Visual observations of the sea floor subduction line in the middle-america trench

Four dives were made to the floor of the Middle-America Trench with the U.S. Navy's deep research submersible DSV Turtle. The area investigated is located between Costa Rica and the Cocos Ridge where the depth of the trench floor does not exceed the 2000-meter capability of the submersible. At the axis of the trench floor a series of steep northeast-facing scarps 10 to 20 meters high lie parallel to the trench axis. Here oceanic crust appears to have been carried down by near-vertical normal vaults of small displacement. Between these small scarps and the landward wall of the trench a narrow line of recent deformation interrupts a smooth apron. Unconsolidated sediments are thrust in sharply serrated piles and cut by sharp-edged chasms. This line of deformation is interpreted as the present sea floor trace of crustal subduction.     

Seismic structure of the southern East pacific rise

Seismic data from the ultrafast-spreading (150 to 162 millimeters per year) southern East Pacific Rise show that the rise axis is underlain by a thin (less than 200 meters thick) extrusive volcanic layer (seismic layer 2A) that thickens rapidly off axis. Also beneath the rise axis is a narrow (less than 1 kilometer wide) melt sill that is in some places less than 1000 meters below the sea floor. The small dimensions of this molten body indicate that magma chamber size does not depend strongly on spreading rate as predicted by many ridge-crest thermal models. However, the shallow depth of this body is consistent with an inverse correlation between magma chamber depth and spreading rate. These observations indicate that the paradigm of ridge crest magma chambers as small, sill-like, midcrustal bodies is applicable to a wide range of intermediate- and fast-spreading ridges.     

Three-dimensional splay fault geometry and implications for tsunami generation

Megasplay faults, very long thrust faults that rise from the subduction plate boundary megathrust and intersect the sea floor at the landward edge of the accretionary prism, are thought to play a role in tsunami genesis. We imaged a megasplay thrust system along the Nankai Trough in three dimensions, which allowed us to map the splay fault geometry and its lateral continuity. The megasplay is continuous from the main plate interface fault upwards to the sea floor, where it cuts older thrust slices of the frontal accretionary prism. The thrust geometry and evidence of large-scale slumping of surficial sediments show that the fault is active and that the activity has evolved toward the landward direction with time, contrary to the usual seaward progression of accretionary thrusts. The megasplay fault has progressively steepened, substantially increasing the potential for vertical uplift of the sea floor with slip. We conclude that slip on the megasplay fault most likely contributed to generating devastating historic tsunamis, such as the 1944 moment magnitude 8.1 Tonankai event, and it is this geometry that makes this margin and others like it particularly prone to tsunami genesis.     

Explosive deep water basalt in the sumisu backarc rift

Eruption of 1-million-year-old tholeiitic basalt >1800 meters below sea level (>18 megapascals) in a backarc rift behind the Bonin arc produced a scoriaceous breccia similar in some respects to that formed during subaerial eruptions. Explosion of the magma is thought to have produced frothy agglutinate which welded either on the sea floor or in a submarine eruption column. The resulting 135-meter-thick pyroclastic deposit has paleomagnetic inclinations that are random at a scale of <2.5 meters. High magmatic water content, which is about 1.3 percent by weight after vesiculation, contributed to the explosivity.     

Elimination of two reef-building hydrocorals following the 1982-83 el nino warming event

One probable extinction and one range reduction of eastern Pacific reef-building hydrocoral (Millepora) species mark the first documented cases of species eliminations resulting from the worldwide 1980s coral reef bleaching events. Two of 12 Panamanian coral species were eliminated suddenly from their former ranges by prolonged high sea temperatures during the 1982-83 El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation event. Three conditions contributed to their demise: high sensitivity to sea warming, populations confined to a small geographic area, and bathymetric restriction to the euphotic zone (相似文献   

Splay fault branching along the Nankai subduction zone

Seismic reflection profiles reveal steeply landward-dipping splay faults in the rupture area of the magnitude (M) 8.1 Tonankai earthquake in the Nankai subduction zone. These splay faults branch upward from the plate-boundary interface (that is, the subduction zone) at a depth of approximately 10 kilometers, approximately 50 to 55 kilometers landward of the trough axis, breaking through the upper crustal plate. Slip on the active splay fault may be an important mechanism that accommodates the elastic strain caused by relative plate motion.     

