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PLATE TECTONICS: Lecture 3
THE WILSON CYCLE: RIFTING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF OCEAN
BASINS
As the concept of sea floor spreading gained acceptance in the late 60's, the consequences for geology gradually began to dawn. One of the first to recognise how plate tectonics could be applied to the geological record was J. Tuzo Wilson.
If continents rift apart to form ocean basins, other oceans must close. This may be repeated throughout Earth history. Example: the IAPETUS ocean between
England & Scotland in the Lower Palaeozoic, closed in the Caledonian; later opening of the Atlantic, almost in the same place. The cycle is known as the
Wilson Cycle:
(1) Rifting of continents by mantle diapirism
(2) Continental drift, seafloor spreading & formation of ocean basins
(3) Progressive closure of ocean basins by subduction of ocean lithosphere
(4) Continental collision and final closure of ocean basin
The two diagrams below (Figs 1 & 2) illustrate some simple (if old) concepts of continental rifting (e.g. the Gondwana continent) at the start of the Wilson Cycle.
Uprising plume causes doming of crust with magma chamber developing underneath. As extension continues, an ocean basin forms, and thick sedimentary sequences develop at continental margins as rivers dump sediments in deep water. However in reality may be a bit more complex . . .

CONTINENTAL RIFTING: rrr and RRR triple junctions
Four main stages can be recognised in the tectonic development of a typical rifted passive margin:
(1) The RIFT VALLEY stage involves early graben formation prior to continental splitting. This stage may be associated with domal uplift caused by uprise of hot upper mantle material - but this uplift is not ubiquitous and may be connected with underlying mantle hotspots. Example: African Rift
Valley.
(2) The YOUTHFUL stage, lasting about 50 my after the onsett of seafloor spreading, while the thermal effects are still dominant. This stage is characterised by rapid regional subsidence of the outer shelf and slope, but some graben formation may persist. Example: Red Sea.

(3) The MATURE stage during which more subdued regional subsidence may continue. Example: most of the present Atlantic continental margins.
(4) The FRACTURE stage when subduction starts and terminates the history of the continental margin.
Fig. 3. The continent of
Africa is thought to have been split by a series of rift valleys in various states of development.
Those in East Africa are still in thick crust. Those in West Africa are associated with thick oilbearing sediments. In the
Red Sea area the rifting has gone so far as to form a narrow ocean. In the south-east
Madagascar has been completely separated from Africa by rifting.
There are many examples of Stage 1. East African Rift Valley is the classic example. But also the Midland Valley of Scotland, the Rhine Graben, the Oslo
Graben. These rifts have never got beyond stage 1. Commonly the volcanism associated with these rifts is highly alkaline and undersaturated in silica.
What initiates rifting? There has been considerable discussion on this over the years. Some have ascribed rifting to up-doming of the crust over a hot-spot; certainly parts of the E African rift system are very elevated, compared with other sectors, suggesting that the doming reflects an underlying hot low-density mantle plume. In other cases, geophysical models suggest the asthenospheric mantle is rising to high levels beneath the rift. However it is also apparent that rifting can take place without extensive uplift; in such cases it may be the convective processes in the underlying asthenosphere which are causing the extension. To rift a continent apart it needs the rifts associated with various possible thermal domes to link together. Morgan (1981, 1983) has suggested that as continents drift slowly over hotspots the hotspots weaken the plate - like a blowtorch impinging on the base - and these weakened zones become the sites of continental rifting.
Burke & Whiteman (1973), following the doming hypothesis, suggested that in these domal regions, three rifts would develop, forming an 'rrr' triple junction.
Although it is possible that all three rifts might develop into an ocean ('RRR'), it is more likely that two of these rifts would develop into an ocean ('RRr'), leaving the third rift as a 'failed arm'. They demonstrated / speculated that on many continents it was possible to recognise these RRr junctions. The 'failed arm' rift would

