Deformation-related volcanism in the Pacific Ocean linked to the Hawaiian-Emperor bend

Ocean islands, seamounts and volcanic ridges are thought to form above mantle plumes. Yet, this mechanism cannot explain many volcanic features on the Pacific Ocean floor and some might instead be caused by cracks in the oceanic crust linked to the reorganization of plate motions. A distinctive bend in the Hawaiian–Emperor volcanic chain has been linked to changes in the direction of motion of the Pacific Plate, movement of the Hawaiian plume, or a combination of both. However, these links are uncertain because there is no independent record that precisely dates tectonic events that affected the Pacific Plate. Here we analyse the geochemical characteristics of lava samples collected from the Musicians Ridges, lines of volcanic seamounts formed close to the Hawaiian–Emperor bend. We find that the geochemical signature of these lavas is unlike typical ocean island basalts and instead resembles mid-ocean ridge basalts. We infer that the seamounts are unrelated to mantle plume activity and instead formed in an extensional setting, due to deformation of the Pacific Plate. 40Ar/39Ar dating reveals that the Musicians Ridges formed during two time windows that bracket the time of formation of the Hawaiian–Emperor bend, 53–52 and 48–47 million years ago. We conclude that the Hawaiian–Emperor bend was formed by plate–mantle reorganization, potentially triggered by a series of subduction events at the Pacific Plate margins

Interpreting and reporting ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronologic data

The ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating method is among the most versatile of geochronometers, having the potential to date a broad variety of K-bearing materials spanning from the time of Earth’s formation into the historical realm. Measurements using modern noble-gas mass spectrometers are now producing ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dates with analytical uncertainties of ∼0.1%, thereby providing precise time constraints for a wide range of geologic and extraterrestrial processes. Analyses of increasingly smaller subsamples have revealed age dispersion in many materials, including some minerals used as neutron fluence monitors. Accordingly, interpretive strategies are evolving to address observed dispersion in dates from a single sample. Moreover, inferring a geologically meaningful “age” from a measured “date” or set of dates is dependent on the geological problem being addressed and the salient assumptions associated with each set of data. We highlight requirements for collateral information that will better constrain the interpretation of ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data sets, including those associated with single-crystal fusion analyses, incremental heating experiments, and in situ analyses of microsampled domains. To ensure the utility and viability of published results, we emphasize previous recommendations for reporting ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data and the related essential metadata, with the amendment that data conform to evolving standards of being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) by both humans and computers. Our examples provide guidance for the presentation and interpretation of ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dates to maximize their interdisciplinary usage, reproducibility, and longevity

Seamounts

Definition: Seamounts are literally mountains rising from the seafloor. More specifically, they are “any geographically isolated topographic feature on the seafloor taller than 100 m, including ones whose summit regions may temporarily emerge above sea level, but not including features that are located on continental shelves or that are part of other major landmasses” (Staudigel et al., 2010). The term “guyot” can be used for seamounts having a truncated cone shape with a flat summit produced by erosion at sea level (Hess, 1946), development of carbonate reefs (e.g., Flood, 1999), or partial collapse due to caldera formation (e.g., Batiza et al., 1984). Seamounts <1,000 m tall are sometimes referred to as “knolls” (e.g., Hirano et al., 2008). “Petit spots” are a newly discovered subset of sea knolls confined to the bulge of subducting oceanic plates of oceanic plates seaward of deep-sea trenches (Hirano et al., 2006)

