A geophysical transect of the Adélie Margin,East Antarctica

In 1982, a geophysical survey of the Antarctic margin, including multichannel seismic, gravity, magnetic and bathymetric surveying, was carried out off Adélie Coast-Wilkes Land and in the eastern Ross Sea. Of the 5000 km of lines recorded, 3000 km were in the Adélie Coast area. Lines ATC 101–102, approximately following meridian 138°E, show the first complete transect of the Adélie Coast margin from the Southeast Indian abyssal plain at DSDP Site 269 to the continental shelf. These lines reveal a thick sedimentary series divided into three main acoustic units by two major unconformities considered to be Upper Eocene (42 Ma) and late Oligocene (25 Ma). Oceanic or continental basement can be traced under the whole area, and the ocean-continent boundary clearly lies beneath the lower continental slope. A deep, high-amplitude, low-frequency horizon, extending under the oceanic basement for over 300 km of line, is considered to be the Moho. Our interpretation supports a recent revision be Cande and Mutter proposing an early Upper Cretaceous opening between Australia and East Antarctica.     

Tidally generated sea-floor lineations in Bristol Bay, Alaska, USA

Highly reflective linear features occur in water depths of 20–30 m in northern Bristol Bay (Alaska, USA) and are, in places, over 600 m in length. Their length-to-width ratio is over 100:1. The lineations are usually characterized by large transverse ripples with wavelengths of 1–2 m. The lineations trend about N60°E, and are spaced between 20 and 350 m. Main tidal directions near the lineations are N60°E (flood) and S45°W (ebb), which are parallel to subparallel to the lineations. They suggest that the lineations may be tidally generated. The lineations may be bright sonar reflections from a winnowed lag concentrate of coarse sand.     

Seismic reflection-based evidence of a transfer zone between the Wagner and Consag basins: implications for defining the structural geometry of the northern Gulf of California

This study examines the structural characteristics of the northern Gulf of California by processing and interpreting ca. 415 km of two-dimensional multi-channel seismic reflection lines (data property of Petróleos Mexicanos PEMEX) collected in the vicinity of the border between the Wagner and Consag basins. The two basins appear to be a link between the Delfín Superior Basin to the south, and the Cerro Prieto Basin to the north in the Mexicali-Imperial Valley along the Pacific–North America plate boundary. The seismic data are consistent with existing knowledge of four main structures (master faults) in the region, i.e., the Percebo, Santa María, Consag Sur, and Wagner Sur faults. The Wagner and Consag basins are delimited to the east by the Wagner Sur Fault, and to the west by the Consag Sur Fault. The Percebo Fault borders the western margin of the modern Wagner Basin depocenter, and is oriented N10°W, dipping (on average) ～40° to the northeast. The trace of the Santa María Fault located in the Wagner Basin strikes N19°W, dipping ～40° to the west. The Consag Sur Fault is oriented N14°W, and dips ～42° to the east over a distance of 21 km. To the east of the study area, the Wagner Sur Fault almost parallels the Consag Sur Fault over a distance of ～86 km, and is oriented N10°W with an average dip of 59° to the east. Moreover, the data provide new evidence that the Wagner Fault is discontinuous between the two basins, and that its structure is more complex than previously reported. A structural high separates the northern Consag Basin from the southern Wagner Basin, comprising several secondary faults oriented NE oblique to the main faults of N–S direction. These could represent a zone of accommodation, or transfer zone, where extension could be transferred from the Wagner to the Consag Basin, or vice versa. This area shows no acoustic basement and/or intrusive body, which is consistent with existing gravimetric and magnetic data for the region.     

