Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
Expeditions 304 and 305 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program cored and logged a 1.4 km section of the domal core of Atlantis Massif. Postdrilling research results summarized here constrain the structure and lithology of the Central Dome of this oceanic core complex. The dominantly gabbroic sequence recovered contrasts with predrilling predictions; application of the ground truth in subsequent geophysical processing has produced self-consistent models for the Central Dome. The presence of many thin interfingered petrologic units indicates that the intrusions forming the domal core were emplaced over a minimum of 100-220 kyr, and not as a single magma pulse. Isotopic and mineralogical alteration is intense in the upper 100 m but decreases in intensity with depth. Below 800 m, alteration is restricted to narrow zones surrounding faults, veins, igneous contacts, and to an interval of locally intense serpentinization in olivine-rich troctolite. Hydration of the lithosphere occurred over the complete range of temperature conditions from granulite to zeolite facies, but was predominantly in the amphibolite and greenschist range. Deformation of the sequence was remarkably localized, despite paleomagnetic indications that the dome has undergone at least 45 degrees rotation, presumably during unroofing via detachment faulting. Both the deformation pattern and the lithology contrast with what is known from seafloor studies on the adjacent Southern Ridge of the massif. There, the detachment capping the domal core deformed a 100 m thick zone and serpentinized peridotite comprises similar to 70% of recovered samples. We develop a working model of the evolution of Atlantis Massif over the past 2 Myr, outlining several stages that could explain the observed similarities and differences between the Central Dome and the Southern Ridge.
ISSN: 0148-0227

hal-00617528
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617528
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617528/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617528/file/2010JB007931.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2010JB007931

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Processes that occur within and across the oceanic crust–in particular along mid-ocean ridges and oceanic spreading centers—play a huge role in the dynamics of the Earth. The largest fluxes of heat and material between the Earth's mantle, crust, and seawater occur via magmatic, tectonic, and hydrothermal processes along oceanic spreading centers and their vast flanks. Roughly two thirds of the Earth's surface is accreted through magmatic and tectonic processes along mid-ocean ridges, and subduction of this ocean crust in turn influences mantle compositions. Exchange of elements between ocean crust and seawater strongly influences seawater compositions and leaves a geologic record of fluid-rock reactions in altered ocean crust. Some of these reactions contribute energy to microbial activity of a largely unexplored biosphere. The dynamics of ridge and ocean crustal processes therefore have enormous implications for thermal, chemical, and biological exchanges between the solid Earth and the hydrosphere.
EOS

hal-00564842
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00564842
DOI : 10.1029/2010EO150001

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Copernicus Publications
Résumé : The workshop on "Reaching the Mantle Frontier: Moho and Beyond" was held at the Broad Branch Road Campus of the Carnegie Institution of Washington on 9-11 September2010. The workshop attracted seventy-four scientists and engineers from academia and industry in North America, Asia, and Europe.
ISSN: 1816-8957

hal-00688826
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00688826
DOI : 10.2204/iodp.sd.11.07.2011

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oceanography Society
Résumé : In April 1961, 13.5 m of basalts were drilled off Guadalupe Island about 240 km west of Mexico's Baja California, together with a few hundred meters of Miocene sediments, in about 3500 m of water. This fi rst-time exploit, reported by John Steinbeck for Life magazine, aimed to be the test phase for the considerably more ambitious Mohole project, whose objective was to drill through the oceanic crust down to Earth's mantle (Lill and Bascom, 1959; Bascom, 1961). Born in the late 1950s, the Mohole project unfortunately ended in muddy waters and was terminated by the United States Congress in 1965 (Shor, 1985; Greenberg, 1971). Undeterred, the scientifi c community rallied again to launch the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) in 1968, followed by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) in 1985, and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) in 2003. These programs have provided solutions to some of the most pressing and interesting problems in ocean and earth science (see, for example, Oceanography 19-4, December 2006).the early 1970s, almost 15 years after the fi rst Mohole attempt, attendees of a Penrose fi eld conference (Conference Participants, 1972) formulated the concept of a layered oceanic crust composed of lavas, underlain by sheeted dikes, then gabbros (corresponding to the seismic layers 2A, 2B, and 3, respectively), which themselves overlay mantle peridotites. Deep drilling into the oceanic crust would provide the ground truth for the Penrose model; the fl ame of the Mohole project still burned. This article draws from results of more than 30 years of ocean drilling at mid-ocean ridges or in older igneous oceanic crust and briefl y reviews some important milestones that improved understanding of crustalaccretion processes at mid-ocean ridges. Figure 1 shows the locations of the numerous DSDP, ODP, and IODP expeditions to which we refer; Table 1 lists site locations.
ISSN: 1042-8275

hal-00407192
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00407192