Science Priorities for Seamounts: Research Links to Conservation and Management

Seamounts shape the topography of all ocean basins and can be hotspots of biological activity in the deep sea. The Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam) was a field program that examined seamounts as part of the global Census of Marine Life (CoML) initiative from 2005 to 2010. CenSeam progressed seamount science by collating historical data, collecting new data, undertaking regional and global analyses of seamount biodiversity, mapping species and habitat distributions, challenging established paradigms of seamount ecology, developing new hypotheses, and documenting the impacts of human activities on seamounts. However, because of the large number of seamounts globally, much about the structure, function and connectivity of seamount ecosystems remains unexplored and unknown. Continual, and potentially increasing, threats to seamount resources from fishing and seabed mining are creating a pressing demand for research to inform conservation and management strategies. To meet this need, intensive science effort in the following areas will be needed: 1) Improved physical and biological data; of particular importance is information on seamount location, physical characteristics (e.g. habitat heterogeneity and complexity), more complete and intensive biodiversity inventories, and increased understanding of seamount connectivity and faunal dispersal; 2) New human impact data; these shall encompass better studies on the effects of human activities on seamount ecosystems, as well as monitoring long-term changes in seamount assemblages following impacts (e.g. recovery); 3) Global data repositories; there is a pressing need for more comprehensive fisheries catch and effort data, especially on the high seas, and compilation or maintenance of geological and biodiversity databases that underpin regional and global analyses; 4) Application of support tools in a data-poor environment; conservation and management will have to increasingly rely on predictive modelling techniques, critical evaluation of environmental surrogates as faunal “proxies”, and ecological risk assessment

Paleogeographic evolution of the Southern Pannonian Basin: 40Ar/39Ar age constraints on the Miocene continental series of notthern Croatia

The Pannonian Basin, originating during the Early Miocene, is a large extensional basin incorporated between Alpine, Carpathian and Dinaride fold-thrust belts. Back-arc extensional tectonics triggered deposition of up to 500-m-thick continental fluvio-lacustrine deposits distributed in numerous sub-basins of the Southern Pannonian Basin. Extensive andesitic and dacitic volcanism accompanied the syn-rift deposition and caused a number of pyroclastic intercalations. Here, we analyze two volcanic ash layers located at the base and top of the continental series. The lowermost ash from Mt. Kalnik yielded an 40Ar/39Ar age of 18.07 ± 0.07 Ma. This indicates that the marine-continental transition in the Slovenia-Zagorje Basin, coinciding with the onset of rifting tectonics in the Southern Pannonian Basin, occurs roughly at the Eggenburgian/ Ottnangian boundary of the regional Paratethys time scale. This age proves the synchronicity of initial rifting in the Southern Pannonian Basin with the beginning of sedimentation in the Dinaride Lake System. Beside geodynamic evolution, the two regions also share a biotic evolutionary history: both belong to the same ecoregion, which we designate here as the Illyrian Bioprovince. The youngest volcanic ash level is sampled at the Glina and Karlovac sub-depressions, and both sites yield the same 40Ar/39Ar age of 15.91 ± 0.06 and 16.03 ± 0.06 Ma, respectively. This indicates that lacustrine sedimentation in the Southern Pannonian Basin continued at least until the earliest Badenian. The present results provide not only important bench marks on duration of initial synrift in the Pannonian Basin System, but also deliver substantial backbone data for paleogeographic reconstructions in Central and Southeastern Europe around the Early–Middle Miocene transition

Intraplate Seamounts as a Window into Deep Earth Processes

Seamounts are windows into the deep Earth that are helping to elucidate various deep Earth processes. For example, thermal and mechanical properties of oceanic lithosphere can be determined from the flexing of oceanic crust caused by the growth of seamounts on top of it. Seamount trails also are excellent recorders of absolute plate tectonic motions and provide key insights into the relationships among plate motion, plume motion, whole-Earth motion, and mantle convection. And, because seamounts are created from the partial melts of deep mantle sources, they offer unique glimpses into the chemical development and heterogeneity of Earth's deepest regions. Current research efforts focus on resolving the fundamental differences between magmas generated by passive upwelling from upper mantle regions and deep mantle plumes rising from the core-mantle boundary, mapping the different modes of mantle plumes and mantle convection, reconciling fixed and nonfixed mantle plumes, and understanding the prolonged volcanic evolution of seamounts. The role of intraplate seamounts is pivotal to this research, and we must collect vast amounts more geochemical and geophysical data to advance our knowledge. These data needs leave the ocean wide open for future seamount exploration

