Petrographic description and geochemistry of basalts and altered volcanic rocks from ODP Leg 183 sites

The basalts recovered during Legs 183 and 120 from the southern, central, and northernmost parts of the Kerguelen Plateau (Holes 1136A, 1138A, 1140A, and 747C, respectively), as well as those recovered from the eastern part of the crest of Elan Bank (Hole 1137A), represent derivates from tholeiitic melts. In the northern part of the Kerguelen Plateau (Hole 1140A), basalts may have formed from two sources located at different depths. This is reflected in the presence of both low- and high-titanium basalts. The basalts are variably altered by low-temperature hydrothermal processes (at temperatures up to 120°C), and some are affected by subaerial weathering. The hydrothermal alteration led mainly to the formation of smectites, chlorite minerals, mixed-layer hydromica-smectite and smectite-chlorite minerals, hydromica, serpentine(?), clinoptilolite, heulandite, stilbite, analcime, mordenite, thomsonite, natrolite(?), calcite, quartz, and dickite(?). Alteration of extrusive basalts is mainly related to horizontal fluid flow within permeable contact zones between lava flows. Under a nonoxidizing environment of alteration, the tendency to lose most of elements, including rare earth elements, from basalts dominates. Under on oxidizing environment, basalts accumulate many elements.

Age and petrographic characterization of volcanic ash from ODP Leg 198 and Leg 126 sites

In this study of volcanic ash retrieved from Shatsky Rise during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 198, the texture and composition of the volcanic components (glass and crystals) were used to fingerprint ash layers for detailed correlation. Correlations among ash layers in holes drilled at the same site as well as between sites, including sites on different parts (highs) of the rise, were tested. Although high-to-high correlations failed, intrahigh correlations were more successful. Our data suggest a significantly different source for some pyroclastic debris, especially at Site 1208, possibly associated with pumice rafts carried northward from the Izu-Bonin arc by the Kuroshio Current. Other ashes are consistent with rhyolitic to dacitic air fall ash from Asian arc volcanoes. We were not able to texturally distinguish between air fall ash and pumice-raft fallout but suspect that the latter is associated with higher percentages of vesiculated ash components, as we demonstrate occur in more proximal Izu-Bonin pyroclastic deposits.

Petrographic data for samples from DSDP Holes 63-471 and 65-485

Detrital modes of middle Miocene sandstone recovered at Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 471 on the Magdalena Fan support the hypothesis that the fan has been displaced northward from a source hundreds of kilometers to the south near the present mouth of the Gulf of California. The modes are dissimilar to those of modern sand derived from onshore outcrops of Miocene volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, Neogene sedimentary rocks, and Mesozoic subduction complex. They most closely match sand associated with the mouth of Gulf of California. The overall stratigraphy, sand composition, and diagenesis at Site 471 are consistent with deposition of the Magdalena Fan on young oceanic crust near a spreading ridge at a triple junction.

Recalculated petrographic parameters and normalized microprobe analyses of volcanic glasses for DSDP Sites 63-467, 63-468 and 63-469

The southward passage of the Rivera triple junction and its effect on the North American plate are primary controls on the Miocene tectonic evolution of the outer borderland of California. Detrital modes of sand shed off the Patton Ridge and cored by the Deep Sea Drilling Project provide evidence of progressive tectonic erosion of the Patton accretionary prism and neartrench volcanism. Volcanic glass in the sediment is predominantly calcalkaline rhyolite and andesite, typical of subductionrelated volcanism, but also includes minor low-K2O tholeiitic basalt. We attribute these compositional features to interaction with a spreading ridge associated with a possible trench-ridge-trench triple junction along the Patton Escarpment from 18 to 16 Ma. This study suggests that evidence of ridge-trench interaction may be commonly preserved along submerged plate margins, in contrast to its more limited recognition and discussion in the literature based on exposed examples in Chile, Japan and Alaska.