eventually subside as the thermal anomaly decayed and become the site of a major depositional basin, or a major river channel and delta. The Benue Trough in
Nigeria is regarded as an example of such a failed arm following the opening of the S. Atlantic. When oceans eventually close it is possible to recognise these failed arms as depositional basins oriented perpendicular to the collision mountain belt (most basins tend to be aligned parallel to mountain belts). These are termed
'aulacogens'.
Fig. 4. A. Doming by a mantle plume associated with volcanicity. B.
Rifting (rrr junction) is initiated. C. Further development results in two

of the rifts developing into an ocean, the third is a failed arm
(aulacogen). D. Less likely is that all three arms develop into oceans.
E. A common situation is that the failed arm develops into a major river system feeding the continental margin. F. Expansion of oceans on a finite earth is not possible: there must be plate subduction, somewhere, sometime. G. Closure of oceans results in island arc development above the subduction zone. H. Continued closure results in collision with major fold and thrust belts. But often the failed arm (aulocogen) is still preserved.
Early ideas on the development of rifts are conceptualised in the diagram shown in
Fig. 5. This is based on the African rift system, where there is significant rift magmatism. There is notable extension, shown by the widening of the diagram block by at least 50 km. At the same time there is uplift or ascent of the more ductile mantle, especially the asthenosphere. The crust, and particularly the upper crust, is assumed to act in a brittle fashion.

Fig. 5a.
Progressive formation of a rift valley through extension of the lithosphere and continental crust (by about
50 km). Note that uprise and decompression of the underlying asthenosphere results in magma formation. The crust responds by brittle fracture. Early rift sediments are downfaulted into the developing rift
(graben).
Erosion takes place on the sides of the rift valley.
The first stage assumes that graben-like faults begin to form in the brittle crust.
The second stage shows simultaneous necking of the lithosphere with uprise of an asthenosphere diapir. The decompression associated with the latter causes melting of the mantle to give alkaline basaltic magmas. Pre-existing sediments are downfaulted into the graben.
The third stage is accompanied by significant extension and by more uprise of the asthenosphere. The latter causes doming of the crust (which is evident along the
E. African rift system, but is variably devloped. New sediments are deposited within the graben as a result of erosion of the uplifting sides of the graben. So there are both pre-rift and syn-rift sediments within the developing rift valley, but sediments on the flanks are progressively erodied away. Note the complex normal-faulting within the rift valley itself.

The fourth stage (Fig. 5b – below) shows the actually rifting-apart of the continent, so the asthenosphere rises towards the surface, causing decompression and extensice melting. New basaltic oceanic crust is formed.
Finally, sea-floor spreading takes over as the ocean basin widens. The rift sedimentary sequence is buried beneath younger marine sediments.
Note : on this diagram the sediments at the continental margin are shown as not very thick. This is because the model is based on the East African Rift System, which does not have a great deal of subsidence associated with rifting. However, other rifted continental margin sequences are very different, with thick sedimentary sequences.

The real situation at passive continental margins is shown in Fig. 6 (below). This is typical of a number of crustal cross-sections across the continental shelf of the eastern Atlantic seaboard of North America, projected down to 30 km -- based

largely on gravity and magnetic evidence, plus some seismic profiles -- and some extrapolation from land geology based on deep drill holes.
The critical point is the huge thicknesses of Mesozoic and Tertiary sediments, here shown as almost 15 km, but in other cross-sections this can be even thicker. Note that at the bottom of this pile are volcanics and volcanogenic sediments, and evaporites, which most likely are shallow water. Also, massive carbonate reef structures, which must also be shallow water, but also must indicate progressive subsidence .. .. slow enough that shallow water sedimentation can keep pace with it.
In many sections of the continental shelf off this eastern seaboard of the USA there is a major coast-parallel magnetic structure, possibly a major intrusion. But its age is unknown.
Fig. 6. Profile of deep structure of continental shelf off Atlantic coast of eastern North America -- ?typical of passive continental margins. (Based on gravity, magnetics and seismic data) Critical points regarding this profile are
(a) the large thickness of post-rift sediments of Mesozoic-Tertiary age, up to
15 km, and (b) that most of these sediments are shallow-water type. Note: volcanics and evaporites and reef (or carbonate banks)
Rift Terminology
Continental Rift: elongate tectonic depression with which

