Fossil Foraminifera from four active mud volcanoes in the Gulf of Mexico

Samples were collected for foraminiferal studies by the Johnson Sea-Link I and II manned submersibles on the Louisiana continental slope. This paper documents that the mud, extruded onto the sea floor from depth by four mud volcanoes, ranges in age from Miocene to Pleistocene based on studies of the planktonic foraminiferal fauna. The vents are in water depths ranging from 300 to 690 m located in Garden Banks Block 382, Green Canyon Blocks 143 and 272, and Mississippi Canyon Block 929. Two mud volcanoes in GB 382 and MC 929 also have rich fossil foraminiferal microfaunas. We suggest that the extrusion of fossil sediments onto the sea floor during the Quaternary is a reasonable explanation for frequent occurrences of displaced fossil microfaunas encountered at depth in wells drilling on the flanks of salt diapirs in the slope environment. Results of this study have important implications for age dating subsurface sediments in bathyal locations.     

Influence of Introduced CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> on Deep-Sea Metazoan Meiofauna

An experiment was performed to determine the effect of injected CO₂ on the deep-sea (3200 m) meiofaunal community in the Monterey Canyon. Approximately 20 L of liquid CO₂ was added to each of three cylindrical corrals (PVC rings pushed into the seabed) that were arranged in a triangular array 10 m on a side. After a 30-day period, sediment cores were collected within an area exposed to the dissolution plume emanating from the CO₂ pools and from a reference site approximately 40 m away; cores were also collected from within two of the CO₂ corrals. Sediment cores were sectioned into 0–5, 5–10, and 10–20 mm layers. Abundances of major groups (harpacticoid copepods, nematodes, nauplii, kinorhynchs, polychaetes, and total meiofauna) were determined for each layer. CO₂ exposure did not significantly influence the abundances or vertical distributions of any of the major taxa. However, other evidence suggests that abundance alone did not accurately reflect the effect of CO₂ on meiofauna. We argue that slow decomposition rates of meiofaunal carcasses can mask adverse effects of CO₂ and that longer experiments and/or careful examination of meiofaunal condition are needed to accurately evaluate CO₂ effects on deep-sea meiofaunal communities. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Structural patterns and tectonic history of the Bauer microplate, Eastern Tropical Pacific

The Bauer microplate was an independent slab of oceanic lithosphere that from 17 Ma to 6 Ma grew from 1.4 × 10⁵ km² to 1.2 × 10⁶ km² between the rapidly diverging Pacific and Nazca plates. Growth was by accretion at the lengthening and overlapping axes of the (Bauer-Nazca) Galapagos Rise (GR) and the (Pacific-Bauer) East Pacific Rise (EPR). EPR and GR axial propagation to create and rapidly grow the counter-clockwise spinning microplate occurred in two phases: (1) 17–15Ma, when the EPR axis propagated north and the GR axis propagated south around a narrow (100- to 200-km-wide) core of older lithosphere; and (2) 8–6 Ma, when rapid northward propagation of the EPR axis resumed, overlapping ∼400 km of the fast-spreading Pacific-Nazca rise-crest and appending a large (200- to 400-km-wide) area of the west flank of that rise as a ‘northern annex’ to the microplate. Between 15 and 8 Ma the microplate grew principally by crustal accretion at the crest of its rises. The microplate was captured by the Nazca plate and the Galapagos Rise axis became extinct soon after 6 Ma, when the south end of the Pacific-Bauer EPR axis became aligned with the southern Pacific-Nazca EPR axis and its north end was linked by the Quebrada Transform to the northern Pacific-Nazca EPR axis. Incomplete multibeam bathymetry of the microplate margins, and of both flanks of the Pacific-Bauer and Bauer-Nazca Rises, together with archival magnetic and satellite altimetry data, clarifies the growth and (counter-clockwise) rotation of the microplate, and tests tectonic models derived from studies of the still active, much smaller, Easter and Juan Fernandez microplates. Our interpretations differ from model predictions in that Euler poles were not located on the microplate boundary, propagation in the 15–8 Ma phase of growth was not toward these poles, and microplate rotation rates were small (5°/m.y.) for much of its history, when long, bounding transform faults reduced coupling to Nazca plate motion. Some structures of the Bauer microplate boundary, such as deep rift valleys and a broad zone of thrust-faulted lithosphere, are, however, similar to those observed around the smaller, active microplates. Analysis of how the Bauer microplate was captured when coupling to the Pacific plate was reduced invites speculation on why risecrest microplates eventually lose their independence.     

