Search results for "Seafloor spreading"
showing 8 items of 38 documents
Comparative sclerochronology of modern and mid-Pliocene (c. 3.5Ma) Aequipecten opercularis (Mollusca, Bivalvia): an insight into past and future clim…
2009
Records of environment contained within the accretionarily deposited tissues of fossil organisms afford a means of detailed reconstruction of past climates and hence of rigorous testing of numerical climate models. We identify the environmental factors controlling oxygen and carbon stable-isotopic composition, and microgrowth-increment size, in the shell of modern examples of the Queen Scallop, Aequipecten opercularis. This understanding is then applied in interpretation of data from mid-Pliocene A. opercularis from eastern England. On the basis of oxygen-isotope evidence we conclude that winter minimum seafloor temperature was similar to present values (typically 6–7 °C) in the adjacent so…
Comparative high-resolution chemostratigraphy of the Bonarelli Level from the reference Bottaccione section (Umbria-Marche Apennines) and from an equ…
2006
The Bonarelli Level (BL) from the upper Cenomanian portion of the reference Bottaccione section (central Italy) is characterized by the presence of black shales containing high TOC concentrations (up to 17%) and amounts of CaCO3 near to zero. In the absence of carbonate and, consequently, of relative carbon- and oxygen-isotopic data, the elemental geochemistry revealed to be a very useful tool to obtain information about the palaeoclimatic and palaeoceanographic evolution of the Tethys Ocean during the OAE2. Based on several geochemical proxies (Rb, V, Ni, Cr, Si, Ba), the BL is interpreted as a high-productivity event driven by increasingly warm and humid climatic conditions promoting an a…
On the Mesozoic Ionian Basin
2001
SUMMARY New seismic reflection profiles of the Italian deep crust project CROP provide new insights on the structure of the Ionian sea. In spite of the Apennines and Hellenides Neogene subduction zones, two conjugate passive continental margins are preserved at the margins of the Ionian sea, along the Malta escarpment to the southwest and the Apulian escarpment to the northeast. The Ionian sea is likely to be a remnant of the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean, confined by these two conjugate passive continental margins. The transition from continental to oceanic crust appears sharper to the northeast than to the southwest. The basin between southeast Sicily and southwest Puglia was about 330 km wide an…
Fluid escape structures in the north Sicily continental margin
2014
Abstract High resolution and multichannel seismic profiles coupled with multibeam echosounder (seafloor relief) data, acquired along the northern Sicily continental margin (southern Tyrrhenian Sea), document the occurrence of mound and pockmark features, revealing fluid escape processes. Along this margin, morphology of the high-gradient continental slope is irregular due to the presence of structural highs, slope failures and canyons, and is interrupted by flat areas at a mean depth of 1500 m. Seismostratigraphic analysis tools and methods were used to identify fluid escape structures and to work out a classification on the basis of their morpho-acoustic characteristics. The detailed 3D ba…
The holocene marine record of unrest, volcanism, and hydrothermal activity of campi flegrei and somma-vesuvius
2020
Abstract This chapter illustrates the marine record of a spectrum of volcanic, hydrothermal, and sedimentary features that characterize the Latest Pleistocene–Holocene evolution of the Naples Bay offshore Campi Flegrei and Somma–Vesuvius. The work is based on review of previous literature integrated with interpretation of new high-resolution marine Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) derived from swath bathymetry surveys and high-resolution reflection seismic profiles calibrated with marine gravity core data. Seismic profiles from Pozzuoli Bay provide detailed images of the ring fault system and resurgent dome associated with the evolution of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) collapse caldera and …
Inversion of gravity anomalies over spreading oceanic ridges
2005
Abstract Models of spreading ocean ridges are derived by Bayesian gravity inversion with geophysical and geodynamic a priori information. The aim is to investigate the influence of spreading rate, plate dynamics and tectonic framework on crust and upper mantle structure by comparing the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR), the Indian Ocean Ridge (IND) and the East Pacific Rise (PAC). They differ in mean spreading rate, dynamic settings, as attached slabs, and plume interaction. Topography or bathymetry, gravity, isostasy, seismology and geology, etc. are averaged along the ridges and guide the construction of initial 2D models, including features as mean plumes, i.e. averaged along the ridge. This is …
The building blocks of continental crust: Evidence for a major change in the tectonic setting of continental growth at the end of the Archean
2013
Abstract Oceanic arcs are commonly cited as primary building blocks of continents, yet modern oceanic arcs are mostly subducted. Also, lithosphere buoyancy considerations show that oceanic arcs (even those with a felsic component) should readily subduct. With the exception of the Arabian–Nubian orogen, terranes in post-Archean accretionary orogens comprise 50%) produced in continental arcs. Felsic igneous rocks in oceanic arcs are depleted in incompatible elements compared to average continental crust and to felsic igneous rocks from continental arcs. They have lower Th/Yb, Nb/Yb, Sr/Y and La/Yb ratios, reflecting shallow mantle sources in which garnet did not exist in the restite during m…
First Evidence of Contourite Drifts in the North-Western Sicilian Active Continental Margin (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea)
2021
We present the results of an integrated geomorphological and seismo-stratigraphic study based on high resolution marine data acquired in the north-western Sicilian continental margin. We document for the first time five contourite drifts (marked as EM1a, EM2b, EM2, EM3a, and EM3b), located in the continental slope at depths between ca. 400 and 1500 m. EM1a,b have been interpreted as elongated mounded drifts. EM1a,b are ca. 3 km long, 1.3 km wide, and have a maximum thickness of 36 m in their center that thins northwards, while EM1b is smaller with a thickness up to 24 m. They are internally characterized by mounded seismic packages dominated by continuous and parallel reflectors. EM2 is loc…