The global distribution of seamounts based on 30 arc seconds bathymetry data

Seamounts and knolls are ‘undersea mountains’, the former rising more than 1000 m from the seafloor. These features provide important habitats for aquatic predators, demersal deep-sea fish and benthic invertebrates. However most seamounts have not been surveyed and their numbers and locations are not well known. Previous efforts to locate and quantify seamounts have used relatively coarse bathymetry grids. Here we use global bathymetric data at 30 arc-sec resolution to identify seamounts and knolls. We identify 33,452 seamounts and 138,412 knolls, representing the largest global set of identified seamounts and knolls to date. We compare estimated seamount numbers, locations, and depths with validation sets of seamount data from New Zealand and Azores. This comparison indicates the method we apply finds 94% of seamounts, but may overestimate seamount numbers along ridges and in areas where faulting and seafloor spreading creates highly complex topography. The seamounts and knolls identified herein are significantly geographically biased towards areas surveyed with ship-based soundings. As only 6.5% of the ocean floor has been surveyed with soundings it is likely that new seamounts will be uncovered as surveying improves. Seamount habitats constitute approximately 4.7% of the ocean floor, whilst knolls cover 16.3%. Regional distribution of these features is examined, and we find a disproportionate number of productive knolls, with a summit depth of <1.5 km, located in the Southern Ocean. Less than 2% of seamounts are within marine protected areas and the majority of these are located within exclusive economic zones with few on the High Seas. The database of seamounts and knolls resulting from this study will be a useful resource for researchers and conservation planners.     

Generalized adiabatic theory applied to the magnetotail current sheet

We use the generalized first adiabatic invariant, an extension of the magnetic moment for regions of large field gradients, to treat particles in the magnetotail current sheet. The equations of motion can be expressed in terms of drift parameters which vary slowly and smoothly at the drift rate, not at the gyration rate. The analysis leads to boundaries in phase space which form a generalized loss cone and separate particles drifting into and out of the layer from particles trapped within the layer. These boundaries can be used in the moment integrals for densities and currents when the drifting particles differ in temperature, or in other properties, from the trapped population, as has been suggested by observations. We give examples of how different kinds of particle orbits contribute to the spatial profiles of density and current and thus to the field structure of the current sheet. We find that the parallel pressure of the drifting particles must exceed the transverse pressure for self-consistent solutions to exist, and based on this result, we give examples of fully self-consistent solutions using bi-Maxwellian ion and Maxwellian electron distributions. We give a proof, using generalized adiabatic theory, of Cowley's (1978a) theorem that particles trapped in the current layer experience zero net drift.Paper dedicated to Professor Hannes Alfvén on the occasion of his 80th birthday, 30 May 1988.     

San Quintín volcanic field, Baja California, Mexico: 'within-plate' magmatism following ridge subduction

The Holocene San Quintín volcanic province in northern Baja California comprises spinel-lherzolite-bearing alkali basalts. Trace element (La/Nb = 0.57–0.73; K/Rb = 402–479; La_N/Yb_N= 8.4, 9.9) and isotopic ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶r = 0.70323–0.70352; ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd = 0.512924–0.512996; ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 19.108, 19.250; ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 15.567, 15.589; ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 38.82, 38.85) show that the lavas are compositionally indistinguishable from some ocean island, plume-associated basalts such as Hawaii and the Azores, and testify to an asthenospheric source for the magmas. The occurrence in Baja of such lavas may be related to the nature of the cessation of plate subduction beneath the peninsula; at present, San Quintín (and volcanic provinces to the north) are underlain by a 'no-slab window', whereas immediately to the south, remanent oceanic lithosphere may be preserved as a relict slab. This may act as a bamer to the upward passage of diapirs or magmas from the asthenosphere.     

A 450-kyr record of hydrological conditions on the western Agulhas Bank Slope, south of Africa

The Agulhas Bank region, south of Africa, is an oceanographically important and complex area. The leakage of warm saline Indian Ocean water into the South Atlantic around the southern tip of Africa is a crucial factor in the global thermohaline circulation. Foraminiferal assemblage, stable isotope and sedimentological data from the top 10 m of core MD962080, recovered from the western Agulhas Bank Slope, are used to indicate changes in water mass circulation in the southeastern South Atlantic for the last 450 kyr. Sedimentological and planktonic foraminiferal data give clear signals of cold water intrusions. The benthic stable isotope record provides the stratigraphic framework and indicates that the last four climatic cycles are represented (i.e. down to marine isotope stage (MIS) 12). The planktonic foraminiferal assemblages bear a clear transitional to subantarctic character with Globorotalia inflata and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (dextral) being the dominant taxa. Input of cold, subantarctic waters into the region by means of leakage through the Subtropical Convergence, as part of Agulhas ring shedding, and a general cooling of surface waters is suggested by increased occurrence of the subantarctic assemblage during glacial periods. Variable input of Indian Ocean waters via the Agulhas Current is indicated by the presence of tropical/subtropical planktonic foraminiferal species Globoquadrina dutertrei, Globigerinoides ruber (alba) and Globorotalia menardii with maximum leakage occurring at glacial terminations. The continuous presence of G. menardii throughout the core suggests that the exchange of water from the South Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic Ocean was never entirely obstructed in the last 450 kyr. The benthic carbon isotope record and sediment textural data reflect a change in bottom water masses over the core location from North Atlantic Deep Water to Upper Southern Component Water. Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages and sediment composition indicate a profound change in surface water conditions over the core site approximately 200–250 kyr BP, during MIS 7, from mixed subantarctic and transitional water masses to overall warmer surface water conditions.     

