Possible impact origin for the Middle Miocene (Serravallian) Puffin Structure,Ashmore Platform,northwest Australia

The Puffin Structure is interpreted from high‐quality 3D seismic data as a small multiringed impact structure formed by collision of a meteorite or small asteroid with unconsolidated, water‐saturated shallow‐marine shelf carbonates during the Middle Miocene (mid to late Serravallian). The impact created a dish‐shaped structure about 2.5 km in diameter with annular rings and no central uplift.     

Comparison of simulated changes of climate in Asia for two scenarios: Early Miocene to present, and present to future enhanced greenhouse

We use a climate model (GENESIS) to simulate the changes in climate associated with two scenarios, one from the past and one from the future, with a focus on the Asian continent. The two scenarios are: (1) Early Miocene to Present—a period of uplift of the Himalayan–Tibetan plateau and of decreasing concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and (2) Present to Future Enhanced Greenhouse—a period of increasing concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. In the past climate scenario, the combination of uplift and decreased concentration of greenhouse gas causes the model to simulate widespread cooling and, primarily due to the effect of uplift, greatly increased precipitation in southern Asia and decreased precipitation in northern Asia. In the future climate scenario, the increased concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide causes the model to simulate widespread warming and, by comparison with the past climate scenario, relatively small changes in precipitation; the changes are generally towards increased precipitation, except in parts of northern China. The output of the climate model, along with the changed concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, is also used to calculate changes in biome distributions. Owing to the high concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide in both the past and future scenarios, relative to present, the simulations of Early Miocene biomes and Future biomes are somewhat similar—and both are very unlike the Present.     

Multi-approach characterization of shallow-water carbonates off Minamitorishima and their depositional settings/history

Sedimentological, geochemical, and chronological analyses were carried out on 18 carbonate rock samples collected at depths of 938, 1085, and 3354 m on the western slope of Minamitorishima (Marcus Island), which is located near the western margin of the Pacific Plate. Four groups of carbonate rocks were distinguished: a mollusk-rich limestone, a coral-rich dolomite, a foraminiferal-nannofossil packstone, and a phosphatized mudstone/wackestone. The mollusk-rich limestone is characterized by the dominance of bivalves (including rudists) and gastropod shells. Strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and Mesorbitolina ex gr. texana (a large benthic foraminifer) indicate that the shallow-water carbonates were deposited during the late Aptian–early Albian (ca. 123–111 Ma). The coral-rich dolomite is characterized by abundant scleractinian corals and nongeniculate coralline algae associated with encrusting acervulinid foraminifers. The biotic composition is similar to that of the Oligocene–Pleistocene carbonates reported from other seamounts in the northwestern Pacific. Geochemical data show that the coral-rich carbonates were dolomitized at 9.5–6.8 Ma (Tortonian–Messinian) and that normal seawater was the most likely parent fluid. The foraminiferal-nannofossil packstone is a semi-consolidated foraminiferal-nannofossil ooze and was deposited during the Pleistocene (0.99–0.45 Ma). The phosphatized mudstone/wackestone is marked by the absence of macrofossils and the presence of traces of planktic foraminifers. Although its depositional age is not constrained, the Sr isotope ratios indicate that the phosphatization occurred at 33.2–28.9 Ma. After the deposition of the Cretaceous shallow-water carbonates, including the mollusk-rich limestone, Minamitorishima was drowned and its top was covered with a pelagic cap, represented by the mudstone/wackestone. The late Eocene–early Oligocene volcanism (40.2–33.2 Ma) caused episodic uplift and returned the top of Minamitorishima to a shallow-water environment. After the early Oligocene phosphatization of the pelagic cap, coral reefs flourished on the top of this island. The reef limestone was dolomitized during the Tortonian–Messinian.     

