scholarly journals Topographic controls on dike injection in volcanic rift zones

2006 ◽  
Vol 246 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 188-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
M BEHN ◽  
W BUCK ◽  
I SACKS
Author(s):  
Robert S. White ◽  
Marie Edmonds ◽  
John Maclennan ◽  
Tim Greenfield ◽  
Thorbjorg Agustsdottir

We use both seismology and geobarometry to investigate the movement of melt through the volcanic crust of Iceland. We have captured melt in the act of moving within or through a series of sills ranging from the upper mantle to the shallow crust by the clusters of small earthquakes it produces as it forces its way upward. The melt is injected not just beneath the central volcanoes, but also at discrete locations along the rift zones and above the centre of the underlying mantle plume. We suggest that the high strain rates required to produce seismicity at depths of 10–25 km in a normally ductile part of the Icelandic crust are linked to the exsolution of carbon dioxide from the basaltic melts. The seismicity and geobarometry provide complementary information on the way that the melt moves through the crust, stalling and fractionating, and often freezing in one or more melt lenses on its way upwards: the seismicity shows what is happening instantaneously today, while the geobarometry gives constraints averaged over longer time scales on the depths of residence in the crust of melts prior to their eruption. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Magma reservoir architecture and dynamics'.


1980 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 55-55
Author(s):  
Sion Shabtaie ◽  
Charles R. Bentley

Recent geophysical and glaciological investigations of the Ross Ice Shelf have revealed many complexities in the ice shelf that can be important factors in iceberg structure. The presence of rift zones, surface and bottom crevasses, corrugations, ridges and troughs, and other features could substantially modify the hydraulics of iceberg towing and lead to disintegration of the berg in the course of transport.The relationships between the elevation above sea-level and total ice thickness for three ice shelves (Ross, Brunt, and McMurdo) are given; from them, expressions for the thickness/freeboard ratios of tabular icebergs calved from these ice shelves are obtained. The relationships obtained from the measured values of surface elevation and ice thickness are in agreement with models derived assuming hydrostatic equilibrium.Areas of brine infiltration into the Ross Ice Shelf have been mapped. Examples of radar profiles in these zones are shown. Absorption from the brine layers results in a poor or absent bottom echo. It is probable that little saline ice exists at the bottom of the Ross Ice Shelf front due to a rapid bottom melting near the ice front, and that the thickness of the saline ice at the bottom of icebergs calving from the Ross Ice Shelf is no more than a few meters, if there is any at all.We have observed many rift zones on the ice shelf by airborne radar techniques, and at one site the bottom and surface topographies of (buried) rift zones have been delineated. These rift zones play an obvious role in iceberg formation and may also affect the dynamics of iceberg transport. Bottom crevasses with different shapes, sizes, and spacings are abundant in ice shelves; probably some are filled with saline ice and others with unfrozen sea-water. Existence of these bottom crevasses could lead to a rapid disintegration of icebergs in the course of transport, as well as increasing the frictional drag at the ice-water boundary.Radar profiles of the ice-shelf barrier at four sites in flow bands of very different characteristics are shown. In some places rifting upstream from the barrier shows regular spacings, suggesting a periodic calving. Differential bottom melting near the barrier causes the icebergs to have an uneven surface and bottom (i.e. dome-shaped).Electrical resistivity soundings on the ice shelf can be applied to estimate the temperature-depth function, and from that the basal mass-balance rate. With some modifications, the technique may also be applied to estimating the basal mass-balance rates of tabular icebergs.


1982 ◽  
Vol 28 (100) ◽  
pp. 413-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sion Shabtaie ◽  
Charles R. Bentley

AbstractRecent geophysical and glaciological investigations of the Ross Ice Shelf have revealed many complexities in the ice shelf that can be important factors in iceberg structure. The presence of rift zones, surface and bottom crevasses, corrugations, ridge/troughs, and other features could substantially modify the hydraulics of iceberg towing and lead to disintegration in the course of transport.The relationships between the elevation above sea-level and total ice thickness for three ice shelves (Ross, Brunt, and McMurdo) are given; from them, expressions for the thickness/freeboard ratios of tabular icebergs calved from these ice shelves are obtained. The relationships obtained from the measured values of surface elevation and ice thickness are in agreement with models derived assuming hydrostatic equilibrium.Areas of brine infiltration into the Ross Ice Shelf have been mapped. Examples of radar profiles in these zones are shown. Absorption from the brine layers results in a poor or absent bottom echo. It is probable that little saline ice exists at the bottom of the Ross Ice Shelf front due to a rapid bottom melting near the ice front, and that the thickness of the saline ice at the bottom of icebergs calving from the Ross Ice Shelf is no more than a few meters, if there is any at all.We have observed many rift zones on the ice shelf by airborne radar techniques, and at one site the bottom and surface topographies of (buried) rift zones have been delineated. These rift zones play an obvious role in iceberg formation and may also affect the dynamics of iceberg transport. Bottom crevasses with different shapes, sizes, and spacings are abundant in ice shelves; probably some are filled with saline ice and others with unfrozen sea-water. Existence of these bottom crevasses could lead to a rapid disintegration of icebergs in the course of transport, as well as increasing the frictional drag at the ice-water boundary.Radar profiles of the ice shelf front at four sites in flow bands of very different characteristics are shown. In some places rifting up-stream from the front shows regular spacings, suggesting a periodic calving. Differential bottom melting near the front causes the icebergs to have an uneven surface and bottom (i.e. dome shaped).Electrical resistivity soundings on the ice shelf can be applied to estimate the temperature-depth function, and from that the basal mass-balance rate. With some modifications, the technique may also be applied to estimating the basal mass balance rates of tabular icebergs.


