Granulite facies xenoliths from Prindle volcano, Alaska: Implications for the northern Cordilleran crustal lithosphere

Xenoliths collected from Prindle volcano, Alaska (Lat. 63.72°N; Long. 141.82°W) provide a unique opportunity to examine the lower crust of the northern Canadian Cordillera. The cone's pyroclastic deposits contain crustal and mantle-derived xenoliths. The crustal xenoliths include granulite facies metamorphic rocks and charnockites, comprising orthopyroxene (opx)–plagioclase (pl)–quartz (qtz) ± mesoperthite (msp) and clinopyroxene (cpx). Opx–cpx geothermometry yields equilibrium temperatures (T) from 770 to 1015 °C at 10 kbar. Pl–cpx–qtz geobarometry yields pressures (P) of  6.6–8.0 kbar. Integrated mesoperthite compositions suggest minimum temperatures of 1020–1140 °C at 10 kbar using solvus geothermometry. The absence of garnet in these rocks indicates a range of maximum pressure of 5–11.3 kbar, and calculated solidi constrain upper temperature limits. We conclude that the granulite facies assemblages represent relatively dry metamorphism at pressures indicative of crustal thicknesses similar to present day ( 36 km). Zircon separates from a single crustal xenolith yield mainly Early Tertiary (48–63 Ma) U–Pb ages which are considerably younger than the cooling ages of the high-pressure amphibolites exposed at the surface. The distribution of zircon ages is interpreted as indicating zircon growth coincident with at least two different thermal events as expressed at surface: (i) the eruption of the Late Cretaceous Carmacks Group volcanic rocks in western Yukon and adjacent parts of Alaska, and (ii) emplacement of strongly bimodal high level intrusions across much of western Yukon and eastern Alaska possibly in an extensional tectonic regime. The distributions of zircon growth ages and the preservation of higher-than-present-day (> 25 ± 3 °C km^− 1) geothermal gradients in the granulite facies rocks demonstrate the use of crustal xenoliths for recovering records of past, lithospheric-scale thermal–tectonic events.     

The nature of Mawsonites (Ediacara fauna)

Some representatives of the Ediacara fauna have been later re-interpreted as pseudofossils. This was recently also done for Mawsonites, which was re-interpreted as a sedimentary structure formed due to interaction of a sand volcano (or water-escape structure) and a biomat. This sedimentary genesis appears not to be tenable, as several physical processes should have been involved, none of which is known from modern times or the geological past. It is concluded that Mawsonites must be considered as a fossil, either an imprint or a true fossil. This interpretation may be tested on one or more fragments of the structure.     

泥火山与天然气水合物

系统地介绍了泥火山在全球的分布特征;阐述了水下泥火山形成的原因和机制;总结出4类泥火山的形成原因和两个泥火山形成机制;在此基础上深入地分析了天然气水合物与泥火山的关系及泥火山中天然气水合物的资源量。     

东沙海区泥火山调查进展

泥火山是地球运动和深部含流体物质向表层迁移的一种重要形式, 其喷溢及喷出物对认识地质动力、地层岩性和资源环境具有重要的意义。东沙海区新生界薄(~1km), 中生界厚(>5km), 是南海最典型的中生代沉积区和油气勘探待突破区。区内有众多的海山海丘, 过去都被推测为不利于油气成藏的岩浆火山。但近年来针对这些海山进行的调查发现了大量海底地层底辟形变与断裂、流体充注空白反射带和喷溢释放结构。通过浅表层取样采获了丰富的自生碳酸盐岩结核及深水珊瑚、海绵等生物, 表明众多海山、海丘具有明显的泥火山活动特征。东沙泥火山的发现表明区内具有良好的油气生成和运移条件, 为勘探源于中生界的油气和水合物提供了重要线索; 而大量深水珊瑚和海绵的出现指示东沙泥火山区可能是深水珊瑚礁、海绵礁发育区, 为研究油气泄漏、化养生物和环境三者的关系提供了重要的研究对象。     

The application of the fractal geometry in the study of sea-floor volcano

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分形几何在海底火山地形中的应用

对最近取得的中国南海大陆坡上的火山地形的等高线进行分维测量 ,发现火山及其附近的等高线具有稳定的分维数。利用分维数可以将火山及其附近的地形分成三类 :火山口附近、较陡峭的火山腰部和火山附近较平坦的海底。它们的分维数均低于大陆上等高线的一般分维值 ,平均为 1 .1 1 8。说明玄武岩火山即便不很古老 ,仍可具有标度不变性 ,并且与附近海底一起接受了较厚的海底沉积后 ,又具有了略为不同的分维数。     

Updated bathymetric survey of Kick-'em-Jenny submarine volcano

High-resolution bathymetric data obtained in July 1996 during a survey of the Kick-'em-Jenny submarine volcano north of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles revealed changes in the structure of the volcanic edifice compared to previously available surveys. The volcano's summit, at 178 m below sea level, was found to be approximately 18 m farther from the surface than was reported by Bouysse et al. (1988) and others. No dome was observed. Instead, an open crater, surrounded by walls that dropped significantly in elevation from one side to the opposite, suggest that eruptions, earthquakes, rockfalls or explosions may have altered the structure since the last detailed survey. The deepest contour of the volcano's crater was found 106 m below the summit.     

