are associated with the DUPAL anomaly were probably introduced into the asthenosphere from the deep mantle when the Philippine plate was located in the Southern Hemisphere 60 m.y.b.p.
Resumo:
A growing body of geologic evidence suggests that emplacement of the North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP) played a major role in global warming during the early Paleogene as well as in the transient Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) event. A ~5 million year record of major and trace element abundances spanning 56 to 51 Ma at Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 401 and 549 confirms that the majority of NAIP volcanism occurred as subaerial flows. Thus the trace element records provide constraints on the nature and scope of the environmental impact of the NAIP during the late Paleocene-early Eocene interval. Subaerial volcanism would have injected mantle CO2 directly into the atmosphere, resulting in a more immediate increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas abundances than CO2 input through submarine volcanism. The lack of significant hydrothermalism contradicts recently proposed mechanisms for thermally destabilizing methane hydrate reservoirs during the PETM. Any connection between NAIP volcanism and PETM warming had to occur through the atmosphere.
Resumo:
Overpressures measured with pore pressure penetrometers during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 308 reach 70% and 60% of the hydrostatic effective stress (View the MathML source) in the first 200 meters below sea floor (mbsf) at Sites U1322 and U1324, respectively, in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, offshore Louisiana. High overpressures are present within low permeability mudstones where there have been multiple, very large, submarine landslides during the Pleistocene. Beneath 200 mbsf at Site U1324, pore pressures drop significantly: there are no submarine landslides in this mixture of mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone. The penetrometer measurements did not reach the in situ pressure at the end of the deployment. We used a soil model to determine that an extrapolation approach based on the inverse of square route of time (View the MathML source) requires much less decay time to achieve a desirable accuracy than an inverse time (1/t) extrapolation. Expedition 308 examined how rapid and asymmetric sedimentation above a permeable aquifer drives lateral fluid flow, extreme pore pressures, and submarine landslides. We interpret that the high overpressures observed are driven by rapid sedimentation of low permeability material from the ancestral Mississippi River. Reduced overpressure at depth at Site U1324 suggests lateral flow (drainage) whereas high overpressure at Site U1322 requires inflow from below: lateral flow in the underlying permeable aquifer provides one mechanism for these observations. High overpressure near the seafloor reduces slope stability and provides a mechanism for the large submarine landslides and low regional gradient (2°) offshore from the Mississippi delta.
Resumo:
Geophysical surveys of the Mariana forearc, in an area equidistant from the Mariana Trench and the active Mariana Island Arc, revealed a 40-m-deep graben about 13 km northwest of Conical Seamount, a serpentine mud volcano. The graben and its bounding horst blocks are part of a fault zone that strikes northwest-southeast beneath Conical Seamount. One horst block was drilled during Leg 125 of the Ocean Drilling Program (Site 781). Three lithologic units were recovered at Site 781: an upper sedimentary unit, a middle basalt unit, and a lower sedimentary unit. The upper unit, between 0 and 72 mbsf, consists of upper Pliocene to Holocene diatomaceous and radiolarian-bearing silty clay that grades down into vitric silty clay and vitric clayey silt. The middle unit is a Pleistocene vesicular, porphyritic basalt, the top of which corresponds to a high-amplitude reflection on the reflection profiles. The lower unit is a middle to upper (and possibly some lower) Pliocene vitric silty clay and vitric clayey silt similar to the lower part of the upper unit. The thickness of the basalt unit can only be estimated to be between 13 and 25 m because of poor core recovery (28% to 55%). The absence of internal flow structures and the presence of an upper glassy chilled zone and a lower, fine-grained margin suggest that the basalt unit is either a single lava flow or a near-surface sill. The basalt consists of plagioclase phenocrysts with subordinate augite and olivine phenocrysts and of plagioclase-augite-olivine glomerocrysts in a groundmass of plagioclase, augite, olivine, and glass. The basalt is an island arc tholeiite enriched in large-ion-lithophile elements relative to high-field-strength elements, similar to the submarine lavas of the southern arc seamounts. In contrast, volcanic rocks from the active volcanoes on Pagan and Agrigan islands, 100 km to the west of the drill site, are calc-alkaline. The basalt layer, the youngest in-situ igneous layer reported from the Izu-Bonin and Mariana forearcs, is enigmatic because of its location more than 100 km from the active volcanic arc. The sediment layers above and below the basalt unit are late Pliocene in age (about 2.5 Ma) and normally magnetized. The basalt has schlierenlike structures, reverse magnetization, and a K-Ar age of 1.68±0.37 Ma. Thus, the basalt layer is probably a sill fed by magma intruded along a fault zone bounding the horst and graben in the forearc. The geochemistry of the basalt is consistent with a magma source similar to that of the active island arc and from a mantle source above the subducting Pacific plate.