Sio Guyot: A complex volcanic edifice in the western Mid-Pacific Mountains

Sio Guyot, in the westernmost edge of the Mid-Pacific Mountains, is a large, complex volcanic edifice rising to more than 1200 m below sea level. The summit is divided into two flat-topped areas by a WNW-trending sediment-filled trough. Seismic reflection profiles reveal three acoustic units: an upper transparent layer (pelagic cap), a lower opaque layer (reef- and lagoon-derived sediments), and an acoustic (volcanic) basement. Free-air gravity anomalies indicate three eruptive centers or conduits within the main edifice, which apparently was constructed during late Cretaceous time on a broad basement swell or plateau that today is more than 3400 m below sea level (1500 m above regional abyssal depths).     

Abyssal hills of the eastern central North Atlantic

Abyssal hills were delineated in a 185 × 185-km area by an 18.5 × 18.5-km grid of narrow-beam bathymetric and geophysical profiles in oceanic crust of Cretaceous age near 23°N latitude, 31°W longitude. The abyssal hills are similar to features located along flow lines of sea-floor spreading near the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This similarity indicates a primary origin for these abyssal hills related to axial processes at a mid-oceanic ridge involving construction (igneous) and tectonics (faulting), and secondary modification by volcanic activity.     

Magnetic basement in the central Bay of Bengal

Analyses of about 6000 km of processed magnetic data in the central Bay of Bengal using Analytical Signal Processing and Werner Deconvolution techniques revealed that the depth to top of the magnetic basement varies between 5 and 12 km from the sea surface, where the water column thickness is about 3.4 km. These inferred depths are comparable to the reported acoustic basement depths. The basement map derived from magnetic interpretation defines the general configuration of the central Bay of Bengal. The N10–12° W trending subsurface 85° E Ridge buried under 2 to 3 km thick sediments is a prominent tectonic feature. Offshore basins characterised by deeper magnetic basement (9 km) and 100–200 km wide are present on either sides of the ridge. These basins were filled with 6–8 km thick lower Cretaceous to recent sediments. Integrated geophysical study depicts that the magnetic basement is characterised by NW-SE, NE-SW, NNE-SSW, N10-12° W and E-W trending structural features that are associated with the lower Cretaceous ocean floor. The Analytical Signal Processing and Werner Deconvolution techniques proved to be effective in determining the depth to the basement in areas covered by thick sediment overburden and characterized by a complex geologic/tectonic framework.     

Progressive deformation of an evaporite-bearing accretionary complex: SeaMARC I,SeaBeam and piston-core observations from the Mediterranean Ridge

The Mediterranean Ridge is an arcuate ridge of deformed sediment caught up in the convergent plate margin between the African plate and the Aegean. An intensive campaign of SeaMARC I and SeaBeam surveys followed by piston coring has been conducted along the contact between undeformed turbidites of the Sirte Abyssal Plain and folded and faulted sediments of the Mediterranean Ridge. Along the outer edge of the Ridge, surficial sediments have been deformed into sinusoidal ridges and troughs (wavelengths 0.5–2 km, amplitude 20–150 m), which we interpret as folds. In plan view, the ridge and the trough fabric parallels the NW-SE trending regional contours, suggesting that the folds formed in response to compression orthogonal to the Mediterranean Ridge. The outermost ridge is shedding a debris apron out onto the abyssal plain, implying that uplift and deformation are ongoing. We show that the geometry of the outermost folds can be produced by elastic bending of a packet of 5–10 relatively strong layers, each 10–20 m thick, interbedded between weaker layers; we equate the strong layers with gypsum beds in the Messinian upper evaporites. Folding the seafloor from a flat layer into the observed ridge and trough topography would shorten the layer by less than 2%. Two percent shortening (equals two percent thickening) is insufficient to create the observed relief of the Mediterranean Ridge even if the entire sediment column down to basement were involved; we infer that additional shortening/thickening is accommodated by thrust faulting above a decollement at the top of the Messinian salt layer. At distances > 15 km from the deformation front and more than 500 m from the abyssal plain, sharp-edged, fine-grained side-scan lineations with very little vertical relief cut across the kilometer-scale ridge and trough topography. These fine-grained lineations fall in two groups trending N/S to NNE/SSW and ~ENE. We interpret these lineaments as traces of conjugate strike-slip faults formed in the same compressional regime which formed the NW/SE trending folds. The onset of strike-slip faulting may coincide with the cessation of imbricate thrust fan development above the initial salt-controlled decollement surface. The following characteristics of the Mediterranean Ridge are attributed to the presence of evaporites in the incoming sedimentary section: (1) initial deformation by folding rather than thrust faulting; (2) narrow taper; (3) rapid rate of outward growth; (4) karstification.     

