Night-migratory songbirds possess a magnetic compass in both eyes

Previous studies on European robins, Erithacus rubecula, and Australian silvereyes, Zosterops lateralis, had suggested that magnetic compass information is being processed only in the right eye and left brain hemisphere of migratory birds. However, recently it was demonstrated that both garden warblers, Sylvia borin, and European robins have a magnetic compass in both eyes. These results raise the question if the strong lateralization effect observed in earlier experiments might have arisen from artifacts or from differences in experimental conditions rather than reflecting a true all-or-none lateralization of the magnetic compass in European robins. Here we show that (1) European robins having only their left eye open can orient in their seasonally appropriate direction both during autumn and spring, i.e. there are no strong lateralization differences between the outward journey and the way home, that (2) their directional choices are based on the standard inclination compass as they are turned 180° when the inclination is reversed, and that (3) the capability to use the magnetic compass does not depend on monocular learning or intraocular transfer as it is already present in the first tests of the birds with only one eye open

Bending-related faulting and mantle serpentinization at the Nicaraguan subduction zone

At a convergent margin large amounts of structurally bound water are carried into the Earth’s interior and - as the subducting plate descends and the temperature rises - are driven off to some extent into the mantle wedge, where they are thought to trigger intermediate-depth earthquakes in the Wadati-Benioff zone and melting under volcanic arcs. However, a largely uncertain fraction outlasts sub-arc fluid release and hence enters the deeper mantle, which leads to a connection between the oceans and the Earth’s deep water cycle. Thus, a detailed knowledge of the water budget of a subduction zone is not only important to understand arc volcanism, but as well to comprehend the chemical development of the Earth’s mantle. For this purpose, profound information about the amount of water that is subducted along with the oceanic plate is indispensable. The present thesis uses geophysical methods to determine the degree of hydration of the Cocos Plate offshore Nicaragua, which is subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate. In general it was assumed that structured water is transported into the slab in sediments and the upper crust only, though in recent years growing evidence suggested that lower crust and upper mantle might contain capacious amounts of fluids as well, since the bending of the incoming oceanic plate leads to a reactivation or creation of normal faults (bend-faults), which are visible in batrymetric data and have been inferred to cut deep enough into the plate to provide a pathway for seawater to penetrate into the lithosphere, changing ”dry” peridotites to ”wet” serpentinites, which contain up to 13% of water. Such a mechanism could transport much more fluids into the earth’s interior than any other considered possibility. However, the cutting depth of these bend-faults and hence the depth that seawater could penetrate into the mantle was not well-defined, for one reason since focal depth of earthquakes associated with the bend-faults were poorly known. Yet previous studies assumed cutting depths such that serpentinization is firstly restricted by its thermal limit of 600± C. This study uses openly accessible, global broadband data of earthquakes offshore Central America as well as an unique dataset from a local long-period earthquake monitoring network offshore Nicaragua, to determine typical focal depths off earthquakes at the trench-outer rise and further relates these focal depths to the cutting depths of bend-faults. In addition, a full 3d-tomographic inversion that consistently integrates seismic airgun blasts and local as well as regional seismicity, could show reduced seismic mantle velocities at the outer rise and nearby the deep sea trench with an evolutionary trend towards it. Best explained is this by a fractured and ii partly serpentinized lithosphere. The use of regional sources (i.e. earthquakes in distances of ¸200 km from the seismic network) in the tomographic inversion process made it possible, for the first time, to reflect the entire brittle lithosphere. In a second approach, relative arrival times of large earthquakes that occurred during the deployment of the seismic network were investigated. Again, it could be shown that seismic mantle velocities decrease in accordance with the onset of bend-faults in the bathymetry. But not only seismic velocities decrease nearby the trench, the average moment magnitude of outer rise earthquakes does as well, though the number of events increases significantly. We explain this a weakened lithosphere and hence a reduced yield strain, which again suggests an occurrence of serpentinite. However, tomographic images suggest that the area of reduced seismic velocities and in turn possible serpentinization does not reach the cutting depth of bend-faults nor the depth of the 600± C isotherm. Focal mechanisms of several earthquakes were determined via moment tensor inversion and forward modelling respectively and it could be shown that where seismic velocities are reduced only tensional ruptures occur, which allow for water infiltration, meanwhile the area beneath is dominated by compressional rupture behaviour, which presents a barrier for seawater. This result does not only confirm and enlarge flexure models of subducting plates [Chapple and Forsyth, 1979; Christensen and Ruff, 1988], but also establishes a coherent connection between stress distribution in the incoming plate and penetration depth of seawater and is the first study in this vein

Seismic evidence of tectonic control on the depth of water influx into incoming oceanic plates at subduction trenches

