Volcanic rocks from hotspots and island arcs/backarcs typically have enriched trace
element and isotopic compositions that contain a contribution from subducted oceanic crust.
Isotopic and trace element data suggest that the enriched components in hotspot volcanism
are ancient subducted sediment and crust, and the enriched components in arc/backarc
volcanism are...
The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain is the ‘‘type’’ example of an age-progressive, hot spotgenerated intraplate volcanic lineament. However, our current knowledge of the age distribution within this province is based largely on radiometric ages determined several decades ago. Improvements in instrumentation, sample preparation methods, and new material obtained by recent drilling...
Bransfield Strait is a Quaternary, ensialic back arc basin at the transition from rifting
to spreading. Fresh volcanic rocks occur on numerous submarine features distributed
along the rift axis, including a discontinuous neovolcanic ridge similar to the nascent
spreading centers seen in some other back arc basins. Smaller edifices near...
Full-coverage multibeam bathymetric mapping of twelve seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska reveals that
they are characterized by flat-topped summits (rarely with summit craters) and by terraced, or step-bench,
flanks. These summit plateaus contain relict volcanic features (e.g., flow levees, late-stage cones, and
collapse craters) and as such must have...
Bransfield Basin is an actively extending marginal basin separating the inactive South Shetland arc from the northern Antarctic Peninsula. Rift-related volcanism is widespread throughout the central Bransfield Basin, but the wider eastern Bransfield Basin was previously unsampled. Lavas recovered from the eastern subbasin form three distinct groups: (1) Bransfield Group...
The Bransfield Strait is the narrow, late Tertiary to Quaternary marginal basin separating the South Shetland Islands from the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula magmatic arc. Quaternary volcanism in the strait is tholeiitic to mildly alkaline, and contrasts chemically with the pre-Quaternary calc-alkaline arc volcanism. Geochemical evidence presented here...
The Cobb Seamount Chain in the northeast Pacific basin records the composition of the Cobb hot spot for the past 33 Myr, as the migrating Juan de Fuca Ridge approached and ultimately overran it ca. 0.5 Myr ago. In this first comprehensive geochemical study of the Cobb chain, major and...
Helium isotopes are a robust geochemical tracer of a primordial mantle component in hot spot volcanism. The high ³He/⁴He (up to 35 RA, where RA is the atmospheric ³He/⁴He ratio of 1.39 X 10¯⁶) of some Hawaiian Island volcanism is perhaps the classic example. New results for picrites and basalts...
Various ocean-climate models driven by increased greenhouse gases and higher temperatures predict a decline in oceanic dissolved oxygen (DO) as a result of greater stratification, reduced ventilation below the thermocline, and decreased solubility at higher temperatures. Since spreading of low oxygen waters is underway and predicted to increase, understanding impacts...