Tectonic setting and formation of the Setouchi volcanic rocks in the western Seto Inland Sea,Japan

The Setouchi volcanic rocks include high-Mg andesites (HMAs) and garnet-bearing dacite–rhyolite, and are sporadically distributed along the Median Tectonic Line, Japan. New U–Pb zircon ages and geological and geochemical data are presented for those rocks in the Western Setouchi region (W-Setouchi). Previous studies referred to the altered andesite in the W-Setouchi as “pre-Setouchi volcanic rocks.” However, on the basis of the new U–Pb age (14.4 Ma ± 0.3 Ma) and geochemical characteristics, we redefine it as the Jikamuro Formation, part of the Setouchi volcanic rocks. Incompatible elements are more enriched in the Jikamuro Formation rocks than in the Setouchi HMAs. The characteristic element compositions may be explained by mixing of compositionally different magmas, including subducted sediment melts, plus a contribution from crustal contamination. A stress-inversion technique with Bingham distribution method was applied to the orientations of felsic and mafic dikes within the Setouchi volcanic rocks, and indicates paleo-stress conditions during the period of Setouchi volcanism in the W-Setouchi. The analysis reveals NNW-extensional stresses and a strike-slip stress. We infer that the former represents extensional conditions during the main period of volcanism and the latter represents a stress transition during the most recent period of volcanism (after 12 Ma).     

Miocene provenance change in Himalayan foreland basin and Bengal Fan sediments,with special reference to detrital garnet chemistry

Bengal Fan Miocene sediments were collected during International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 354 and investigated using petrographic and detrital garnet chemistry analyses. The Miocene Siwalik Group, which is composed of sediments deposited in the Himalayan foreland basin, was also analyzed for comparison with the Bengal Fan data for the provenance change during the Miocene. Our petrographic analyses revealed that the Miocene sediments of the Bengal Fan and Siwalik Group consist predominantly of Higher Himalayan Crystalline (HHC)-derived detritus such as chloritoid, staurolite, sillimanite, and/or kyanite, which appear among the accessory minerals. The chemistry of the detrital garnet varies across the stratigraphy; most of the garnet is rich in almandine and poor in spessartine and pyrope. However, pyrope-rich garnet, which is considered to originate from the HHC core (granulite facies), was found in the lower to upper Miocene deposits. The deposition of HHC-derived detrital garnet began before the Middle Miocene (15 Ma) and before the Late Miocene (10–9 Ma) in the Siwalik Group. The Bengal Fan data, by contrast, indicated that pyrope-rich garnet appeared in the Early Miocene (17.3 Ma) and Late Miocene (8.5–6.5 Ma). We conclude that the Bengal Fan sediments record the erosion of the HHC zone since the Early Miocene that appears in the Siwalik sediments. Furthermore, we found that the HHC-derived inputs decreased from the late Middle Miocene (12 Ma) to the early Middle Miocene (10 Ma) in both the Nepal Himalaya foreland basin and the Bengal Fan. The disappearance of the HHC-derived detritus is probably the result of dilution by Lesser Himalayan detritus, which suggests that the Lesser Himalayan zone, which is composed of metamorphosed and unmetamorphosed sedimentary rocks, was uplifted.     

Zircon U–Pb ages of Miocene granitic rocks in the Koshikijima Islands: Implications for Neogene tectonics in the Kyushu region,southwest Japan

The opening of the Japan Sea separated southwest Japan from the Eurasian continent during the Early to Middle Miocene. Since then, diverse igneous activities have occurred in relation to the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath southwest Japan. The Okinawa Trough formed in the back-arc region of the Ryukyu Arc since the Late Miocene. In the Koshikijima Islands, off the west coast of Kyushu and near the northern end of the Okinawa Trough, felsic to intermediate igneous rocks with Middle to Late Miocene radiometric ages occur as granitic intrusions and dikes. We obtained zircon U–Pb ages and whole-rock major- and trace-element compositions of Koshikijima granitic rocks to elucidate their magmagenesis. The U–Pb ages of granitic rocks in Kamikoshikijima and Shimokoshikijima and a dacite dike are about 10 Ma, suggesting that most magmatism on the Koshikijima Islands was coeval with early rifting in the Okinawa Trough. We infer that magmagenesis occurred via melting of lower crustal mafic rocks related to rifting in the Okinawa Trough based on the arc-like trace-element compositions of these I-type granites. Andesitic dikes preceded felsic igneous activity on the Koshikijima Islands, and their ages and petrochemistry will help elucidate the magmatism and tectonics in this area throughout the Miocene.     