Extending the sub-sea-floor biosphere

Sub-sea-floor sediments may contain two-thirds of Earth's total prokaryotic biomass. However, this has its basis in data extrapolation from ~500-meter to 4-kilometer depths, whereas the deepest documented prokaryotes are from only 842 meters. Here, we provide evidence for low concentrations of living prokaryotic cells in the deepest (1626 meters below the sea floor), oldest (111 million years old), and potentially hottest (~100 degrees C) marine sediments investigated. These Newfoundland margin sediments also have DNA sequences related to thermophilic and/or hyperthermophilic Archaea. These form two unique clusters within Pyrococcus and Thermococcus genera, suggesting unknown, uncultured groups are present in deep, hot, marine sediments (~54 degrees to 100 degrees C). Sequences of anaerobic methane-oxidizing Archaea were also present, suggesting a deep biosphere partly supported by methane. These findings demonstrate that the sub-sea-floor biosphere extends to at least 1600 meters below the sea floor and probably deeper, given an upper temperature limit for prokaryotic life of at least 113 degrees C and increasing thermogenic energy supply with depth.     

Evidence for sediment eruption on deep sea floor, gulf of Mexico

A large crater has been discovered on the sea floor, Gulf of Mexico, in a water depth of 2176 meters. Deep-tow high-resolution imagery shows that the crater is cut into a low hill surrounded by near-surface concentric faults. Approximately 2 million cubic meters of ejected sediment forms a peripheral debris field. The low hill and faults may be related to mud diapirism or intrusion of gas hydrates into near-surface sediments. A recent eruption evacuated sediments from the crater, apparently because of release of overpressured petrogenic gas.     

Chemosynthetic mussels at a brine-filled pockmark in the northern gulf of Mexico

A large (540 square meters) bed of Bathymodiolus n. sp. (Mytilidae: Bivalvia) rings a pool of hypersaline (121.35 practical salinity units) brine at a water depth of 650 meters on the continental slope south of Louisiana. The anoxic brine (dissolved oxygen 相似文献   

Displacement above the hypocenter of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake

The moment magnitude (M(w)) = 9.0 2011 Tohoku-Oki mega-thrust earthquake occurred off the coast of northeastern Japan. Combining Global Positioning System (GPS) and acoustic data, we detected very large sea-floor movements associated with this event directly above the focal region. An area with more than 20 meters of horizontal displacement, that is, four times larger than those detected on land, stretches several tens of kilometers long along the trench; the largest amount reaches about 24 meters toward east-southeast just above the hypocenter. Furthermore, nearly 3 meters of vertical uplift occurred, contrary to observed terrestrial subsidence.     

Co-seismic strike-slip and rupture length produced by the 2001 Ms 8.1 Central Kunlun earthquake

Field investigations show that the surface wave magnitude (Ms) 8.1 Central Kunlun earthquake (Tibetan plateau) of 14 November 2001 produced a nearly 400-kilometer-long surface rupture zone, with as much as 16.3 meters of left-lateral strike-slip along the active Kunlun fault in northern Tibet. The rupture length and maximum displacement are the largest among the co-seismic surface rupture zones reported on so far. The strike-slip motion and the large rupture length generated by the earthquake indicate that the Kunlun fault partitions its deformation into an eastward extrusion of Tibet to accommodate the continuing penetration of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate.     

Supershrimp: deep bioturbation in the strait of canso, nova scotia

Axius serratus, a crustacean thought to be extremely rare, was discovered in large numbers in polluted regions of the Strait of Canso. The shrimp may live deeper than 3 meters in the sediment; burrows are kept open to at least 2.5 meters. Sediment contained in old filled burrows is anomalous in its distribution of particle size and its content of water, organic carbon, and trace elements. These anomalous qualitites affect the geotechnical properties of sediments on the sea floor.     

Geothermal System at 21{degrees}N, East Pacific Rise: Physical Limits on Geothermal Fluid and Role of Adiabatic Expansion

Pressure-volume-temperature relations for water at the depth of the magma chamber at 21 degrees N on the East Pacific Rise suggest that the maximum subsurface temperature of the geothermal fluid is about 420 degrees C. Both the chemistry of the discharging fluid and thermal balance considerations indicate that the effective water/rock ratios in the geothermal system are between 7 and 16. Such low ratios preclude effective metal transport at temperatures below 350 degrees C, but metal solubilization at 400 degrees C and above is effective even at such low ratios. It is proposed that the 420 degrees C fluid ascends essentially adiabatically and in the process expands, cools, and precipitates metal sulfides within the upper few hundred meters of the sea floor and on the sea floor itself.     

Benthic storms: temporal variability in a deep-ocean nepheloid layer

Time series measurements of light scattering were made for 2(1/2) months at 20 meters above the bottom in the western North Atlantic. The highest values recorded with the nephelometer exceeded all previous measurements worldwide. Rapid changes indicated a high degree of activity near the sea floor, and some increases may have been related to atmospheric storms.     