the entire lithosphere has been modified in extension
Rift System: Tectonically interconnected series of rifts
Modern Rift: A rift that is teconically or magmatically active
Paleorift: A dead or dormant rift
Failed Arm: Branch of a triple junction not developed into an ocean basin
Aulacogen: Paleorift in ancient platform that has been reactivated by compressional deformation
Active Rifting: Rifting in response to thermal upwelling of the asthenosphere
Passive Rifting: Rifting in response to remote stress field
Rifting structures are often good sites for mineralisation. This arises for three reasons:
(1) They can be the sites of thick clastic sedimentation . These sediments hold vast amounts of inter-granular salt water (brines). The brines may be in contact with reducing sediments, such as carbonaceous shales, also a ready supply of sulphur/sulphate. As the sediments compact, these brines are expelled and can move laterally for large distances until they move up the rift faults. Having been buried deep the brines get hot, and can be very corrosive. So en route they can dissolve considerable amounts of metals. However, when they rise up the rift faults and cool, these metals will be precipitated out. This can be enhanced because oxidising meteoric water (groundwater) may also penetrate down these faults, so metals wil be precipitated out when the two meet.

(2) Rift structures are also thermally anomalous hot zones . This is because they are frequently underlain by igneous intrusions -- granite (or perhaps in some cases gabbro) plutons. This magmatic heat drives the hydrothermal systems.
Importantly, these hydrothermal systems can last for many millions of years, so the hot fluids in these hydrothermal systems can leach away at the rocks within the rift system and precipitate the leached metals nearer the surface. Because the rift structures remain topographically low structures for many tens of millions of years, these metals concentrations can be preserved, without being eroded, for long periods.
(3) The rift zones may be the sites of diverse rocks, particularly basaltic lavas, which can release their metals on hydrothermal alteration . However, because the rift faults can extend very deep (well into the upper mantle in some cases), there may also be a component of deep fluids and metals in the hydrothermal system.

The references below will lead you to some of the discussion on rifting and the
Wilson Cycle:
BAKER, B.H., MOHR, P. & WILLIAMS, L.A.J. 1972. Geology of the eastern rift system of
Africa . Geological Society of America Special Paper 136 , 1-67.
BOSWORTH, W. 1985. Geometry of propagating continental rifts. Nature 316 , 625-627.
BOSWORTH, W. 1987. Off-axis volcanism in the Gregory rift, East Africa: implications for models of continental rifting. Geology 15 , 397-400.
BOTT, M.H.P 1995. Mechanisms ofrifting: Geodynamic modeling of continental rift systems. In: K.H. Olsen (ed.) Continental rifts: evolution, structure, tectonics.
Developments in Geotectonics , 25 , 27-43. Elsevier, Amsterdam
BRAILE, L.W., KELLER, G.R., WENDLANDT, R.F., MORGAN, P. & KHAN, M.A. 1995.
The East African Rift system. In: K.H. Olsen (ed.) Continental rifts: evolution, structure, tectonics . Developments in Geotectonics, 25 , Elsevier, Amsterdam
BURKE, K. & DEWEY, J.F. 1973. Plume generated triple junctions: key indicators in applying plate tectonics to old rock. Journal of Geology 81 , 406-433.
BURKE, K. & WHITEMAN, A.J. 1973. Uplift, rifting and break-up of Africa. In TARLING,
D.H. & RUNCORN, S.K. (eds) Implications of continental drift to the earth sciences .
Academic Press, London. 735-755.
DEWEY, J.F. & BURKE, K. 1974. Hotspots and continental break-up: implications for collisional orogeny. Geology 2 , 57-60.
DUNCAN, C.C. & TURCOTTE, D.L. 1994. On the breakup and coalescence of continents.
Geology 22 , 103-106.
GURNIS, M. 1988. Large-scale mantle convection and the aggregation and dispersal of continents. Nature 332 , 695-699.
MORGAN, W.J. 1981. Hotspot tracks and the opening of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
In Emiliani, C. (ed ) The Sea. Volume 7 , 443-487. Wiley, New York.
MORGAN, W.J. 1983. Hotspot tracks and the early rifting of the Atlantic . Tectonophysics
94 , 123-139.
MURPHY, J.B. & NANCE, R.D. 1992. Mountain belts and the supercontinent cycle.
Scientific American 266 , 84-91.
OLSEN, K.H. & MORGAN, P. 1995. Introduction: Progress in understanding continental rifts. In: K.H. Olsen (ed.) Continental rifts: evolution, structure, tectonics . Developments in
Geotectonics, 25 , 3-26. Elsevier, Amsterdam

SPOHN, T. & SCHUBERT, G. 1982. Convective thinning of the lithosphere: a mechanism for the initiation of continental rifting. Journal of Geophysical Research 87 , 4669-4681.
WHITE, R.S. & McKENZIE, D.P. 1989. Magmatism at rift zones: the generation of volcanic continental margins and flood basalts. Journal of Geophysical Research 94 , 7685-7730.
WILSON, J.T. 1966. Did the Atlantic close and then re-open? Nature 211 , 676-681.
PLATE TECTONICS: Lecture 4
Fig. 1.
Simplified relationships at a continental margin.
There can be more than 10 km of shallowwater sediments at the margin – implying slow subsidence.
How?
Passive continental margins are those associated with continental rifting and the subsequent formation of ocean basins. They differ from active continental margins which are associated with subduction. The continental shelves around the Atlantic are typical passive margins: however there are some quite large differences in the morphology of continental margins around the Atlantic: the reasons for which are not fully understood (but see White et al. 1987; White & McKenzie 1989). There is of course considerable interest in continental margins because of their potential as major oil reservoirs. Hence much has been learned in the last few years.
One aspect of continental margins that has always been puzzling is the existence of very thick – but relatively shallow-water – sedimentary sequences. There can be as much as 15 km of Mesozoic and later sediments at some continental margins bordering the N. Atlantic. How can these very thick sequences be reconciled with gradual but progressive subsidence? Over the years various ideas (summarised in
Bott 1979, 1982) have been put forward:

Gravity Loading Hypothesis : This attributes subsidence to sediment load
(effectively replacing seawater with denser sediment), and is based on isostacy.
The amount of subsidence depends on relative densities of seawater (1.03), sediment (2.15 – 2.55) and the underlying mantle (3.3). If the sea is filled with sediment then in theory a sediment thickness of over twice the initial depth can develop. In fact a total thickness of 14 km can form near the base of the initial slope. If the lithosphere is treated as elastic the downwarping can extend about
150 km beyond the local sediment load. See Fig. 2 below.
Problem : This mechanism is not easily reconciled with substantial sequences of shallow water sediment. It can only work if the sediments were deposited in deep water initially. If initial water depth is less than 200 m, then sediment loading effect is negligible.
Fig. 2.
Gravity loading hypothesis.
This depends on replacing low density water by higher density sediment . .
.
Thermal hypothesis : This assumes that continental lithosphere near the embryo margin is heated at time of continental rifting - this reduces density of lithosphere permitting isostatic uplift. Subsequently, as the ocean widens, lithosphere cools with time-scale of ca. 50 my and will subside to original position. However if erosion occurred during uplift stage, real subsidence can occur, enhanced by sediment loading.

Fig. 3.
Thermal hypothesis of
Sleep. This was the first to recognise that heating up the mantle
(by a plume or whatever) could produce substantial crustal uplift
(and erosion), followed by thermal subsidence.
Compare the models by
McKenzie and
Wernicke later
. .
Problem : Even with an extreme initial elevation of about 2 km, the amount of subsidence, even with sediment loading, is not much more than 2 km. So not able to explain thick sequences of over 5 km.
A modification of this thermal model assumes that the thermal event transforms the base of the crust to denser granulite facies mineral assemblages, which may also be invaded by basic magma. If this causes an increase in density of 0.2, it can be calculated that the maximum depth of sediment permitted would only be about 3 or 4 km. Thus insufficient to account for large sediment thicknesses.