The late Miocene onset of high productivity in the Benguela Current upwelling system as part of a global pattern

We have examined the history of the elevated primary productivity associated with the Benguela Current upwelling system off southwest Africa using sediments from 7.5 to 4.8 Ma at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1085 in the middle Cape Basin. Sedimentation rates are low until 6.9 Ma. Low accumulation rates of benthic foraminifers and organic carbon indicate that biological productivity was also low. Paleoproductivity dramatically increased at 6.7–6.5 Ma and was highly variable until 4.8 Ma with productivity maxima during cooler periods. The presence of radiolarian opal only between 5.8 and 5.2 Ma suggests an interlude of silica-rich intermediate water in the Cape Basin. The onset of heightened productivity under the Benguela Current is mirrored by similar increases reported between 6.9 and 6.7 Ma in the tropical eastern Pacific, the western and northern Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. The similarity between the patterns at Site 1085 and in the Pacific and Indian Oceans suggests that the dramatic productivity increase off southwest Africa is part of a global response to paleoceanographic changes.     

The “Camporeale wedge-top Basin” (NW Sicily; Italy) in the frame of the Late Miocene Sicilian Foreland Basin System; Inferences from the Upper Tortonian–Lower Messinian Terravecchia Formation

Since the latest Oligocene–earliest Miocene the building of the Sicilian fold and thrust belt has been accompanied by development of a “peripheral” foreland basin system which migrated toward the foreland. In north-western Sicily, the sedimentary record of the foreland basin system migration is represented by a stratigraphic succession made up of several lithostratigraphic units, bounded by regional unconformity surfaces, deposited recording at least four main sedimentary phases, each characterized by the development of different types of syntectonic basins.     

Build‐up and depositional dynamics of an arc front volcaniclastic complex: the Miocene Tepoztlán Formation (Transmexican Volcanic Belt,Central Mexico)

Volcanic terrains such as magmatic arcs are thought to display the most complex surface environments on Earth. Ancient volcaniclastics are notoriously difficult to interpret as they describe the interplay between a single or several volcanoes and the environment. The Early Miocene Tepoztlán Formation at the southern edge of the Transmexican Volcanic Belt belongs to the few remnants of this ancestral magmatic arc, and therefore is thought to represent an example of the initial phase of evolution of the Transmexican Volcanic Belt. Based on geological mapping, detailed logging of lithostratigraphic sections, palaeocurrent data of sedimentary features and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, mapping of two‐dimensional panels from outcrop to field scale, and geochronological data in an area of ca 1000 km², three periods in the evolution of the Tepoztlán Formation were distinguished, which lasted around 4 Myr and are representative of a volcanic cycle (edifice growth phases followed by collapse) in a magmatic arc setting. The volcaniclastic sediments accumulated in proximal to medial distances on partly coalescing aprons, similar to volcanic ring plains, around at least three different stratovolcanoes. These volcanoes resulted from various eruptions separated by repose periods. During the first phase of the evolution of the Tepoztlán Formation (22·8 to 22·2 Ma), deposition was dominated by fluvial sediments in a braided river setting. Pyroclastic material from small, andesitic–dacitic composite volcanoes in the near vicinity was mostly eroded and reworked by fluvial processes, resulting in sediments ranging from cross‐bedded sand to an aggradational series of river gravels. The second phase (22·2 to 21·3 Ma) was characterized by periods of strong volcanic activity, resulting in voluminous accumulations of lava and tuff, which temporarily overloaded and buried the original fluvial system with its detritus. Continuous build‐up of at least three major volcanic centres further accentuated the topography and, in the third phase (21·3 to 18·8 Ma), mass flow processes, represented by an increase of debris flow deposits, became dominant, marking a period of edifice destruction and flank failures.     

From non‐tidal shelf to tide‐dominated strait: The Miocene Bonifacio Basin,Southern Corsica

This study documents a change from a non‐tidal to tide‐dominated shelf system that occurred between Corsica and Sardinia (the Bonifacio Basin, Western Mediterranean) during the early to middle Miocene. The non‐tidal deposits formed on a low‐energy siliciclastic shelf surrounded by progradational coralline algal ramps at full highstand. The tidal deposits consist of an up to 200 m thick succession of siliciclastic to coralline‐rich cross‐beds formed by large sub‐tidal dunes. Based on outcrop and sub‐surface data, it is possible to conclude that the tidal currents were amplified as a consequence of the rapid subsidence of the basin centre due to tectonic activity. It is suggested that this tectonic event initiated the strait between Corsica and Sardinia. The strait was deep enough to allow the tidal flux to be significantly increased, generating a localized strong tidal current at the junction between the Western Mediterranean and the East Corsica Basin.