Monterey Fan: Growth pattern control by basin morphology and changing sea levels

Monterey Fan is the largest modern fan off the California shore. Two main submarine canyon systems feed it via a complex pattern of fan valleys and channels. The northern Ascension Canyon system is relatively inactive during high sea-level periods. In contrast, Monterey Canyon and its tributaries to the south cut across the shelf and remain active during high sea level. Deposition on the upper fan is controlled primarily by the relative activity within these two canyon systems. Deposition over the rest of the fan is controlled by the oceanic crust topography, resulting in an irregular fan shape and periodic major shifts in the locus of deposition.     

The Bengal Submarine Fan, Northeastern Indian ocean

Bengal Submarine Fan, with or without its eastern lobe, the Nicobar Fan, is the largest submarine fan known. Most of its sediment has been supplied by the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers, probably since the Early Eocene. The “Swatch-of-No-Ground” submarine canyon connects to only one active fan valley system at a time, without apprent bifurcation over its 2500-km length. The upper fan is comprised of a complex of huge channel-levee wedges of abandoned and buried older systems. A reduction of channel size and morphology occurs at the top of the middle, fan, where meandering and sheet flow become more important. Margin setting represents fan and/or source area     

Problems in turbidite research: A need for COMFAN

Comparison of modern submarine fans and ancient turbidite sequences is still in its infancy, mainly because of the incompatibility of study approaches. Research on modern fan systems mainly deals with morphologic aspects and surficial sediments, while observations on ancient turbidite formations are mostly directed to vertical sequences. The lack of a common data set also results from different scales of observation. To review the current status of modern and ancient turbidite research, an international group of specialists formed COMFAN (Committee on Fans) and met in September 1982 at the Gulf Research and Development Company research facilities in Pennsylvania.     

Numerical simulation of the action of distant tsunamis on the Russian Far East coast

Results of a numerical simulation of the action of distant tsunamis on the coast of the Russian Far East are presented. It is shown that waves generated by focuses of the strongest M9 earthquakes in the region of South Chilean coast, as well as in the region of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, are most dangerous for this coast. Other tsunamigenic zones of the Pacific Ocean, by virtue of their geographical position, orientation of focuses, and absence of pronounced channels (submarine ridges) along paths of tsunami propagation are not dangerous for it even at a limit magnitude of submarine subduction earthquakes. The simulation results are compared with historical data about manifestations of distant tsunamis on the Russian Far East coast.     

Constraining the age and origin of the seamount province in the Northeast Indian Ocean using geophysical techniques

The breakup of western margin of Australia from Greater India started around 155 Ma and progressed southwards. After the separation, the interceding intraplate region experienced large volumes of submarine volcanism, extending over 100 Myrs. The Christmas Island Seamount Province (CHRISP, as it has been dubbed) lies south of the Java-Sunda Trench, and contains numerous submerged volcanic seamounts, and two sub-aerially exposed island groups—Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Christmas Island. While recent geochronological investigations have shed light on the diverse eruption ages of the volcanics of this region, some islands/seamounts have demonstrated protracted volcanic histories, and it is not clear how the volcanic loading, tectonic subsidence, and subsequent emergence history of the islands relates to these discrete volcanic episodes. This study utilises a number of geophysical techniques to determine the crustal structure, loading and subsidence history, and last sub-aerial exposure age for the CHRISP. The study shows that flexural and subsidence modelling are reliable techniques in constraining the age of the seamounts when geochronological techniques are not possible. Utilising regional gravity signatures, we model the crustal structure underneath the Cocos (Keeling) Island, and constrain the thickness of the limestone cover between 900 and 2,100 m. Using age-depth subsidence curves for oceanic lithosphere the time since these seamounts were exposed above sea-level was determined, and a trend in exposure ages that youngs towards the west is observed. Two episodes of volcanism have been recorded at Christmas Island and they are of different origin. The younger phase in the Pliocene is a manifestation of flexure induced cracks produced in the lithosphere as it rides the subduction fore-bulge, whereas a low velocity seismic zone rising from the lower mantle, and tectonic reorganization, may be associated with the older Eocene volcanic phase, as well as much of the rest of the province. Our modelling also supports the existence of an older, undated volcanic core to Christmas Island, based on the loading ages from flexural modelling.     