Fig. 4.
Modification of thermal hypothesis according to
Falvey (who argues that heating will cause dense granulite to form).
Problem : such models predict a gap of many m.y. between onset of spreading and the first marine sedimentation - which is not observed.
Crustal Thinning hypothesis : The continental crust and the lithosphere have an upper brittle zone, 20 km thick, overlying a much weaker layer which deforms by ductile flow. Thus crust may thin by progressive creep of middle and lower crustal material towards the sub-oceanic upper mantle. It is argued that this may give rise to jerky subsidence.
Fig. 5. After the initial rifting the lower crust deforms by plastic flow.
Could the lower continental crust flow
UNDER oceanic crust in the manner shown?
An alternative hypothesis suggests that extreme thinning of the continental crust can occur in a rift valley setting by plastic necking. Then, as the ocean basin forms the passive continental margin will gradually subside.

Fig. 6.
Necking of continental crust? zone is about 50 km wide, thus transition zone at a continental margin would be only 25 km wide. Observed continental margin sequences are however much wider than this.
Problem : a typical rift
Normal-fault based mechanisms :
Early hypotheses assumed that graben formation required a wedge of crust about
60 km wide to sink isostatically between inward-dipping normal faults. As the upper crust forms graben by wedge subsidence the ductile lower crust compensates by plastic flow.
Fig. 7. Can normal faulting lead to displacement of ductile mantle by flow?

Problem : Calculations suggested that a subsidence of ca 5 km could occur for an initial 20 km wide trough. Not really enough. But getting nearer.
Faulting near continent-ocean contact :
This mechanism permits limited subsidence as normal faulting accompanies downdrag of the cooling ocean lithosphere. The oceanic lithosphere subsides on a time scale of about 50 my, so consistent with shallow water sediments. However note that the zone of subsidence is too narrow.
Fig. 8.
Does normal faulting occur at continental margins in the manner shown in
B ?
Conclusions
None of the above mechanisms, either alone or together, seem capable of explaining the observed thick sedimentary sequences at continental margins that are formed at the start of the Wilson Cycle. New ideas were clearly required.
These began to develop in the late 1970's as we began to understand more about the thermal behaviour of the lithosphere and about the nature of listric faults.
Continental Lithosphere : The mantle forming the plates is more rigid than the underlying asthenosphere. But this rigid mechanical boundary layer ( MBL ) varies in thickness. It is thin at the ridges, but thickens to 60 or even 100+ km in old oceanic lithosphere. It may be much thicker under the continents, but it is also older - in fact the lithosphere under the continents is usually as old as the

continent above. So it may be cool, and may have experienced enrichment by small degree mantle melts, the components of which may be stored in hydrous minerals.
REFERENCES :
BOTT, M.H.P. 1979. Subsidence mechanisms at passive continental margins. American
Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 29, 8-19?
BOTT, M.H.P. 1982. The mechanism of continental splitting. Tectonophysics 81, 301-309.
KUSZNIR, N.J. & ZIEGLER, P.A. 1992. The mechanics of continental extension and sedimentary basin formation: a simple-shear/pure-shear flexural cantilever model.
Tectonophysics 215, 117-131.
WHITE, R.S., SPENCE, G.D., FOWLER, S.R., McKENZIE, D.P., WESTBROOK, G.K. &
BOWEN, A.N. 1987. Magmatism at rifted continental margins. Nature 330, 439-444.
WHITE, R.S. & McKENZIE, D.P. 1989. Magmatism at rift zones: the generation of volcanic continental margins and flood basalts. Journal of Geophysical Research 94, 7685-7729.
There is no doubt that when ocean basins open there is considerable subsidence of the continental shelves over a wide area, and not just over the immediate rifted margin. This is well exempified by the South Atlantic at ca. 127 Ma, just as the first oceanic crust formed:

Fig. 9. A very large area in the south
Atlantic was submerged following break-up at 127m.y.
Why? Both
Chile and
Argentina have modest onland oil reserves in
Patagonia to the west of the
Falkland
Plateau.
DSDP site
330 drilled oily sediments in 1974.
Why did
Argentina go to war over the
Falklands?
Drilling at the eastern spur of the submerged Falkland Plateau revealed that it was continental (granite gneisses) and that there was a dry caliche surface
(Mediterranean climate) just before opening of the Atlantic, but that there had been at least 2 km subsidence since then. Initial sediments very oily, deposited under anoxic conditions in a basin with restricted circulation. So the initial rift stage was the one that favoured oil accumulation. Why? It is important to understand the mechanism of development of these basins.
It became apparent from COCORP-type deep reflection seismic profiling that many (if not the majority) of steeply dipping normal faults are actually curved

(concave-upward) and become shallow-dipping and sub-horizontal at depth.
These are now known as listric faults. As the lithosphere is stretched during continental extension, the ductile deeper crust thins by pure shear, while the upper crust is broken up and pulled apart by listric faults which 'bottom out' in the ductile layer. At the surface of course these have the appearance of graben. This is the essence of McKenzie-type and other recent models of basin formation. As the sub-continental (i.e. mantle) lithosphere is thinned by stretching it is of course partly replaced by hotter asthenosphere. This will gradually cool on a time scale of the order of 50 - 100 m.y., and as it cools it becomes denser and the shallow basin above gradually subsides and is progressively filled with shallow-water sediment.
The amount of subsidence will depend on the initial amount of stretching. This can usually be estimated and is known as the stretching factor, or " beta factor ". The parameter b is defined quite simpy as b / a where a was the initial width and b is the stretched width. A b factor of 1.2 will give ca. 3 km subsidence. With complete rifting (to form ocean crust and an ocean basin) then b approaches infinity.
Note that during the development of sedimentary basins, subsidence occurs in two stages:
(1) as a result of tectonic stretching – on a short time scale, ca. 10 my, and
(2) as a result of thermal subsidence
– long time scale, ca. 50 – 100+ my.
Considerable information is now available on North Sea basins as a result of drilling operations and syntheses of the large amount of seismic data (see, e.g.
Badley et al. 1988; Gibbs 1984; Sclater & Christie 1980) so their subsidence history is well known. The northern Viking Graben suffered two episodes of rifting
– in the Permo-Triassic and in the Middle Jurassic – during which the basin was progressively widened. Stretching factors in the Permo-Triassic were quite small
(b = 1.1
– 1.3), whereas in the Late Jurassic were much larger in the northern N.
Sea (b = >1.6). Each rifting episode was followed by more substantial thermal subsidence. In the central part of the Viking Graben almost 10 km of sediment has accumulated since the onset of the first rifting episode. As the second rifting phase ended 140 my ago at least 90% of the subsidence resulting from thermal relaxation must have occurred by now. Note that whereas normal faults during the rifting phase tend to be listric, those accompanying thermal subsidence are planar.
An important secondary factor in such models is that the sediments initially deposited in such basins will be 'cooked' slightly as a consequence of the

increased heat from the underlying asthenosphere – vital in maturation and migration of petroleum. But sedimentary basins are not only important as oil reservoirs: the expulsion of heated fluids from such basins can leach metals too, thus if suitable host rocks exist valuable mineral deposits can be formed. A number of important mineral deposits are attributed to this mechanism.
Further development of lithosphere stretching models have been proposed by
Wernicke, by Lister et al., Coward and others (see references below).
The important difference is in the recognition of low-angle detachments
(superficially like thrusts, but with movement sense as in normal fault), first proposed for the Basin & Range province in the western USA. These may bottom out in the lower crust or the upper mantle. The main effect is to introduce asymmetry compared with the pure shear uniform-stretching McKenzie-type model, so that basins associated with the thermal subsidence phase may be offset from the thin-skinned basins associated with the initial rifting. Magmatic effects
(melting resulting from the uprising asthenosphere) may be offset from the main sedimentary basins. Because of the asymmetry, the continental margins on the two sides of an opening ocean may have very different profiles. Many other complications may ensue. Consult the references below if you want the full story!
At least 3 types of continental margin have now been recognised:
(1) volcanic ,
(2) non-volcanic and
(3) rift-transform .