IODP Expedition 330: Drilling the Louisville Seamount Trail in the SW Pacific

Deep-Earth convection can be understood by studying hotspot volcanoes that form where mantle plumes rise up and intersect the lithosphere, the Earth's rigid outer layer. Hotspots characteristically leave age-progressive trails of volcanoes and seamounts on top of oceanic lithosphere, which in turn allow us to decipher the motion of these plates relative to "fixed" deep-mantle plumes, and their (isotope) geochemistry provides insights into the long-term evolution of mantle source regions. However, it is strongly suggested that the Hawaiian mantle plume moved ~15° south between 80 and 50 million years ago. This raises a fundamental question about other hotspot systems in the Pacific, whether or not their mantle plumes experienced a similar amount and direction of motion. Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 330 to the Louisville Seamounts showed that the Louisville hotspot in the South Pacific behaved in a different manner, as its mantle plume remained more or less fixed around 48°S latitude during that same time period. Our findings demonstrate that the Pacific hotspots move independently and that their trajectories may be controlled by differences in subduction zone geometry. Additionally, shipboard geochemistry data shows that, in contrast to Hawaiian volcanoes, the construction of the Louisville Seamounts doesn’t involve a shield-building phase dominated by tholeiitic lavas, and trace elements confirm the rather homogenous nature of the Louisville mantle source. Both observations set Louisville apart from the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount trail, whereby the latter has been erupting abundant tholeiites (characteristically up to 95% in volume) and which exhibit a large variability in (isotope) geochemistry and their mantle source components

Seamount Subduction and Earthquakes

Seamounts are ubiquitous features of the seafloor that form part of the fabric of oceanic crust. When a seamount enters a subduction zone, it has a major affect on forearc morphology, the uplift history of the island arc, and the structure of the downgoing slab. It is not known, however, what controls whether a seamount is accreted to the forearc or carried down into the subduction zone and recycled into the deep mantle. Of societal interest is the role seamounts play in geohazards, in particular, the generation of large earthquakes. © 2010 by The Oceanography Society

In search of long-term hemispheric asymmetry in the geomagnetic field: Results from high northern latitudes

Investigations of the behavior of the geomagnetic field on geological timescales rely on globally distributed data sets from dated lava flows. We present the first suitable data from the Arctic region, comprising 37 paleomagnetic directions from Jan Mayen (71°N, 0.2-461 ka) and Spitsbergen (79°N, 1-9.2 Ma) and five paleointensity results. Dispersion of the Arctic virtual geomagnetic poles over the last 2 Ma (27.3 ± 4.0°) is significantly lower than that from published Antarctic data sets (32.1 ± 5.0°). Arctic average virtual axial dipole moment (76.8 ± 24.3 ZAm2) is high in comparison to Antarctica over the same time interval (34.8 ± 8.2 ZAm2), although the data are still too sparse in the Arctic to be definitive. These data support a long-lived hemispheric asymmetry of the magnetic field, contrasting higher, more stable fields in the north with lower average strength and more variable field directions in the south. Such features require significant non-axial-dipole contributions over 105-106 years. © 2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved

In search of long-term hemispheric asymmetry in the geomagnetic field: Results from high northern latitudes

Investigations of the behavior of the geomagnetic field on geological timescales rely on globally distributed data sets from dated lava flows. We present the first suitable data from the Arctic region, comprising 37 paleomagnetic directions from Jan Mayen (71°N, 0.2-461 ka) and Spitsbergen (79°N, 1-9.2 Ma) and five paleointensity results. Dispersion of the Arctic virtual geomagnetic poles over the last 2 Ma (27.3 ± 4.0°) is significantly lower than that from published Antarctic data sets (32.1 ± 5.0°). Arctic average virtual axial dipole moment (76.8 ± 24.3 ZAm2) is high in comparison to Antarctica over the same time interval (34.8 ± 8.2 ZAm2), although the data are still too sparse in the Arctic to be definitive. These data support a long-lived hemispheric asymmetry of the magnetic field, contrasting higher, more stable fields in the north with lower average strength and more variable field directions in the south. Such features require significant non-axial-dipole contributions over 105-106 years. © 2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved