Quantitative mapping of active mud volcanism at the western Mediterranean Ridge-backstop contact |
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Authors: | Alain Rabaute Nicolas Chamot-Rooke |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratoire de Géologie, Ecole normale supérieure, CNRS UMR 8538, 24, Rue Lhomond, Paris Cedex 05, 75231, France |
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Abstract: | Based on a new quantitative analysis of sidescan sonar data combined with coring, we propose a revised model for the origin
for Mediterranean Ridge mud volcanism. Image analysis techniques are used to produce a synthetic and objective map of recent
mud flows covering a 640 × 700 km2 area, which represents more than half of the entire Mediterranean Ridge mud belt. We identify 215 mud flows, extruded during
the last 37,000–60,000 years. This time period corresponds to the limit of penetration of the sonar, that we evaluate through
geoacoustic modeling of the backscattered signal returned by the mud breccia-hemipelagites contact, and calibrate by coring.
We show that during this period, at least 96% of the mud volume has been extruded at the Mediterranean Ridge-Hellenic backstop
contact, the remaining being scattered over the prism. We suggest that the source is a Messinian (5–6 Ma) mud reservoir that
remained close to the backstop contact, at variance with the classical transport-through-the-wedge model. A revised mud budget
indicates that steady-state input is not needed. We propose that the source layer was deposited in deep and narrow pre-Messinian
basins, sealed by Messinian evaporites, and finally inverted in post-Messinian times. Onset of motion of the Anatolia-Aegea
microplate in the Pliocene resulted in change from slow to fast convergence, triggering shear partitioning at the edges of
the backstop and basin inversion. Mud volcanism initiation is probably coeval with the latest events of this kinematic re-organization,
i.e. opening of the Corinth Gulf and activation of the Kephalonia fault around 1–2 Ma. |
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Keywords: | Mediterranean Ridge Mud volcanism Acoustic characterization Backscatter Geodynamics Messinian evaporites Accretionary prism Backstop Strike-slip faults |
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