Critical depth for the survival of coral islands: effects on the hawaiian archipelago

Coral islands drown when sea level rise exceeds the maximum potential of coral reefs to grow upward (about 10 millimeters per year). During the Holocene transgression (18,000 years ago to present) sea levels rose at rates of up to 10 to 20 millimeters per year, and most coral island reefs situated deeper than a critical depth of30 to 40 meters below present day sea level drowned. Coral islands that did not drown during the Holocene transgression apparently all developed on antecedent foundations shallower than critical depth. During low stands in sea level during the Pleistocene, these islands were elevated and subject to subaerial erosion. Today, in the Hawaiian Archipelago, the depth of drowned banks is inversely related to summit area; smaller banks are progressively deeper, evidently because of erosional truncation during low sea level stands. Bank summit area may therefore be an important factor determining the failure or success of coral islands.     

Fossil birds from the hawaiian islands: evidence for wholesale extinction by man before Western contact

Thousands of fossil bird bones from the Hawaiian Islands collected since 1971 include remains of at least 39 species of land birds that are not known to have survived into the historic period; this more than doubles the number of endemic species of land birds previously known from the main islands. Bones were found in deposits of late Quaternary age; most are Holocene and many are contemporaneous with Polynesian culture. The loss of species of birds appears to be due to predation and destruction of lowland habitats by humans before the arrival of Europeans. Because the historically known fauna and flora of the Hawaiian Islands represent only afraction of natural species diversity, biogeographical inferences about natural processes based only on historically known taxa may be misleading or incorrect.     

Eolian origin of quartz in soils of hawaiian islands and in pacific pelagic sediments

The particle-size distribution and oxygen-isotopic composition of quartz isolated from Hawaiian soils, east-central Pacific sediments, and tropospheric dusts are remarkably uniform. A common origin and tropospheric transport from continental land masses is suggested.     

African droughts and dust transport to the Caribbean: climate change implications

Great quantities of African dust are carried over large areas of the Atlantic and to the Caribbean during much of the year. Measurements made from 1965 to 1998 in Barbados trade winds show large interannual changes that are highly anticorrelated with rainfall in the Soudano-Sahel, a region that has suffered varying degrees of drought since 1970. Regression estimates based on long-term rainfall data suggest that dust concentrations were sharply lower during much of the 20th century before 1970, when rainfall was more normal. Because of the great sensitivity of dust emissions to climate, future changes in climate could result in large changes in emissions from African and other arid regions that, in turn, could lead to impacts on climate over large areas.     

Long-range atmospheric transport of soil dust from Asia to the tropical north pacific: temporal variability

The concentration of airborne soil dust at Enewetak Atoll(11 degrees N, 162 degrees E) in April 1979 was 2.3 micrograms per cubic meter but decreased steadily to 0.02 microgram per cubic meter over the next 5 months. The spring dust is probably derived from China; its deposition rate ( approximately 0.3 millimeter per 1000 years) suggests that it may be a significant contributor to the deep-sea sediments of the North Pacific.     

Radon-222 in the North Atlantic trade winds: its relationship to dust transport from Africa

The concentration of radon-222 in air was measured during a flight from Miami to Barbados to Dakar and return; concentrations ranged from 1 to 55 picocuries per standard cubic meter of air and were highest in areas of dense haze, which were present along most of the flight path across the Atlantic Ocean. The haze is attributed to dust originating from the arid regions of western Africa. Radon-222 may be useful as a tracer for African air parcels over the equatorial Atlantic.     

Molokai fracture zone: continuation west of the hawaiian ridge

The Molokai Fracture Zone is one of the principal east-west (striking) fracture zones between California and the mid-Pacific. On the basis of bathymetry alone, it has been assumed that the zone ended abruptly east of the Hawaiian Islands. Use of correlation techniques between bathymetric features and their magnetic anomalies in the vicinity of the islands now show that structural elements of the zone cross the islands and continue westward for at least 130 kilometers. Recent volcanism and deep rift zones of the islands parallel the zone, suggesting structural correlation between the strike of the zone and the origin of recent volcanism in the islands.     

Large volcanic aerosol load in the stratosphere linked to Asian monsoon transport

The Nabro stratovolcano in Eritrea, northeastern Africa, erupted on 13 June 2011, injecting approximately 1.3 teragrams of sulfur dioxide (SO(2)) to altitudes of 9 to 14 kilometers in the upper troposphere, which resulted in a large aerosol enhancement in the stratosphere. The SO(2) was lofted into the lower stratosphere by deep convection and the circulation associated with the Asian summer monsoon while gradually converting to sulfate aerosol. This demonstrates that to affect climate, volcanic eruptions need not be strong enough to inject sulfur directly to the stratosphere.     