Water transported by slabs into the mantle at subduction zones plays key roles in tectonics, magmatism, fluid and volatiles fluxes, and most likely in the chemical evolution of the Earth's oceans and mantle. Yet, incorporation of water into oceanic plates before subduction is a poorly understood process. Several studies suggest that plates may acquire most water at subduction trenches because the ocean crust and uppermost mantle there are intensely faulted caused by bending and/or slab pull, and display anomalously low seismic velocities. The low velocities are interpreted to arise from a combination of fluid-filled fractures associated to normal faulting and mineral transformation by hydration. Mantle hydration by transformation of nominally dry peridotite to water-rich serpentinite could potentially create the largest fluid reservoir in slabs and is therefore the most relevant for the transport of water in the deep mantle. The depth of fracturing by normal-fault earthquakes is usually not well constrained, but could potentially create deep percolation paths for water that might hydrate up to tens of kilometers into the mantle, restrained only by serpentine stability. Yet, interpretation of deep intraplate mineral alteration remains speculative because active-source seismic experiments have sampled only the uppermost few kilometers of mantle, leaving the depth-extent of anomalous velocities and their relation to faulting unconstrained. Here we use a joint inversion of active-source seismic data, and both local and regional earthquakes to map the three dimensional distribution of anomalous velocities under a seismic network deployed at the trench seafloor. We found that anomalous velocities are restrained to the depth of normal-fault micro-earthquake activity recorded in the network, and are considerably shallower than either the rupture depth of teleseismic, normal-fault earthquakes, or the limit of serpentine stability. Extensional micro-earthquakes indicate that each fault in the region slips every 2–3 months which may facilitate regular water percolation. Deeper, teleseismic earthquakes are comparatively infrequent, and possibly do not cause significant fracturing that remains open long enough to promote alteration detectable with our seismic study. Our results show that the stability field of serpentine does not constrain the depth of potential mantle hydration

Controls of faulting and reaction kinetics on serpentinization and double Benioff zones

The subduction of partially serpentinized oceanic mantle may potentially be the key geologic process leading to the regassing of Earth's mantle and also has important consequences for subduction zone processes such as element cycling, slab deformation, and intermediate-depth seismicity. However, little is known about the quantity of water that is retained in the slab during mantle serpentinization and the pattern of serpentinization that may occur during bending-related faulting; an initial state that is essential for quantifying subsequent dehydration processes. We present a 2-D reactive-flow model simulating hydration processes in the presence of faulting at the trench outer-rise. We find that the temperature dependence of the serpentinization rate in conjunction with outer-rise faulting results in plate age and speed dependent patterns of hydration. Serpentinization also results in a reduction in surface heat flux toward the trench caused by advective downflow of seawater into the reaction region. Observed heat flow reductions are larger than the reduction due to the minimum-water downflow needed for partial serpentinization, predicting that active hydrothermal vents and chemosynthetic communities should also be associated with bend-fault serpentinization. Our model results agree with previous studies that the lower plane of double Benioff zones can be generated due to dehydration of serpentinized mantle at depth. More importantly, the depth-dependent pattern of serpentinization including reaction kinetics predicts a separation between the two Benioff planes consistent with seismic observations

Serpentinization in the trench-outer rise region offshore of Nicaragua: constraints from seismic refraction and wide-angle data

Recent seismic evidence suggested that most oceanic plate hydration is associated with trench-outer rise faulting prior to subduction. Hydration at trenches may have a significant impact on the subduction zone water cycle. Previous seismic experiments conducted to the northwest of Nicoya Peninsula, Northern Costa Rica, have shown that the subducting Cocos lithosphere is pervasively altered, which was interpreted to be due to both hydration (serpentinization) and fracturing of the crustal and upper-mantle rocks. New seismic wide-angle reflection and refraction data were collected along two profiles, running parallel to the Middle American trench axis offshore of central Nicaragua, revealing lateral changes of the seismic properties of the subducting lithosphere. Seismic structure along both profiles is characterized by low velocities both in the crust and upper mantle. Velocities in the uppermost mantle are found to be in the range 7.3–7.5 km s−1; thus are 8–10 per cent lower than velocities typical for unaltered peridotites and hence confirm the assumption that serpentinization is a common process at the trench-outer rise area offshore of Nicaragua. In addition, a prominent velocity anomaly occurred within the crust beneath two seamounts. Here, velocity reduction may indicate increased porosity and perhaps permeability, supporting the idea that seamounts serve as sites for water percolation and circulation

Seismicity of the incoming plate and forearc near the Mariana Trench recorded by ocean bottom seismographs