2013 ◽  
Vol 734 ◽  
pp. 317-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel S. Pegler ◽  
Herbert E. Huppert ◽  
Jerome A. Neufeld

AbstractWe present a theoretical and experimental study of the propagation of gravity currents in porous media with variations in the topography over which they flow, motivated in part by the sequestration of carbon dioxide in saline aquifers. We consider cases where the height of the topography slopes upwards in the direction of the flow and is proportional to the $n\text{th} $ power of the horizontal distance from a line or point source of a constant volumetric flux. In two-dimensional cases with $n\gt 1/ 2$, the current evolves from a self-similar form at early times, when the effects of variations in topography are negligible, towards a late-time regime that has an approximately horizontal upper surface and whose evolution is dictated entirely by the geometry of the topography. For $n\lt 1/ 2$, the transition between these flow regimes is reversed. We compare our theoretical results in the case $n= 1$ with data from a series of laboratory experiments in which viscous glycerine is injected into an inclined Hele-Shaw cell, obtaining good agreement between the theoretical results and the experimental data. In the case of axisymmetric topography, all topographic exponents $n\gt 0$ result in a transition from an early-time similarity solution towards a topographically controlled regime that has an approximately horizontal free surface. We also analyse the evolution over topography that can vary with different curvatures and topographic exponents between the two horizontal dimensions, finding that the flow transitions towards a horizontally topped regime at a rate which depends strongly on the ratio of the curvatures along the principle axes. Finally, we apply our mathematical solutions to the geophysical setting at the Sleipner field, concluding that topographic influence is unlikely to explain the observed non-axisymmetric flow.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 515-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda C. Lough ◽  
Douglas A. Wiens ◽  
Andrew Nyblade

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-177
Author(s):  
Jarrad Grahame ◽  
Victoria Cole

The North West Shelf (NWS) of Australia is a prolific hydrocarbon province hosting significant volumes of hydrocarbons, primarily derived from Jurassic and Cretaceous targets. A new regional, integrated geoscience study has been undertaken to develop insights into the paleogeography and petroleum systems of Late Permian to Triassic successions, which have been underexplored historically in favor of Jurassic to Cretaceous targets. Within the NWS study area, graben and half-graben depocenters developed in response to intracratonic rifting that preceded later fragmentation and northward rifting of small continental blocks. This, coupled with contemporaneous cycles of rising sea levels, brought about the development of large embayments and shallow, epeiric seas between the Australian continental landmass and outlying continental fragments in the early stages of divergence. Key elements of the study results discussed herein include the study methodology, the paleogeographic and gross depositional environment mapping, and the reservoir and source kitchen modeling. The study results highlight the presence of depocenters that developed within oblique rift zones due to regional Permo-Triassic strike-slip tectonics that bear compelling similarities to modern-day analogues. These intracratonic rift zones are well-known and prominent tectonic features resulting from mantle upwelling and weakening of overlying lithospheric crust, initiating the development of divergent intraplate depocenters. The comprehensive analysis of these depocenters from a paleogeographic and petroleum system perspective provides a basin evaluation tool for Triassic prospectivity.


1980 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 1149-1159
Author(s):  
John J. Zucca ◽  
David P. Hill

abstract In November 1976, the U.S. Geological Survey, in conjunction with the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, established a 100-km-long seismic refraction line normal to the southeast coast of Hawaii across the submarine flank of Kilauea Volcano. Interpretation of the data suggests that the oceanic crust dips about 2° toward the island underneath the volcanic pile. The unreversed Pn velocity is 7.9 km/ sec with crustal velocities varying strongly along the profile. Profiles across the rift zones of Kilauea suggest that the velocity in the rifts is higher than the velocity in the surrounding extrusive rocks and that the velocity in the southwest rift (∼6.5 km/sec) is lower than the velocity in the east rift (∼7.0 km/sec). The rift boundaries seem to dip away from the rift such that a large part of the volcanic pile is composed of the higher velocity core of riftzone rock.


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