An evolving ridge system around the Indian Ocean triple junction

A 2°×2° map of spreading centres and fracture zones surrounding the Indian Ocean RRR triple junction, at 25.5°S, 70°E, is described from a data set of GLORIA side-scan sonar images, bathymetry, magnetic and gravity anomalies. The GLORIA images show a pervasive fabric due to linear abyssal hills oriented parallel to the two medium-spreading ridges (the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and Southeast Indian Ridge (SEIR)). A cuvature of the fabric occurs along fracture zones, which are also located by lows in the bathymetry and gravity data and by offsets between magnetic anomalies. The magnetic anomalies also record periods of asymmetric spreading marking the development of the fracture zones, including the birth, at anomaly 2A, of a short fracture zone 50 km north of the triple junction on the CIR, and its death near the time of the Jaramillo anomaly. In some localities, a fine-scale fabric corresponds to a coarser fabric on the opposite flank of the CIR, possibly indicating a persistent asymmetry in the faulting at the median valley walls if the fabric has a tectonic and not a volcanic origin. A plate velocity analysis of the triple junction shows that both the CIR and Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) are propagating obliquely; the CIR appears to form an oblique trend by segmenting into a series of almost normally-oriented segments separated by short-offset fracture zones. For the last 4 m.y., the abyssal hill lineations indicate that the CIR segment immediately north of the triple junction has been spreading with an average 10° obliquity. The present small 5 km offset of the centres of the CIR and SEIR median valleys (Munschy and Schlich, 1989) is shown to be the result of this obliquity and a 30% spreading asymmetry between anomaly 2 and the Jaramillo on the CIR segment immediately north of the triple junction.     

Sedimentary processes in the Stromboli Canyon and Marsili Basin, SE Tyrrhenian Sea: results from side-scan sonar surveys

 Sedimentary processes in the Stromboli Canyon and in the Marsili Basin are studied on the basis of side-scan sonographs. The basin margins are characterized by slump scars, gullies, channels, and large debrites on the Calabrian slope and by straight chutes of fast downslope sediment transport and blocky–hummocky avalanche deposits on the flanks of the Stromboli volcano. In the Stromboli Canyon and in minor deep-sea channels, sediment transport by turbidity currents generates sediment waves. Between the basin margins and the abyssal plain, the outcropping volcanic basement traps part of the sediment coming from the marginal areas. The abyssal plain is characterized by low relief lobes and ponded sediments.     

Sedimentation rates and subsidence in the Southern Tyrrhenian Basin

The petrophysical properties of sediment drill core samples recovered from the Sardinian margin and the abyssal plain of the Southern Tyrrhenian Basin were used to estimate the downhole change in porosity and rates of deposition and mass accumulation. We calculated how the deposited material has changed its thickness as a function of depth, and corrected the thickness for the compaction. The corresponding porosity variation with depth for terrigenous and pelagic sediments and evaporites was modelled according to an exponential law. The mass accumulation rate for the Plio-Quaternary is on average 4.8×10⁴ kg m⁻² my⁻¹ on the Sardinian margin and for the Pliocene in the abyssal plain. In the latter area, the Quaternary attains its greatest thickness and a mass accumulation rate of 11–40×10⁴ kg m⁻² my⁻¹. The basement response to sediment loading was calculated with Airy-type backstripping. On the lower part of the Sardinian margin, the basement subsidence rate due to sediment loading has decreased from a value of 300 m my⁻¹ in the Tortonian and during the Messinian salinity crisis (7.0–5.33 Ma) to about 5 m my⁻¹ in the Plio-Quaternary. In contrast, on the abyssal plain this rate has changed from 8–50 m my⁻¹ during the period 3.6–0.46 Ma, to 95–130 m my⁻¹ since 0.46 Ma, with the largest values in the Marsili Basin. The correlation between age and the depth to the basement corrected for the loading of the sediment in the ocean domain of the Tyrrhenian Basin argues for a young age of basin formation.     