Circumglobal transport of the el chichon volcanic dust cloud

The stratospheric dust cloud from the 4 April 1982 eruption of El Chichón volcano in southern Mexico was observed to travel completely around the world in a 3-week period. Images from satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were used to prepare daily maps of the location of the volcanic dust cloud, which is the largest and longest-lasting one so far observed with satellite imagery.     

Three-dimensional simulations of plume-lithosphere interaction at the hawaiian swell

Rapid lithospheric thinning by mantle plumes has not been achieved in numerical experiments performed to date. Efficient thinning depends on small-scale instabilities that convectively remove lithospheric material. These instabilities are favored by hotter plumes or stronger temperature dependence of viscosity, and a simple scaling independent of rheology controls their onset. This scaling allows extrapolation of the results of numerical experiments to the Earth's mantle. Mantle plumes between 100 and 150 kelvins hotter than the background mantle should exhibit small-scale convective rolls aligned with the plate motion. The unusual variation in heat flow across the Hawaiian swell may be due to such instabilities. It was found that the spreading of the plume creates a downwelling curtain of material that isolates it from the rest of the mantle for distances of at least 1000 kilometers from the plume origin. This isolation has important consequences for the geochemical heterogeneity of the lithosphere and upper mantle.     

Responses of hawaiian plants to volcanic sulfur dioxide: stomatal behavior and foliar injury

Hawaiian plants exposed to volcanic sulfur dioxide showed interspecific differences in leaf injury that are related to sulfur dioxide-induced changes in stomatal condutance. Species with leaves that did not close stomata developed either chlorosis or necrosis, whereas leaves of Metrosideros collina closed stomata and showed no visual symptoms of sulfur dioxide stress.     

Regular intervals between hawaiian earthquakes: implications for predicting the next event

During the years 1941 through 1983 five earthquake mainshocks of moderate magnitude occurred at regular intervals of 10.5 +/- 1.5 years within a 6-kilometer radius in Hawaii. It is proposed that these Kaoiki earthquakes will continue to occur at regular intervals because the strain accumulation rate and the strained volume remain constant. With appropriate instrumentation, it may be possible to refine predictions of subsequent Kaoiki earthquakes.     

Disruption of the mauna loa magma system by the 1868 hawaiian earthquake: geochemical evidence

To test whether a catastrophic earthquake could affect an active magma system, mean abundances (adjusted for "olivine control") of titanium, potassium, phosphorus, strontium, zirconium, and niobium of historic lavas erupted from Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaii, after 1868 were analyzed and were found to decrease sharply relative to lavas erupted before 1868. This abrupt change in lava chemistry, accompanied by a halved lava-production rate for Mauna Loa after 1877, is interpreted to reflect the disruptive effects of a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in 1868. This interpretation represents a documentable case of changes in magmatic chemical variations initiated or accelerated by a major tectonic event.     

Rare gas isotopes in hawaiian ultramafic nodules and volcanic rocks: constraint on genetic relationships

Differences in the rare gas isotopic ratios, especially the ratios of helium-3 to helium-4 and of argon-40 to argon-36, in Hawaiian ultramafic nodules and phenocrysts in volcanic rocks indicate that the nodules and phenocrysts were derived from different sources. The isotopic ratios in ultramafic nodules are similar to those in oceanic tholeiites. The phenocrysts seem to have formed in equilibrium with source materials richer in primordial components than those of the oceanic tholeiites. Mixing between the sources is quite likely.     

Cumulate xenolith in oahu, hawaii: implications for deep magma chambers and hawaiian volcanism

The maximum depth at which large (>1000 km(3)) terrestrial mafic magma chambers can form has generally been thought to be the Moho, which occurs at a mean depth of about 35 kilometers beneath the continents and 8 kilometers beneath ocean basins. However, the presence of layers of cumulus magnesium-rich spinel and olivine and intercumulus garnet in an unusual mantle xenolith from Oahu, Hawaii, suggests that this rock is a fragment of a large magma chamber that formed at a depth of about 90 kilometers; Hawaiian shield-building magmas may pond and fractionate in such magma chambers before continuing their ascent. This depth is at or near the base of the 90-million-year-old lithosphere beneath Oahu; thus, rejuvenated stage alkalic magmas containing mantle xenoliths evidently also originate below the lithosphere.