(1) Volcanic margins tend to be narrow and have a thick igneous crust between continental and normal ocean crust. A thick zone (3 – 5 km) of seaward-dipping volcanic reflectors is typical. Suggestions of convective circulation in uprising asthenosphere to explain volcanism, or that the underlying asthenosphere was hotter than usual. Examples: Voring
Plateau, western Rockall Bank, East Greenland. See White et al. (1987 &
1988).
White & McKenzie (1989) have developed these models further to quantitatively relate the volume of volcanics produced at continental margins to the temperature of the underlying mantle. If the temperature is
100°C above normal the volume of magma will be doubled. Also they have developed a relationship between the degree of stretching and the temperature of the mantle to predict whether the rifted margin will rise above sealevel or subside below it. When rifting occurs above hotspot plumes there is usually an accompanying large volume of magma.
(2) Lithospheric deformation on non-volcanic margins is dominated by block faulting and many listric faults. Stretching over a broad zone (100 –300 km).
May be sediment starved (Red Sea, Galicia Bank, Goban Spur – Irish Sea) or heavily sedimented (e.g. eastern USA margin).
(3) Rift-transform margins evolve in environments where there was a significant component of strike-slip shear as well as extensional strain deformation during opening (e.g. region between W. Africa and Brazil;
Falklands Plateau; also Gulf of California).
These different types of margin may have very different petroleum potential. Need to know more about them to aid in locating future supplies. Note that the important petroleum reservoirs in the North Sea are in 'failed-rifts'
– where the North Atlantic tried (unsuccessfully) to open quite a long time before it eventually succeeded!
There is a rapidly growing literature on models for continental rifting and basin formation: try to read some of those below, and especially note the diagrams. In any case they may prove useful to you next year.
Another problem of concern is why do we get basaltic magmatism associated with some basins and not with others. Latin and White (1990) have tried to argue that magmatism is more likely with uniform pure shear stretching (McKenzie model) than the asymmetric simple stretching model of Wernicke. This is because asthenosphere uprise is more focussed in pure shear model:

This then has very different thermal consequences:
Fig. 13.
Comparison of thermal conseqences of McKenzie’s pure shear model and
Wernicke’s pure shear model of extensional sedimentary basins. It is argued with the simple shear model it is very difficult to produce sufficient decompression to allow magma formation.
Fig. 14. With pure shear the temperature of the uprising asthenosphere an exceed the
Fig. 15. With simple shear the temperature of the uprising asthenosphere never