Mesozoic plate motions in the eastern central North Atlantic

A 1500 km long segment of a fracture zone exhibiting continuity of trend and offset with the Atlantis fracture zone (30°N) was mapped with bathymetric, seismic reflection, and magnetic profiles between the outer continental shelf and the abyssal hills off northwest Africa. The fracture zone segment occurs in crust of Mesozoic age dated tentatively by the identification of remanent magnetic anomalies.Lithospheric plate motions in a frame of reference fixed with respect to Africa are deduced along the fracture zone. During the Early and Middle Jurassic (? 180 to > 155 my) the plate motion was east-west described by a rotation of 10° about a pole located at 36° ± 2°N, 17.5 ± 1°W with respect to Africa. The location of this pole indicates that the opening of the Atlantic between North America and Africa was independent of the opening between North America and Europe with an intervening plate boundary in the position of the present Azores-Gibraltar ridge. The rotation changed to northwest-southeast during the Late Jurassic (> 155 to about 150 my), when the azimuth to the pole of plate rotation jumped about 20° of arc eastward from the azimuth to the prior pole. The northwest-southeast relative rotation continued during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous (about 150 to about 100 my). The azimuth to the rotational pole appears to have migrated progressively westward toward the Cenozoic pole.     

Relation of sea beam echo peak statistics to the character of bottom topography

Histograms of echo peaks from three different topographic regions in the outer beams of a Sea Beam sonar show distinct variation as the topography changes from the North Cleft ridge to the Cascadia abyssal plain in the Pacific Ocean. Parameter estimation of probability density functions (pdfs) shows significant departure from Rayleigh pdf for the nonabyssal plain sites. The spectral character of the sea-floor roughness from an acoustic backscatter model suggests that the ridge area is dominated by large-scale roughness and the abyssal plain by small scale. It appears that change in roughness magnitude effects the observed histogram characteristics.     

Basement imaging with Side-Looking Seismics

The multistreamer Side-Looking Seismic system presented in this paper makes a sonograph of uncovered or buried crustal topography, thus revealing the structural fabric of the oceanic basement, even when this is covered with a sedimentary layer. Major elements of the system are an airgun as a sound source, five single-channel parallel streamers and two minicomputers for signal capture and processing.The system is used simultaneously for enhanced single-channel seismic profiling and for side-looking seismics. A vertical section with an improved signal-to-noise ratio and a suppression of side-echoes is produced on a digital seismic recorder. Primary side-looking seismic output in the form of 5 profiles with different angles of incidence is obtained within 10 seconds. This part of the processing can be done in real time.In sediment-covered areas the low frequencies used cause the slanted profiles (the side beams in the primary output) to be side-looking sonar images of buried topography. The projection process yielding final side-looking output corrects for slant range deformation caused by the water column and, if necessary, for deformation caused by refraction within the sedimentary column. The result approaches a conformal map of the structure of the traversed basement. Swath width is mainly determined by water depth and refraction effects in the sediment. In Madeira abyssal plain a swath width of 8000 m was attained in a water depth of 5000 m.Within the swath, oceanic basement structures are recognized in the form of elongate more or less parallel reflectors. They are interpreted as buried spreading topography. The lack of side-echoes within fracture zones combined with typical wall signatures can be used to trace fracture zones. These features are demonstrated for an area in Madeira abyssal plain.     

The tectonics of the Okhotsk Sea

The northern and central parts of the Okhotsk Sea form an epiMesozoic platform. The hetero-aged acoustic basement is represented by deformed geosynclinal rocks from Cretaceous to Precambrian in age. The slightly deformed sedimentary cover levelled the uneven surface of the acoustic basement, and this Upper Paleogene—Neogene cover filled up the system of the structural basins. The general NW—SE and W—E extensions of the taphrogenic horsts and grabens of the acoustic basement were formed due to extension and subsidence of the earth's crust during the late Paleogene—Neogene.     

Garzón Massif basement tectonics: Structural control on evolution of petroleum systems in upper Magdalena and Putumayo basins,Colombia

The Garzón Massif, is an active Laramide style basement uplift flanked by the Upper Magdalena Valley (UMV) and the Putumayo Basin. In this paper we use new gravity, magnetic, well and seismic data for the first geophysical interpretation of the Garzón Massif. The Garzón/Algeciras fault has been previously interpreted as a right-lateral strike-slip fault. The new seismic, well, and gravity data demonstrates that the Garzón fault is also a low-angle (12–17°) Andean age fault thrusting PreCambrian basement 10–17 km northwestward over Miocene sediments of the UMV in a prospective footwall anticline.The new geophysical data as well as previous field mapping were used to produce the first gravity and magnetic maps and retrodeformable structural cross section of the northern Garzón Massif. The new model distinguishes for the first time distinct episodes of “thin-skinned” and “thick-skinned” deformation in the Garzón Massif. The model indicates approximately 43 km of Early to Middle Miocene shortening by “thin-skinned” imbricate thrusting contemporaneous with the uplift of the nearby southern Central Cordillera (∼9–16 Ma) and the main hydrocarbon expulsion event for the UMV and Putumayo Basin. This was followed by at least 22 km of Late Miocene (3–6 Ma) “thick-skinned” Andean shortening and 7 km of uplift on the symmetrical Garzón thrust and a SE-verging basement thrust fault zone. The Andean uplift interrupted and exposed the hydrocarbon migration pathways to the Putumayo Basin.3-D volume fracture analysis was used for the first time in this paper together with the first seismic and well data published for the Topoyaco and Miraflor structures to test closure models for the Topoyaco foothills. Intense fracturing is observed in the Topoyaco basement monocline from the near-surface to depths of over 3.5 km. The high level of fracturing permitted freshwater flushing and oil biodegradation and hydrocarbon escape. In contrast, the Miraflor-1 well, located just southwest of the Topoyaco block, tested light gravity oil and is sealed from groundwater flushing and biodegradation by a backthrust.     

Regional setting and structure of the western Solomon Sea

The western Solomon Sea is bounded by the Paleogene collision complex of the Papuan Peninsula to the south, and land masses constructed by Cainozoic volcanism to the north and cast. Oblique collision of two trenches in the western Solomon Sea, and concomitant collision of upper plates, have produced structural complexities that may include the local doubling of crustal thickness, coincident with a strong negative gravity anomaly west of 149°E. Lateral flexing of the subducted plate in the New Britain Trench may have caused flexure of the upper plate; this flexure is expressed in the gravity field, faults, dip-slopes, exposure of basement, and alignment of volcanoes.     