Mineralogical and geochemical constraints on the shallow origin, ancient veining, and multi-stage modification of the Lherz peridotite

New major- and trace-element data of bulk-rocks and constituent minerals, and whole-rock Re-Os isotopic compositions of samples from the Lherz Massif, French Pyrenees, reveal complex petrological relationships between the dominant lithologies of lherzolite ± olivine-websterite and harzburgite. The Lherz peridotite body contains elongate, foliation parallel, lithological strips of harzburgite, lherzolite, and olivine-websterite cross-cut by later veins of hornblende-bearing pyroxenites. Peridotite lithologies are markedly bimodal, with a clear compositional gap between harzburgites and lherzolites ± olivine-websterite. Bulk-rock and mineral major-element oxide (Mg-Fe-Si-Cr) compositions show that harzburgites are highly-depleted and result from ∼20-25 wt.% melt extraction at pressures <2 GPa. Incompatible and moderately-compatible trace-element abundances of hornblendite-free harzburgites are analogous to some mantle-wedge peridotites. In contrast, lherzolites ± olivine-websterite overlap estimates of primitive mantle composition, yet these materials are composite samples that represent physical mixtures of residual lherzolites and clinopyroxene dominated cumulates equilibrated with a LREE-enriched tholeiitic melt. Trace-element compositions of harzburgite, and some lherzolite bulk-rocks and pyroxenes have been modified by; (1) wide-spread interaction with a low-volume LREE-enriched melt +/− fluid that has disturbed highly-incompatible elements (e.g., LREEs, Zr) without enrichment of alkali- and Ti-contents; and (2) intrusion of relatively recent, small-volume, hornblendite-forming, basanitic melts linked to modal and cryptic metasomatism resulting in whole-rock and pyroxene Ti, Na and MREE enrichment.Rhenium-Os isotope systematics of Lherz samples are also compositionally bimodal; lherzolites ± olivine-websterite have chondritc to suprachondritic ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os and ¹⁸⁷Re/¹⁸⁸Os values that overlap the range reported for Earth’s primitive upper mantle, whereas harzburgites have sub-chondritic ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os and ¹⁸⁷Re/¹⁸⁸Os values. Various Os-model age calculations indicate that harzburgites, lherzolites, and olivine-websterites have been isolated from convective homogenisation since the Meso-Proterozoic and this broadly coincides with the time of melt extraction controlled by harzburgite Os-isotope compositions. The association between harzburgites resulting from melting in mantle-wedge environments and Os-rich trace-phases (laurite-erlichmanite sulphides and Pt-Os-Ir-alloys) suggests that a significant portion of persistent refractory anomalies in the present-day convecting mantle of Earth may be linked to ancient large-scale melting events related to wide-spread subduction-zone processing.     

Longitudinal variation and waves in Jupiter’s south equatorial wind jet

A detailed study of the chevron-shaped dark spots on the strong southern equatorial wind jet near 7.5°S planetographic latitude shows variations in velocity with longitude and time. The presence of the large anticyclonic South Equatorial Disturbance (SED) has a profound effect on the chevron velocity, causing slower velocities to its east and increasing with distance from the disturbance. The chevrons move with velocities near the maximum wind jet velocity of ～140 m/s, as deduced by the history of velocities at this latitude and the magnitude of the symmetric wind jet near 7°N latitude. Their repetitive nature is consistent with a gravity-inertia wave (n = 75–100) with phase speed up to 25 m/s, relative to the local flow, but the identity of this wave mode is not well constrained. However, for the first time, high spatial resolution movies from Cassini images show that the chevrons oscillate in latitude with a 6.7 ± 0.7-day period. This oscillating motion has a wavelength of ～20° and a speed of 101 ± 3 m/s, following a pattern similar to that seen in the Rossby wave plumes of the North Equatorial Zone, and possibly reinforced by it. All dates show chevron latitude variability, but it is unclear if this larger wave is present during other epochs, as there are no other suitable time series movies that fully delineate it. In the presence of multiple wave modes, the difference in dominant cloud appearance between 7°N and 7.5°S is likely due to the presence of the Great Red Spot, either through changes in stratification and stability or by acting as a wave boundary.     

Non-linear dynamics of gravity wave driven flows in the solar radiative interior

We present results of non-linear numerical simulations of gravity wave driven shear flow oscillations in the equatorial plane of the solar radiative interior. These results show that many of the assumptions of quasi-linear theory are not valid. When only two waves are forced (prograde and retrograde), oscillatory mean flow is maintained; but critical layers often form and are dynamically important. When a spectrum of waves is forced, the non-linear wave–wave interactions are dynamically important, often acting to decrease the maintenance of a mean flow. The (in)coherence of such wave–wave interactions must be taken into account when describing wave-driven mean flows.