Petrographic and chemical characteristics of abyssal tholeiites at DSDP Leg 63 Holes

Tholeiitic basalts were obtained from basaltic basement ranging in age from 6 to 17 m.y. on IPOD/DSDP Leg 63. The main rock types encountered at all sites but 473 are basaltic pillow lavas. Although many of these pillow basalts are highly or moderately altered, fresh glass is usually present. At Site 473, we recovered coarse-grained, massive basalts; no clearly defined pillowed forms were observed. Phenocrysts or microphenocrysts present in the Leg 63 basalts are Plagioclase and clinopyroxene at Site 469; olivine, Plagioclase, and spinel at Site 470; and olivine, Plagioclase, and clinopyroxene at Sites 472 and 473. Olivines of the basalts from Holes 470A and 472 (Fo85-88) are generally more magnesian than those of the Hole 473 basalts (Fo77-81). Also, plagioclases of Holes 470A and 472 basalts (An70-85) are generally more calcic than those of Holes 469 and 473 basalts (An66-72). Geochemical study of the Leg 63 basalts indicates that in all cases they are large-ion-lithophile (LIL) element depleted tholeiites like typical abyssal tholeiites. In particular, they are very similar in composition to those described from the eastern Pacific, although the degree of iron enrichment found in the Leg 63 basalts is not as extensive as in basalts from the Galapagos spreading center. Hence, the geochemical evidence of the Leg 63 basalts is compatible with their formation at a spreading center. Compositional variations in Leg 63 basalts from any single drill hole is small. Major and trace element data indicate that the samples from Holes 469 and 473 are more fractionated in chemical composition than are the samples from Holes 470A and 472; this compositional variation may be largely ascribed to differences in the extent of shallow-level fractional crystallization of similar parental magma. The Hole 472 samples, however, show a LIL element character distinct from the other Leg 63 samples.

Mineralogy and petrographic summary of ODP Leg 198 sites and DSDP Hole 62-463, Shatsky Rise

This petrological study of the lower Aptian Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE1a) focused on the nature of the organic-rich interval as well as the tuffaceous units above and below it. The volcaniclastic debris deposited just prior to the OAE1a is consistent with reactivation of volcanic centers across the Shatsky Rise, concurrent with volcanism on the Ontong Java Plateau. This reactivation may have been responsible for the sub-OAE1a unconformity. Soon after this volcanic pulse, anomalous amounts of organic matter accumulated on the rise, forming a black shale horizon. The complex textures in the organic-rich intervals suggest a history of periodic anoxia, overprinted by bioturbation. Components include pellets, radiolarians, and fish debris. The presence of carbonate-cemented radiolarite under the OAE1a intervals suggests that there has been large-scale remobilization of carbonate in the system, which in turn may explain the absence of calcareous microfossils in the section. The volcanic debris in the overlying tuffaceous interval differs in that it is significantly epiclastic and glauconitic. It was likely derived from an emergent volcanic edifice.

Principal petrographic characteristics and K-Ar isotope-geochronological data on samples from the Keli Volcanic Highland, Greater Caucasus

The paper reports newly obtained stratigraphic, petrographic, and isotope geochronology data on modern moderately acid lavas from the Keli Highland of the Greater Caucasus and presents a geological map of the territory, in which 35 volcanoes active in Late Quaternary time were documented by the authors. Total duration of volcanic activity at the highland was estimated at 250 ka. Volcanic activity was discrete and occurred in three phases: Middle Neopleistocene (245-170 ka), Late Neopleistocene (135-70 ka), and Late Neopleistocene-Holocene (<30 ka). Newly obtained lines of evidence indicate that certain volcanoes erupted in the latest Neopleistocene-Holocene. The first phase of volcanic activity was connected mainly with lava volcanoes, and eruptions during the later phases of volcanic activity in this part of the Greater Caucasus produced mainly lavas. The most significant eruptions are demonstrated to occur in the territory during the second phase. The major evolutionary trends of volcanic processes during the final phase in the Keli Highland are determined. It was also determined that overwhelming majority of volcanoes that were active less than 30 ka BP are spatially restricted to long-liven local magmatic zones, which were active during either all three or only the final two phases of activity. These parts of the territory are, perhaps, the most hazardous in terms of volcanic activity.