Continental terrace and Deep Plain offshore central California

Seismic-reflection profile investigations of the California continental terrace and Deep Plain, between 35°N and 39°N, support the hypothesis that the continental shelf and slope consist of alternating blocks of Franciscan and granitic-metamorphic basement overlain by varying thicknesses of younger sediments. North of 37°N, the seismic profiles confirm the distribution of turbidites shown by other workers. A significant proportion of the sediments on the middle and lower continental rise, south of 37°N, appears to be unrelated to the present Monterey deep-sea canyon system.Near 39°N the ridge which forms the topographic axis of the Delgada deep-sea fan consists of a thin cover of acoustically-transparent sediment unconformably overlying a thick sequence of turbidites; the southern part of this ridge is composed of well-defined short reflectors of highly variable dip. The ridge is incised by a steep-walled, flat-floored valley which follows a nearly straight course across its eastern flank. Among possible explanations for this pattern is uplift of the sea floor beneath the ridge.Our data and investigations of others indicate that acoustic basement north of 38°40N is at least 0.5 sec (two-way travel time) shoaler than it is south of Pioneer Ridge; when present, the ridge may represent as much as 0.5 sec additional basement relief. This structural pattern probably does not extend east of 127°40W, although the magnetic expression of the ridge persists to 127°W.Disappearance of the distinctive abyssal hills topography from west to east within the area of investigation usually can be attributed to burial by turbidites. Normal pelagic sediments form a veneer, rarely more than 0.15 sec thick, which conforms with the basement topography; some localities are devoid of discernible sediment.     

The Meriadzek Terrace: A marginal plateau

The Meriadzek Terrace forms part of the continental margin in the Bay of Biscay at a depth between that of the Continental shelf and the abyssal plain. Reflection profiles show that it is bounded on either side by basement ridges with a sediment infill between the ridges. It was probably formed by downfaulting of the continental shelf, possibly connected with the opening of the Bay of Biscay.     

2-D and 3-D modelling of wide-angle seismic data: an example from the Vøring volcanic passive margin

This study presents the modelling of 2-D and 3-D wide-angle seismic data acquired on the complex, volcanic passive margin of the Vøring Plateau, off Norway. Three wide-angle seismic profiles were shot and recorded simultaneously by 21 Ocean Bottom Seismometers, yielding a comprehensive 3-D data set, in addition to the three in-line profiles. Coincident multi-channel seismic profiles are used to better constrain the modelling, but the Mesozoic and deeper structures are poorly imaged due to the presence of flood basalts and sills. Velocity modelling reveals an unexpectedly large 30 km basement high hidden below the flood basalt. When interpreted as a 2-D structure, this basement high produces a modelled gravity anomaly in disagreement with the observed gravity. However, both the gravity and the seismic data suggest that the structure varies in all three directions. The modelling of the entire 3-D set of travel times leads to a coherent velocity structure that confirms the basement high; it also shows that the abrupt transition to the slower Cretaceous basin coincides in position and orientation with the fault system forming the Rån Ridge. The positive gravity anomaly over the Rån Ridge originates from the focussed and coincident elevation of the high velocity lower crust and pre-Cretaceous basement. Although the Moho is not constrained by the seismic data, the gravity modelled from the 3-D velocity model shows a better fit along the profiles. This study illustrates the interest of a 3-D acquisition of wide-angle seismic over complex structures and the benefit of the subsequent integrated interpretation of the seismic and gravity data.     

Crustal structure in the North Arabian Sea from magnetic surveys

The spectral study of the aero-magnetic map of the North Arabian Sea (above 20°N) has delineated three horizons at average depths of 45 km, 21 km, and 8 km. Spectral estimates from smaller blocks of data drawn from the original map suggest that the 21 km horizon varies in depth from 14 km on the abyssal plain (oceanic crust) to 24 km towards the north and 28 km towards the east onto the continental shelf. This appears to correspond to the crust-mantle interface (Moho). The 8 km horizon corresponds to the top of the igneous basement. The significance of the deepest layer (45 km) is discussed as the maximum depth of the Curie point geotherm in this region. The spectral estimate of the block of data on the continental shelf off the west coast of India (above 20°N) has brought out some magnetic inhomogeneity at a shallower depth of 4 km. This appears to be connected with the sea-floor spreading phenomenon from the Carlsberg ridge. The presence of such a magnetic inhomogeneity at a depth of 4 km is further confirmed by the spectral estimate of a marine magnetic map off the west coast of India around Bombay. The depth of the basement inferred from this study is in close agreement with that obtained from other studies in this region, such as seismics.