Oceanic double-infusion: introduction

Double-diffusion, the mixing of fluids with two constituents of different molecular diffusivities, was originally discovered in the mid-1800s, forgotten, then rediscovered as an ‘oceanographic curiosity’ a century later. Many oceanographers suspect that double-diffusion has major effects on oceanic water masses and circulation, but direct measurement of the effects has proven difficult. In 1996, a Working Group was formed under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Ocean Research (SCOR WG108), with the goal to identify progress and barriers to quantifying oceanic double-diffusive fluxes, and make recommendations for further progress. This document gives a brief history of double-diffusion, a review of evidence of its potential effects in the ocean, and gives an overview of the review articles contained in this volume, written by the Working Group members with the above aim in mind.     

Harmonic analysis of the mean northern hemisphere water vapor distribution for the year 1950

Summary Harmonic analyses along latitudes 30°, 45° and 60° of the mean northern hemisphere water vapor field are presented. The seasonal variations of these spectra are investigated and the relative contributions of the various scales of mean eddies to the meridional transport of water vapor are calculated. Of special interest is the finding that perturbations of wave number 2, corresponding to the great continents and oceans, are dominant at all three latitudes and of primary importance in effecting the northward transport of water vapor.The research reported in this article was sponsored by the Geophysics Research Directorate, Air Force Cambridge Research Center, under Contract No. AF 19 (604)-2242.     

白垩纪以来米仓山-汉南穹窿剥蚀过程及其构造意义：磷灰石裂变径迹的证据

报道了米仓山-汉南穹窿一带磷灰石裂变径迹分析结果,以制约该区白垩纪以来的剥蚀-演化历史.露头样品磷灰石裂变径迹年龄分布显示从汉南穹窿南部的核部地区向南至四川盆地北部裂变径迹的年龄逐渐变新,这与米仓山地区逆冲断裂以背驮式扩展的构造样式从汉南穹窿向南经米仓山褶皱-逆冲带发育到四川盆地北缘的构造模式相吻合.热模拟的结果显示米仓山-汉南穹窿经历了两期快速的剥蚀,其分别发生在白垩纪（约90 Ma之前）和15 Ma以来.研究区白垩纪的快速剥蚀反映了秦岭-大别造山带白垩纪的区域性剥蚀事件,这可能是对临区诸多构造事件（如西伯利亚-蒙古-中朝板块的碰撞,拉萨-羌塘-思茅-印支块体的碰撞,太平洋板块向欧亚板块的俯冲及其相关的岩浆活动）远场效应的响应;约15 Ma以来的快速剥蚀是对青藏高原隆升向东北方向传递的响应.     

Fusion of Radar and Optical Data for Land Cover Mapping

Abstract

This study examined the complementarity of radar and optical data for feature identification. Spaceborne radar and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM ) multispectral data sets were assessed independently and in combination to classify a site near Wad Medani, Sudan. Radar processing procedures included speckle reduction, texture extraction and post‐processing smoothing. Relative accuracy of the resultant classifications was established by comparison to ground truth information derived from field visitation. Neither speckle filtering nor post‐classification smoothing were improvements over the poor results obtained with the unfiltered, original radar data. Texture measures were significant improvements over the original data (20 percent overall accuracy increase) and several, but not all, individual classes had excellent results. Landsat TM had good overall results (80 percent correct) but considerable spectral confusion between urban and bare soil. Combination of radar with Landsat TM greatly improved results, achieving near perfect classification of all individual classes. The systematic strategy of this study, determination of the best individual method before introducing the next procedure, was effective in managing a complex set of analysis possibilities.