Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench
Although many of the regions on and close to the mid-ocean ridges have been extensively mapped and sampled, the abyssal intraplate regions remain essentially unsampled and unmapped, leaving huge gaps in our understanding of their geologic history and present activity. Prominent bathymetric features...
Published in: | Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography |
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ftunivgent:oai:archive.ugent.be:8560822 2023-06-11T04:15:00+02:00 Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench Devey, CW Augustin, N Brandt, A Brenke, N Köhler, J Lins Pereira, Lidia Schmidt, C Yeo, IA Brandt, Angelika Kaiser, Stefanie Riehl, Torben 2018 application/pdf https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8560822 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8560822 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.02.003 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8560822/file/8609226 eng eng https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8560822 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8560822 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.02.003 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8560822/file/8609226 No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess DEEP-SEA RESEARCH PART II-TOPICAL STUDIES IN OCEANOGRAPHY ISSN: 0967-0645 Earth and Environmental Sciences MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE ABYSSAL-PLAIN SEISMIC CONSTRAINTS HYDROTHERMAL FIELD CRUSTAL STRUCTURE TRANSVERSE RIDGE NORTH-ATLANTIC OCEAN TOPOGRAPHY TECTONICS journalArticle info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2018 ftunivgent https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.02.003 2023-05-10T22:27:23Z Although many of the regions on and close to the mid-ocean ridges have been extensively mapped and sampled, the abyssal intraplate regions remain essentially unsampled and unmapped, leaving huge gaps in our understanding of their geologic history and present activity. Prominent bathymetric features in these intraplate regions are fracture zones. Here we present bathymetric and sampling information from a transatlantic transect along the Vema Fracture Zone (ca. 11(degrees)N), covering crustal ages from 109 - 0 Ma on the African plate and 0-62 Ma on the South American plate. The Vema Fracture Zone is the intraplate trace of the active Vema Transform plate boundary, which offsets the present-day Mid-Atlantic Ridge by ca. 300 km left-laterally, juxtaposing zero-age crust with crust of 20 million years age. Our results show clear evidence of tectonic activity along most of the Fracture Zone, in most places likely associated with active fluid flow. Within the active Vema Transform at crustal ages of ca. 10 Ma we found clear indications of fluid flow both in the sediments and the overlying water column. This region is > 120 km from the nearest spreading axis and increases by almost an order of magnitude the maximum off-axis distance that active hydrothermal discharge has been found on the oceanic crust. Sampling of the igneous seafloor was possible at all crustal ages and the accretionary fabric imprinted on the plate during its production was prominent everywhere. Seafloor sediments show signs of extensive bioturbation. In one area, high concentrations of spherical Mn-nodules were also found and sampled. At the end of the transect we also mapped and sampled the Puerto Rico Trough, a > 8000 m-deep basin north of the Caribbean arc. Here the seafloor morphology is more complicated and strongly influenced by transpressive tectonics. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Ghent University Academic Bibliography Mid-Atlantic Ridge Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 148 7 20 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Ghent University Academic Bibliography |
op_collection_id |
ftunivgent |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth and Environmental Sciences MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE ABYSSAL-PLAIN SEISMIC CONSTRAINTS HYDROTHERMAL FIELD CRUSTAL STRUCTURE TRANSVERSE RIDGE NORTH-ATLANTIC OCEAN TOPOGRAPHY TECTONICS |
spellingShingle |
Earth and Environmental Sciences MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE ABYSSAL-PLAIN SEISMIC CONSTRAINTS HYDROTHERMAL FIELD CRUSTAL STRUCTURE TRANSVERSE RIDGE NORTH-ATLANTIC OCEAN TOPOGRAPHY TECTONICS Devey, CW Augustin, N Brandt, A Brenke, N Köhler, J Lins Pereira, Lidia Schmidt, C Yeo, IA Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench |
topic_facet |
Earth and Environmental Sciences MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE ABYSSAL-PLAIN SEISMIC CONSTRAINTS HYDROTHERMAL FIELD CRUSTAL STRUCTURE TRANSVERSE RIDGE NORTH-ATLANTIC OCEAN TOPOGRAPHY TECTONICS |
description |
Although many of the regions on and close to the mid-ocean ridges have been extensively mapped and sampled, the abyssal intraplate regions remain essentially unsampled and unmapped, leaving huge gaps in our understanding of their geologic history and present activity. Prominent bathymetric features in these intraplate regions are fracture zones. Here we present bathymetric and sampling information from a transatlantic transect along the Vema Fracture Zone (ca. 11(degrees)N), covering crustal ages from 109 - 0 Ma on the African plate and 0-62 Ma on the South American plate. The Vema Fracture Zone is the intraplate trace of the active Vema Transform plate boundary, which offsets the present-day Mid-Atlantic Ridge by ca. 300 km left-laterally, juxtaposing zero-age crust with crust of 20 million years age. Our results show clear evidence of tectonic activity along most of the Fracture Zone, in most places likely associated with active fluid flow. Within the active Vema Transform at crustal ages of ca. 10 Ma we found clear indications of fluid flow both in the sediments and the overlying water column. This region is > 120 km from the nearest spreading axis and increases by almost an order of magnitude the maximum off-axis distance that active hydrothermal discharge has been found on the oceanic crust. Sampling of the igneous seafloor was possible at all crustal ages and the accretionary fabric imprinted on the plate during its production was prominent everywhere. Seafloor sediments show signs of extensive bioturbation. In one area, high concentrations of spherical Mn-nodules were also found and sampled. At the end of the transect we also mapped and sampled the Puerto Rico Trough, a > 8000 m-deep basin north of the Caribbean arc. Here the seafloor morphology is more complicated and strongly influenced by transpressive tectonics. |
author2 |
Brandt, Angelika Kaiser, Stefanie Riehl, Torben |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Devey, CW Augustin, N Brandt, A Brenke, N Köhler, J Lins Pereira, Lidia Schmidt, C Yeo, IA |
author_facet |
Devey, CW Augustin, N Brandt, A Brenke, N Köhler, J Lins Pereira, Lidia Schmidt, C Yeo, IA |
author_sort |
Devey, CW |
title |
Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench |
title_short |
Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench |
title_full |
Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench |
title_fullStr |
Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench |
title_full_unstemmed |
Habitat characterization of the Vema Fracture Zone and Puerto Rico Trench |
title_sort |
habitat characterization of the vema fracture zone and puerto rico trench |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8560822 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8560822 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.02.003 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8560822/file/8609226 |
geographic |
Mid-Atlantic Ridge |
geographic_facet |
Mid-Atlantic Ridge |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
DEEP-SEA RESEARCH PART II-TOPICAL STUDIES IN OCEANOGRAPHY ISSN: 0967-0645 |
op_relation |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8560822 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8560822 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.02.003 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8560822/file/8609226 |
op_rights |
No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2018.02.003 |
container_title |
Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography |
container_volume |
148 |
container_start_page |
7 |
op_container_end_page |
20 |
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1768371454946050048 |