Association among active seafloor deformation, mound formation, and gas hydrate growth and accumulation within the seafloor of the Santa Monica Basin, offshore California

Seafloor blister-like mounds, methane migration and gas hydrate formation were investigated through detailed seafloor surveys in Santa Monica Basin, offshore of Los Angeles, California. Two distinct deep-water (≥ 800 m water depth) topographic mounds were surveyed using an autonomous underwater vehicle (carrying a multibeam sonar and a chirp sub-bottom profiler) and one of these was explored with the remotely operated vehicle Tiburon. The mounds are > 10 m high and > 100 m wide dome-shaped bathymetric features. These mounds protrude from crests of broad anticlines (~ 20 m high and 1 to 3 km long) formed within latest Quaternary-aged seafloor sediment associated with compression between lateral offsets in regional faults. No allochthonous sediments were observed on the mounds, except slumped material off the steep slopes of the mounds. Continuous streams of methane gas bubbles emanate from the crest of the northeastern mound, and extensive methane-derived authigenic carbonate pavements and chemosynthetic communities mantle the mound surface. The large local vertical displacements needed to produce these mounds suggests a corresponding net mass accumulation has occurred within the immediate subsurface. Formation and accumulation of pure gas hydrate lenses in the subsurface is proposed as a mechanism to blister the seafloor and form these mounds.     

Crustal contamination and crystal entrapment during polybaric magma evolution at Mt. Somma–Vesuvius volcano, Italy: Geochemical and Sr isotope evidence

New major and trace element analyses and Sr-isotope determinations of rocks from Mt. Somma–Vesuvius volcano produced from 25 ky BP to 1944 AD are part of an extensive database documenting the geochemical evolution of this classic region. Volcanic rocks include silica undersaturated, potassic and ultrapotassic lavas and tephras characterized by variable mineralogy and different crystal abundance, as well as by wide ranges of trace element contents and a wide span of initial Sr-isotopic compositions. Both the degree of undersaturation in silica and the crystal content increase through time, being higher in rocks produced after the eruption at 472 AD (Pollena eruption). Compositional variations have been generally thought to reflect contributions from diverse types of mantle and crust. Magma mixing is commonly invoked as a fundamental process affecting the magmas, in addition to crystal fractionation. Our assessment of geochemical and Sr-isotopic data indicates that compositional variability also reflects the influence of crustal contamination during magma evolution during upward migration to shallow crustal levels and/or by entrapment of crystal mush generated during previous magma storage in the crust. Using a variant of the assimilation fractional crystallization model (Energy Conservation–Assimilation Fractional Crystallization; [Spera and Bohrson, 2001. Energy-constrained open-system magmatic processes I: General model and energy-constrained assimilation and fractional crystallization (EC–AFC) formulation. J. Petrol. 999–1018]; [Bohrson, W.A. and Spera, F.J., 2001. Energy-constrained open-system magmatic process II: application of energy-constrained assimilation–fractional crystallization (EC–AFC) model to magmatic systems. J. Petrol. 1019–1041]) we estimated the contributions from the crust and suggest that contamination by carbonate rocks that underlie the volcano (2 km down to 9–10 km) is a fundamental process controlling magma compositions at Mt. Somma–Vesuvius in the last 8 ky BP. Contamination in the mid- to upper crust occurred repeatedly, after the magma chamber waxed with influx of new mantle- and crustal-derived magmas and fluids, and waned as a result of magma withdrawal and production of large and energetic plinian and subplinian eruptions.     

Geology of a submarine volcanic caldera in the Tonga Arc: Dive results

A submersible dive conducted on Volcano #1 located near 21° 09′S–175° 45′W on the Tonga Arc showed that the volcanic edifice with a caldera floor area of 30 km² located at and 450 m deep (b.s.l.=below sea level) was constructed recently during episodic volcanism. The sequential volcanic events are recorded along a faulted terrain formed in response to the collapse of the caldera wall. The post-caldera events are marked by occasional eruptions that have built scoriaceous cones associated with low-temperature hydrothermal venting and localized small-scale collapse features. The stratigraphy of the caldera wall indicates that the volcano was built by explosive volcanism alternating with quieter eruptive events. The repeated, violent explosive events formed ≤ 20 m thick sequences composed of alternating fine-grained ash beds and sand- to boulder-sized pyroclastic layers. During quieter volcanic events, dykes and massive flows intruded and/or accompanied the eruption of the volcaniclastic deposits throughout the sections of the wall explored. Massive columnar-jointed flows consist of viscous, silica-rich lavas forming tabular and giant radial-jointed (GRJ) flows formed in large (> 8 m in diameter) conduits and extruded onto the sea floor. In addition, massive lava flows forming sill-like complexes were observed underneath and near the giant radial-jointed columnar flows. Also, an intermittent quiet type of eruption produced vesicular lava flows, which are interbedded within the pyroclastic layered deposits. The massive and vesicular lavas consist of andesites and dacites with Ca-depleted (pigeonite) and Ca-enriched (salite) pyroxene, and intermediate (andesine-labradorite) to calcic (bytownite) plagioclase. They are depleted in total alkalis (Na₂O + K₂O < 3%), K₂O (< 1%), Zr/Y (< 1.8), Nb/Zr (< 0.01) and light Rare Earth Elements. We interpret that these andesite–dacite series were erupted after undergoing crystal-liquid fractionation in a magma chamber located underneath the caldera floor.