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 21(4), (2020): e2020GC008953, doi:10.1029/2020GC008953.Earthquakes near oceanic trenches are important for studying incoming plate bending and updip thrust zone seismogenesis, yet are poorly constrained using seismographs on land. We use an ocean bottom seismograph (OBS) deployment spanning both the incoming Pacific Plate and the forearc to study seismicity near the Mariana Trench. The yearlong deployment in 2012–2013 consisted of 20 broadband OBSs and 5 suspended hydrophones, with an additional 59 short period OBSs and hydrophones recording for 1 month. We locate 1,692 earthquakes using a nonlinear method with a 3D velocity model constructed from active source profiles and surface wave tomography results. Events occurring seaward of the trench occur to depths of ~35 km below the seafloor, and focal mechanisms of the larger events indicate normal faulting corresponding to plate bending. Significant seismicity emerges about 70 km seaward from the trench, and the seismicity rate increases continuously towards the trench, indicating that the largest bending deformation occurs near the trench axis. These plate‐bending earthquakes occur along faults that facilitate the hydration of the subducting plate, and the lateral and depth distribution of earthquakes is consistent with low‐velocity regions imaged in previous studies. The forearc is marked by a heterogeneous distribution of low magnitude (<5 Mw) thrust zone seismicity, possibly due to the rough incoming plate topography and/or serpentinization of the forearc. A sequence of thrust earthquakes occurs at depths ~10 km below seafloor and within 20 km of the trench axis, demonstrating that the megathrust is seismically active nearly to the trench.We thank the captains, crew, and science teams on the R/V Thompson, Langseth and Melville, Dr. Patrick Shore for providing data management and technical support, and Ivan Komarov and Zhengyang Zhou for assistance with data analysis. We thank Ingo Grevemeyer and an anonymous reviewer for their comments to improve the manuscript. Instrumentation and technical support was provided by the PASSCAL program of the Incorporated Research Institutions in Seismology (IRIS) and the Woods Hole, Lamont‐Doherty, and Scripps facilities of the Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrumentation Pool (OBSIP). Funding was provided by the MARGINS/GeoPRISMS program through NSF grant OCE‐0841074 (D.A.W.) and the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Fellowship program at Washington University in Saint Louis. Raw seismic data used in this study are available through the Data Management Center of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (http://www.iris.edu/dms/nodes/dmc) under network IDs XF and MI.2020-10-0

Deep lithospheric structures along the southern central Chile Margin from wide-angle P-wave modellilng

Crustal- and upper-mantle structures of the subduction zone in south central Chile, between 42 degrees S and 46 degrees S, are determined from seismic wide-angle reflection and refraction data, using the seismic ray tracing method to calculate minimum parameter models. Three profiles along differently aged segments of the subducting Nazca Plate were analysed in order to study subduction zone structure dependencies related to the age, that is, thermal state, of the incoming plate. The age of the oceanic crust at the trench ranges from 3 Ma on the southernmost profile, immediately north of the Chile triple junction, to 6.5 Ma old about 100 km to the north, and to 14.5 Ma old another 200 km further north, off the Island of Chiloe. Remarkable similarities appear in the structures of both the incoming as well as the overriding plate. The oceanic Nazca Plate is around 5 km thick, with a slightly increasing thickness northward, reflecting temperature changes at the time of crustal generation. The trench basin is about 2 km thick except in the south where the Chile Ridge is close to the deformation front and only a small, 800-m-thick trench infill could develop. In south central Chile, typically three quarters (1.5 km) of the trench sediments subduct below the decollement in the subduction channel. To the north and south of the study area, only about one quarter to one third of the sediments subducts, the rest is accreted above. Similarities in the overriding plate are the width of the active accretionary prism, 35-50 km, and a strong lateral crustal velocity gradient zone about 75-80 km landward from the deformation front, where landward upper-crustal velocities of over 5.0-5.4 km s&lt;SU-1&lt;/SU decrease seaward to around 4.5 km s&lt;SU-1&lt;/SU within about 10 km, which possibly represents a palaeo-backstop. This zone is also accompanied by strong intraplate seismicity. Differences in the subduction zone structures exist in the outer rise region, where the northern profile exhibits a clear bulge of uplifted oceanic lithosphere prior to subduction whereas the younger structures have a less developed outer rise. This plate bending is accompanied by strongly reduced rock velocities on the northern profile due to fracturing and possible hydration of the crust and upper mantle. The southern profiles do not exhibit such a strong alteration of the lithosphere, although this effect may be counteracted by plate cooling effects, which are reflected in increasing rock velocities away from the spreading centre. Overall there appears little influence of incoming plate age on the subduction zone structure which may explain why the M-w = 9.5 great Chile earthquake from 1960 ruptured through all these differing age segments. The rupture area, however, appears to coincide with a relatively thick subduction channel