Monterey Fan: Growth pattern control by basin morphology and changing sea levels

Monterey Fan is the largest modern fan off the California shore. Two main submarine canyon systems feed it via a complex pattern of fan valleys and channels. The northern Ascension Canyon system is relatively inactive during high sea-level periods. In contrast, Monterey Canyon and its tributaries to the south cut across the shelf and remain active during high sea level. Deposition on the upper fan is controlled primarily by the relative activity within these two canyon systems. Deposition over the rest of the fan is controlled by the oceanic crust topography, resulting in an irregular fan shape and periodic major shifts in the locus of deposition. Margin setting represents fan and/or source area     

Hydrophysical state of the Large Aral Sea in the autumn of 2013: Thermal structure,currents, and internal waves

This paper is focused on the hydrophysical state of the western basin of the Large Aral Sea in its present conditions of ecological crisis. The investigation is based on the direct observations carried out during a field survey in the Aral Sea in October of 2013. The analysis of the distribution of the temperature values across the western basin is given. Time series of the water currents variability were recorded at four mooring stations. The pattern of the basin-scale circulation response to the wind forcing was described. Based on the in situ measurements of the time variability of the temperature fields, the principal characteristics of the internal waves were specified for the present-day Aral Sea for the first time.     

A new pathway for Deep water exchange between the Natal Valley and Mozambique Basin?

Although global thermohaline circulation pathways are fairly well known, the same cannot be said for local circulation pathways. Within the southwest Indian Ocean specifically there is little consensus regarding the finer point of thermohaline circulation. We present recently collected multibeam bathymetry and PARASOUND data from the northern Natal Valley and Mozambique Ridge, southwest Indian Ocean. These data show the Ariel Graben, a prominent feature in this region, creates a deep saddle across the Mozambique Ridge at ca. 28°S connecting the northern Natal Valley with the Mozambique Basin. Results show a west to east change in bathymetric and echo character across the northern flank of the Ariel Graben. Whereby eroded plastered sediment drifts in the west give way to aggrading plastered sediment drift in the midgraben, terminating in a field of seafloor undulations in the east. In contrast, the southern flank of the Ariel Graben exhibits an overall rugged character with sediments ponding in bathymetric depressions in between rugged sub/outcrop. It is postulated that this change in sea-floor character is the manifestation of deep water flow through the Ariel Graben. Current flow stripping, due to increased curvature of the graben axis, results in preferential deposition of suspended load in an area of limited accommodation space consequently developing an over-steepened plastered drift. These deposited sediments overcome the necessary shear stresses, resulting in soft sediment deformation in the form of down-slope growth faulting (creep) and generation of undulating sea-floor morphology. Contrary to previous views, our works suggests that water flows from west to east across the Mozambique Ridge via the Ariel Graben.     

The Bengal Fan: morphology, geometry, stratigraphy, history and processes

The Bengal Fan is the largest submarine fan in the world, with a length of about 3000 km, a width of about 1000 km and a maximum thickness of 16.5 km. It has been formed as a direct result of the India–Asia collision and uplift of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. It is currently supplied mainly by the confluent Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers, with smaller contributions of sediment from several other large rivers in Bangladesh and India.The sedimentary section of the fan is subdivided by seismic stratigraphy by two unconformities which have been tentatively dated as upper Miocene and lower Eocene by long correlations from DSDP Leg 22 and ODP Legs 116 and 121. The upper Miocene unconformity is the time of onset of the diffuse plate edge or intraplate deformation in the southern or lower fan. The lower Eocene unconformity, a hiatus which increases in duration down the fan, is postulated to be the time of first deposition of the fan, starting at the base of the Bangladesh slope shortly after the initial India–Asia collision.The Quaternary of the upper fan comprises a section of enormous channel-levee complexes which were built on top of the preexisting fan surface during lowered sea level by very large turbidity currents. The Quaternary section of the upper fan can be subdivided by seismic stratigraphy into four subfans, which show lateral shifting as a function of the location of the submarine canyon supplying the turbidity currents and sediments. There was probably more than one active canyon at times during the Quaternary, but each one had only one active fan valley system and subfan at any given time. The fan currently has one submarine canyon source and one active fan valley system which extends the length of the active subfan. Since the Holocene rise in sea level, however, the head of the submarine canyon lies in a mid-shelf location, and the supply of sediment to the canyon and fan valley is greatly reduced from the huge supply which had existed during Pleistocene lowered sea level. Holocene turbidity currents are small and infrequent, and the active channel is partially filled in about the middle of the fan by deposition from these small turbidity currents.Channel migration within the fan valley system occurs by avulsion only in the upper fan and in the upper middle fan in the area of highest rates of deposition. Abandoned fan valleys are filled rapidly in the upper fan, but many open abandoned fan valleys are found on the lower fan. A sequence of time of activity of the important open channels is proposed, culminating with formation of the one currently active channel at about 12,000 years BP.     

The generation of coastal undercurrents

Equilibrium conditions in anf-plane ocean evolve as follows after the sudden onset of winds parallel to a coast. At first the flow is two-dimensional-spatial variations are confined to a plane perpendicular to the coast-and the salient features in the forcing region are acceleration of a coastal jet in the surface layers in the wind direction, and offshore Ekman drift that causes coastal upwelling. Kelvin waves excited at the edge of the forced region establish equilibrium conditions by creating an alongshore pressure gradient that balances the wind so that the acceleration stops. The vertical structure corresponding to each vertical mode differs from that of the wind-driven coastal jet so that the arrival of the barotropic Kelvin wave starts to accelerate a coastal undercurrent in a direction opposite to that of the wind. Subsequent baroclinic Kelvin waves modify the vertical structure of the coastal current so that the undercurrent in the subsurface layer is accelerated. In an inviscid model there is a singularity in the surface layers at the coast ast→∞ because the Kelvin modes with small offshore and vertical scales travel slowly and take a very long time to make their contribution to the establishment of equilibrium conditions. A modest amount of friction eliminates this problem. Nonlinearities are important in the heat equation and affect sea surface temperatures significantly but their effect on the momentum balance is secondary.     

The Astoria Fan: An elongate type fan

The Astoria Fan, a modern system, is located on a subducting oceanic crust and fills a north-south-trending trench along the Oregon continental margin. Well-developed channels cross the entire fan length; they display classic inner-fan leveed profiles but evolve into distributaries in the midfan area where the gradient decreases sharply. During periods of low sea level, inner- and middle-fan channels funnel sand to distal depositional sites in the outer-fan area where the sand/shale ratios are highest. This pattern of sand displacement and efficiency of transport appears to be characteristic of elongate fans fed by a major river and submarine canyon. Margin setting represents fan and/or source area     

Sedimentary sources in the surface and near-surface sediments of the Bay of Bengal

High quartz and low calcium carbonate percentages in the surface sediments of the Bay of Bengal adjacent to the Indian subcontinent result from the massive influx of terrigenous clastics. Fine-fraction (<2 ) mineralogy and heavy minerals in (turbidite) sands suggest that sediments of the western Bengal Fan (high in smectite, sillimanite, garnet) have been derived from peninsular Indian rivers; sediments of the rest of the fan (high in illite, hornblende, epidote) are derived from Himalayan rivers. The sediments on the Ninety East Ridge and in the deep southerly areas beyond the reach of fan deposition result from thein situ alteration of volcanics.     

Variations of silver in the sea water around Monaco

Silver determinations in the sea-water around Monaco were carried out using a procedure consisting of preconcentration of silver with lead sulfide, followed by dithizone extraction and spectrophotometric mono-colour measurement of silver-dithizonate. The average concentration of silver in the surface sea-water around Monaco was found to be 0.14Μg Ag/l. It was also concluded that observed variations of silver content in seawater were not related to the fresh water run-off from the neighbouring coast. This suggests that the variations have to be attributed to some other factor or a combination of factors. On the basis of the observed values of the silver content of the Var River water, an upper limit of silver supply by fresh waters into the sea-area around Monaco is estimated to be 2.3Μg Ag per liter of fresh water. Considering the mixing of the fresh water with sea-water, an increase of up to 0.09Μg Ag/l in the sea-water might be expected. The fact that the increase of silver in the sea-water was not observed in connection with the fresh-water mixing suggests that some effective removal process of silver may be in operation at the immediate vicinity of the injection of fresh-water into the sea.     

Biochemical responses of juvenile rockfish (Sebastes schlegeli) to low levels of dissolved oxygen in Gamak Bay

Gamak Bay is one of the largest aquaculture areas in the South Sea of Korea and exhibits hypoxia conditions during the summer. The harmful effects of hypoxia on aquaculture fish stock have not been elucidated. This study describes the biochemical effects of low levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) on cultivated juvenile Sebastes schlegeli in Gamak Bay. The hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) gene was induced significantly in S. schlegeli collected from low oxygen level areas, which suggests that fluctuations in the DO induces the expression of HIF1α. The level of antioxidant enzyme exhibited significantly higher activities in fish obtained from station F2 in which low levels of DO were shown in 2010 and 2011. The results of this study demonstrate that cultivated S. schlegeli are affected by the low levels of DO in Gamak Bay and superoxide dismutase enzymes operate dependently with HIF1α. The plasma glucose level did not exhibit significant difference in the fish among the sampling stations. We noted that HIF1α and the superoxide dismutase enzymes are useful biomarkers that might enable the detection of otherwise unnoticed hypoxic stress.     

Evaluation of conditions along the grounding line of temperate marine glaciers: an example from Muir Inlet, Glacier Bay, Alaska

In the marine environment, stability of the glacier terminus and the location of subglacial streams are the dominant controls on the distribution of grounding-line deposits within morainal banks. A morainal bank complex in Muir Inlet, Glacier Bay, SE Alaska, is used to develop a model of terminus stability and location of subglacial streams along the grounding line of temperate marine glaciers. This model can be used to interpret former grounding-line conditions in other glacimarine settings from the facies architecture within morainal bank deposits.The Muir Inlet morainal bank complex was deposited between 1860 A.D. and 1899 A.D., and historical observations provide a record of terminus positions, glacial retreat rates and sedimentary sources. These data are used to reconstruct the depositional environment and to develop a correlation between sedimentary facies and conditions along the grounding line.Four seismic facies identified on the high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles are used to interpret sedimentary facies within the morainal bank complex. Terminus stability is interpreted from the distribution of sedimentary facies within three distinct submarine geomorphic features, a grounding-line fan, stratified ridges, and a field of push ridges. The grounding-line fan was deposited along a stable terminus and is represented on seismic-reflection profiles by two distinct seismic facies, a proximal and a distal fan facies. The proximal fan facies was deposited at the efflux of subglacial streams and indicates the location of former glacifluvial discharges into the sea. Stratified ridges formed as a result of the influence of a quasi-stable terminus on the distribution of sedimentary facies along the grounding line. A field of push ridges formed along the grounding line of an unstable terminus that completely reworked the grounding-line deposits through glacitectonic deformation.Between 1860 A.D. and 1899 A.D. (39 years),

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m³ of sediment were deposited within the Muir Inlet morainal bank complex at an average annual sediment accumulation rate of

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m³/a. This rate represents the annual sediment production capacity of the glacier when the Muir Inlet drainage basin is filled with glacial ice.     

Basalts from the Solomon and Bismarck Seas

Volcanic rocks collected from the Solomon Sea Basin are mostly ferrobasalt lavas similar to evolved MORB; an exception is a single sample of basaltic crystal tuff invaded by later basalt. The rocks contain labradorite, aluminous diopsidic augite, and titanomagnetite, with olivine and pigconite in the more vitrophyric samples, and segregation vesicles in some. Cobbles dredged from Gudaraba Canyon, south of the Solomon Sea Basin, include both MORB-like glassy lava and K-metasomatised basalt and andesite(?). Two small pieces of volcanic glass from the southern Bismarck Sea are more primitive MOR-type basalts.     

Dynamic processes and their influence on the transformation of the passive admixture in the sea of Azov

In this model, we apply a nonlinear three-dimensional sigma-coordinate model to study the waves and currents in the Sea of Azov generated by different fields of wind forcing: a constant wind, a quickly varying real wind obtained using the data of reanalysis applying the SKIRON model, and the wind resulting from their combined forcing. This mathematical model was also applied to study the transformation of the passive admixture appearing under the influence of wind fields in the Sea of Azov considered here. We compared the results of numerical calculations with the field data obtained under the wind forcing at a number of hydrological stations. We found the regularities of the water transport driven by onshore and offshore winds, the velocities of the currents, and the characteristics of the evolution of polluted regions at different depths as functions of the nonstationary wind intensity and the velocities of the stationary currents.     

Delgada Fan: Preliminary interpretation of channel development

The Delgada Fan, an irregularly shaped turbidite deposit extending more than 350 km offshore from northern California, consists of two large leveed-valley units each fed by a separate complex of coalescing submarine canyons and slope gullies. Although the leveed-valley units head within 25 km of each other, both appear to have developed independently during fan growth. The larger southern leveed-valley system has not developed middle-fan distributary channels and appears to illustrate a period of progressive valley abandonment. Although the lower-fan area is underlain by sandy sediments, little sand has been recovered in piston cores from the leveed-valley unit. Margin setting represents fan and/or source area     

Transport processes deduced from geochemistry and the void ratio of surface core samples, deep sea Sagami Bay, central Japan

Sagami Bay is a deep-water foreland basin with an average sedimentary rate of approximately 0.1 g/cm²/year. It is an appropriate area to study for better understanding of sedimentary processes in a setting with a high sedimentation rate. Seven multiple core samples, 30-50 cm thick, were obtained from Sagami Bay. Four of the core samples were taken from the Tokyo submarine fan system (Tokyo canyon floor, Tokyo fan valley and its levee, the distal fan margin). Two samples were obtained from the Sakawa fan delta and the adjacent topographic high. The remaining one was from an escarpment of the Sagami submarine fault. Variations in chemical composition can be recognized at every coring site. They show two different sediment sources: the sediments of the Tokyo submarine fan system and those from Sakawa fan delta. Further, there are differences in chemical composition between canyon floor and levees even within the Tokyo submarine fan system. The results suggest that the sedimentary process is strongly controlled not by vertical particle settling but by a hyperpycnal flow process. The proxies obtained from the core samples do not reflect conditions in the water column immediately overlying the sea floor. Rather, they are controlled by conditions on the adjacent continental shelf or/and shallow basins, which are the areas of primary accumulation.     

Calibration and evaluation of a carbonate microsensor for studies of the marine inorganic carbon system

Accurate and rapid determination of inorganic carbon constituents in ocean environments is important for understanding the carbon cycle, especially in the context of ocean-acidification research. A microsensor capable of directly measuring carbonate ion (CO₃ ^2–) concentrations would be desirable. In this study, a carbonate microsensor with a polymeric liquid membrane was fabricated, and two calibration methods were used to evaluate its performance. The first method was based on continuous titration. Small increments of HCl were added to seawater or Na₂CO₃ solution to adjust the total alkalinity and pH values and thus obtain a series of carbonate concentrations. The second method used a series of discrete standards. Varying amounts of HCl or NaOH were added to separate seawater aliquots, and the CO₃ ^2– concentration of each standard was calculated from the resulting total alkalinity and total dissolved inorganic carbon. Both methods were found to be adequate for achieving accurate calibration of the CO₃ ^2– sensor, and both are suitable for field work. The discrete standards method, however, is more convenient and may provide a better linear range at low CO₃ ^2– concentrations (detection range: 2–300 μmol/kg) than the continuous titration method in seawater (detection range: 10–250 μmol/kg). This CO₃ ^2– microsensor can be used for 5–7 d and detects changes in carbonate concentration as low as 2 μmol/kg in the inorganic carbon constituents of the environments where marine calcareous organisms grow. The CO₃ ^2– microelectrode was further assessed by applying it to the measurement of pore-water CO₃ ^2– concentration profiles in a marine sediment core.