Search results for "Geophysics"
showing 10 items of 2645 documents
Craton reactivation on the Labrador Sea margins: 40Ar/39Ar age and Sr–Nd–Hf–Pb isotope constraints from alkaline and carbonatite intrusives
2007
Abstract The once-contiguous North Atlantic craton (NAC) is crosscut by the Labrador Sea that opened during the Early Cenozoic after extensive Mesozoic continental rifting and removal of cratonic mantle. This large-scale structural change within the cratonic lithosphere was followed at about 150 Ma by the cessation of ultrapotassic and potassic-to-carbonatitic magma production, which had prevailed throughout much of the NAC history. At Aillik Bay, a sequence of olivine lamproites (1374.2 ± 4.2 Ma, 2σ), aillikites/carbonatites (590–555 Ma), and nephelinites (141.6 ± 1.0 Ma, 2σ) erupted through the southern NAC edge on the present-day Labrador Sea margin. Links between these alkaline magma ty…
Late Neoarchean synchronous TTG gneisses and potassic granitoids in southwestern Liaoning Province, North China Craton: Zircon U-Pb-Hf isotopes, geoc…
2019
Abstract Abundant late Neoarchean granitoids occur in southwestern Liaoning Province, part of the Eastern Ancient Terrane of the North China Craton. These rocks include intermediate gneiss, TTG gneisses and potassic granitoids, and we report on the geochemistry and zircon SHRIMP ages as well as Hf-in-zircon isotopes of these granitoids in order to determine their petrogenesis. Field relationships suggest that most of these granitoids experienced widespread metamorphism and deformation, associated with anatexis at some localities. The intermediate gneisses, TTG gneisses and potassic granitoids were all emplaced at the end of the Neoarchean (2.50–2.53 Ga), and CL images document widespread re…
Tectonothermal Evolution of the Broadly Rifted Zone, Ethiopian Rift
2019
The Broadly Rifted Zone (BRZ) of southern Ethiopia is a long-lived and structurally complex segment of the East African Rift System. However, due to poor surface exposure of early synrift strata and a dearth of subsurface data, the evolution of the BRZ remains poorly understood. We present new apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He and augmented apatite fission track low-temperature thermochronology data from the Beto and Galana basin boundary fault systems to constrain the tectonothermal evolution of the western and eastern BRZ, respectively. Time-temperature reconstructions suggest that East African Rift System-related extension began concurrently across the BRZ in the early Miocene (20–17 Ma), at least 6 …
Rift nucleation, rift propagation and the creation of basement micro-plates within active rifts
2008
Abstract In this contribution we study the dynamics of rift nucleation and the interaction of propagating rift segments. We use the East African Rift System (EARS) as a case study with special emphasis on the Albertine rift system situated within the western branch of the EARS with the 5000 m high Rwenzori horst, a basement block that was captured by two rift segments. Fieldwork in the Rwenzori mountains shows that the range is not only affected by range parallel faults but that major fault sets cut across the Rwenzoris. In order to understand these complex fault patterns and the dynamics of the process that leads to the capturing of basement blocks within the extending rift system we devel…
Melt infiltration of the lower lithosphere beneath the Tanzania craton and the Albertine rift inferred from S receiver functions
2012
[1] The transition between the lithosphere and the asthenosphere is subject to numerous contemporary studies as its nature is still poorly understood. The thickest lithosphere is associated with old cratons and platforms and it has been shown that seismic investigations may fail to image the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary in these areas. Instead, several recent studies have proposed a mid-lithospheric discontinuity of unknown origin existing under several cratons. In this study we investigate the Tanzania craton in East Africa which is enclosed by the eastern and western branches of the East African Rift System. We present evidence from S receiver functions for two consecutive discontin…
Rifted margin formation in the South Tyrrhenian Sea: A high resolution profile across the North Sicily passive continental margin.
2000
A new, 150 km long seismic line across the continental margin of north Sicily has been acquired and interpreted. The overall structure of the margin is controlled by extension, which caused crustal thinning and widespread normal faulting. Two main thinned zones are observed in the south in correspondence with the Cafalù basin and farther to the north at the continent-ocean transition. Zones of thinned crust coincide with zones of intense normal faulting. Extension began in late Tortonian times and caused the opening of the Cefalù basin controlled by a northward dipping listric fault. Messinian stretching affected most of the future margin and provoked a widening of the Cefalù basin and norm…
Fault-controlled Soil CO2 Degassing and Shallow Magma Bodies: Summit and Lower East Rift of Kilauea Volcano (Hawaii), 1997
2006
Soil CO2 flux measurements were carried out along traverses across mapped faults and eruptive fissures on the summit and the lower East Rift Zone of Kilauea volcano. Anomalous levels of soil degassing were found for 44 of the tectonic structures and 47 of the eruptive fissures intercepted by the surveyed profiles. This result contrasts with what was recently observed on Mt. Etna, where most of the surveyed faults were associated with anomalous soil degassing. The difference is probably related to the differences in the state of activity at the time when soil gas measurements were made: Kilauea was erupting, whereas Mt. Etna was quiescent although in a pre-eruptive stage. Unlike Mt. Etna, fl…
Contrasting styles of deep-marine pyroclastic eruptions revealed from Axial Seamount push core records
2015
Abstract A comprehensive understanding of explosive basaltic eruption processes in the deep-sea relies upon detailed analysis and comparison of the variety of volcaniclastic lithologies on the seafloor, which has been challenged by insufficient sample recovery. A dedicated ROV-based sampling approach using long push cores offers an unparalleled opportunity to fully characterize the diversity of unconsolidated volcaniclastic lithofacies on a recently active seamount. Lithofacies from Axial Seamount record two styles of pyroclastic eruptions, strombolian and phreatomagmatic, at 1.5 km water depth. Strombolian eruptions are represented by abundant fluidal and highly vesicular (up to 50%) vitri…
Ash resuspension related to the 2011–2012 Cordón Caulle eruption, Chile, in a rural community of Patagonia, Argentina
2017
Abstract The 2011–2012 Cordon Caulle eruption emitted about 1 km3 of rhyodacitic tephra. Dominant westerly winds in the region caused most of the primary tephra to deposit in neighboring Argentina. In addition to the impact of widespread dispersal and fallout of primary tephra during the eruption, Argentina was also significantly affected by remobilization of the primary ash even several years after the climactic phase of the eruption. In this mixed methods study, we combine aspects of natural and social sciences to characterize the ash resuspension events associated with the 2011–2012 Cordon Caulle deposits and assess the impacts on the Argentinian farming community of Ingeniero Jacobacci …
The “Camporeale wedge-top Basin” (NW Sicily; Italy) in the frame of the Late Miocene Sicilian Foreland Basin System; Inferences from the Upper Torton…
2011
Abstract 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. In particular, during the Late Miocene (Late Tortonian to Early Messinian) a wide wedge-top depozone developed in the innermo…