Detection of overflow events in the shag rocks passage, scotia ridge

During an almost yearlong period of observations made with a current meter in the fracture zone between the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia, several overflow events were recorded at a depth of 3000 meters carrying cold bottom water from the Scotia Sea into the Argentine Basin. The outflow bursts of Scotia Sea bottom water, a mixing product of Weddell Sea and eastern Pacific bottom water, were associated with typical speeds of more than 28 centimeters per second toward the northwest and characteristic temperatures below 0.6 degrees C. The maximum 24-hour average speed of 65 centimeters per second, together with a temperature of 0.29 degrees C, was encountered on 14 November 1980 at a water depth of 2973 meters, 35 meters above the sea floor.     

Transient Circulation Event near the Deep Ocean Floor

On 24 January 1968, a transient deep-circulation event was recorded by a triangular array of autonomous current recorders installed 3 meters above the bottom at two of the three positions and at intervals of 3 to 1000 meters above the bottom at the third position in a depth of 3950 meters above the relatively smooth floor of the eastern North Pacific. The event interrupted a 24-hour record of relatively steady but peculiar conditions, lasted for about 1(1/2) hours, and was followed by current directions and speeds that greatly differed from those of the initial period. The event occurred over a volume of the sea of at least 2 kilometers in horizontal dimensions and 1 kilometer thick. Associated with the event were many small clockwise-rotating features extending from 3 to at least 1000 meters above the bottom and a rapidly increasing current velocity at 1000 meters. The event was probably local and may have involved convective motion, internal waves, and the passage of front. Some of the changes in horizontal velocity may have resulted from the combined effects of upwelling and the earth's rotation.     

Alteration of oceanic volcanic glass: textural evidence of microbial activity

The subsurface biosphere may constitute as much as 50 percent of Earth's biomass. Direct and indirect evidence suggests that an extensive biosphere exists in the rocks below the sea floor. This survey of basalts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans supports the hypothesis that bacteria have colonized much of the upper oceanic crust, which has a volume estimated at 10(18) cubic meters. Although this is the largest habitat on Earth, its low abundance of bacteria constitutes much less than 1 percent of Earth's biomass.     

Response of high-rise and base-isolated buildings to a hypothetical mw 7.0 blind thrust earthquake

High-rise flexible-frame buildings are commonly considered to be resistant to shaking from the largest earthquakes. In addition, base isolation has become increasingly popular for critical buildings that should still function after an earthquake. How will these two types of buildings perform if a large earthquake occurs beneath a metropolitan area? To answer this question, we simulated the near-source ground motions of a M(w) 7.0 thrust earthquake and then mathematically modeled the response of a 20-story steel-frame building and a 3-story base-isolated building. The synthesized ground motions were characterized by large displacement pulses (up to 2 meters) and large ground velocities. These ground motions caused large deformation and possible collapse of the frame building, and they required exceptional measures in the design of the base-isolated building if it was to remain functional.     

Overpressure and fluid flow in the new jersey continental slope: implications for slope failure and cold seeps

Miocene through Pleistocene sediments on the New Jersey continental slope (Ocean Drilling Program Site 1073) are undercompacted (porosity between 40 and 65%) to 640 meters below the sea floor, and this is interpreted to record fluid pressures that reach 95% of the lithostatic stress. A two-dimensional model, where rapid Pleistocene sedimentation loads permeable sandy silt of Miocene age, successfully predicts the observed pressures. The model describes how lateral pressure equilibration in permeable beds produces fluid pressures that approach the lithostatic stress where overburden is thin. This transfer of pressure may cause slope failure and drive cold seeps on passive margins around the world.     

Aerobic microbial respiration in 86-million-year-old deep-sea red clay

Microbial communities can subsist at depth in marine sediments without fresh supply of organic matter for millions of years. At threshold sedimentation rates of 1 millimeter per 1000 years, the low rates of microbial community metabolism in the North Pacific Gyre allow sediments to remain oxygenated tens of meters below the sea floor. We found that the oxygen respiration rates dropped from 10 micromoles of O(2) liter(-1) year(-1) near the sediment-water interface to 0.001 micromoles of O(2) liter(-1) year(-1) at 30-meter depth within 86 million-year-old sediment. The cell-specific respiration rate decreased with depth but stabilized at around 10(-3) femtomoles of O(2) cell(-1) day(-1) 10 meters below the seafloor. This result indicated that the community size is controlled by the rate of carbon oxidation and thereby by the low available energy flux.