solidus of the mantle and allow melting. reaches the solidus - so no melting occurs.
Basin Inversion
Basins that have formed by rifting and thermal subsidence don't always remain basins. and may suffer later uplift and erosion. This is known as basin inversion.
This happened to many of the Permo-Triassic basins in Western Europe (see
Ziegler 1982) and is particularly evident in the NW part of the British Isles and adjacent continental margin. Could this be due to tectonic compression before all the thermal subsidence took place, with the excess sediment being removed by erosion? It is apparent that most of NW Britain was blanketed by Mesozoic sediment that has been removed (viz. Chalk in calderas on Arran) since the early
Tertiary, and deposited in basins to the east. Some offshore basins with b factors near 2.0 have a short fall in the expected sediment thickness of ca. 4 km. So something has caused epeirogenic uplift in the early Tertiary over most of NW
Britain.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence of enough tectonic compression (Roberts
1989) to account for this uplift by crustal thickening. So what else? Brodie & White
(1994) have suggested instead that it may result from magmatic underplating by basalt. They calculate that 5 km of basalt (density 2.8) underplated into the lower crust above the Moho would initially cause 600m uplift. Additionally, with the
"amplification" effect of erosion this may increase to ca. 2.5 km. Of course in this general region we know that the Iceland plume was initiated ca. 60 Ma ago (early
Tertiary), and one 'rrr' arm extended down through Western Scotland to Lundy. A lot of basalt lavas were erupted. But was much more magma underplated? We know from their geochemistry that many of these basalt magmas have suffered crustal contamination. Are they just a small representative of much more that was ponded in the lower crust? See later lecture on plumes.
The interesting point is that many sedimentation features
– basin development, basin inversion, epeirogenic uplift enhancing erosion – may all have their origin in mantle thermal processes. Hence it is important to understand the mantle!
REFERENCES: Sedimentary Basins & Continental Margins
BADLEY, M.E., PRICE, J.D., RAMBECH DAHL, C. & AGDESTEIN, T. 1988. The structural evolution of the northern Viking Graben and its bearing upon extensional modes of basin formation . Journal of the Geological Society, London 145 , 455-472.
BARR, D. 1987. Lithospheric stretching, detached normal faulting and footwall uplift. In
COWARD, M.P., DEWEY, J.F. & HANCOCK, P.L. (eds) Continental Extensional
Tectonics . Geological Society of London, Special Publication 28 , 75-94.
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PLATE TECTONICS: Lecture 6
For the last 2 decades, geologists, geophysicists and geochemists have argued about the physical and chemical conditions which allow melting to occur in subduction zones. Whereas it is easy to explain magmatism at ocean ridges where hot mantle is rising, it is not at first easy to explain why magmas appear in abundance when a cold slab is pushed into the mantle at subduction zones. It used to be thought that friction between the overriding and under-riding plates was responsible, but calculations have showed that friction is most unlikely: there is probably too much hydrous fluid and soft oozy subducted sediment that act as a lubricant. It is important to try to understand the thermal structure of subduction zones.
In a classic review paper, Ringwood (1974) suggested that the most primitive island arc lavas (IAT), which are basaltic, could be related to dehydration of the hydrated ocean crust (amphibolite) as it transforms to dense eclogite at depths of ca. 100km. The hydrous fluids rise up into the peridotite mantle wedge, promoting melting (magmas form at much lower temperatures in the presence of water).
These magmas then rise slowly up to the arc volcanoes above, and crystallise Mgrich olivines and pyroxenes as they ascend, so the magmas become more ironrich. The eruption of basalt (tholeiite) is non-violent. This is shown in cartoon form:
For the calc-alkaline, more silicic andesitic and dacitic magmas or more mature arcs, Ringwood suggested a slightly different mechanism based on his experimental work on eclogite. Hydrous melting of eclogite (if Si-poor garnet stays

in the residue produces silica-rich dacitic magmas. These then react with the mantle wedge and rise up as diapirs and erupt as much more violent hydrous magmas, of which Mt. St. Helens is a good example.
However, there are a number of problems with these simple models, and it is now accepted that they only acount for a minor number of features of subduction zone magmas. For instance, the primitive Mariana arc tholeiites are really a result of fore-arc diapirism connected with the initiation of a new subduction zone, following a change in plate motion, as outlined in the last lecture.
How can subduction zones give rise to the following range of magmas? Surely this must imply a range of P-T conditions that involve both slab and wedge melting?
Boninites ( High-Mg andesites ): usually formed at early stage of island arcs
Island Arc Tholeiites ( IAT ): normally restricted to primitive island arcs
Calc-alkaline basalts & andesites : found in mature island arcs and continental margins
Bajaites (Adakites) : High-Mg andesites (but different from boninites) where ridge subduction occurs or mafic rocks have been underplated.
Shoshonites : Often late-subduction or post-subduction: high-Ba, Sr magmas
Archaean TTG suite : Distinctive, and thought to be derived from subducted ocean crust (they resemble adakites).
The critical points of issue are:
(a) under what conditions does the slab melt?
(b) what is the difference between subducting old ocean crust and young ocean crust?
(c) do magmas originate instead in the mantle wedge?
(d) what is the mineralogy of the wedge. Are minerals like hornblende, phlogopite & K-richterite stable in subduction zones?
(e) how can the difference between primitive island arcs (e.g. Marianas) that tend to erupt basalts, and mature arcs (e.g. Andean margin) that tend to erupt andesite, be explained?

Anderson et al. (1978; 1980) were the first to consider the thermal structure of subduction zones seriously. Wyllie & co-workers, in a series of papers (e.g. Wyllie,
1988), used experimental petrology to try to constrain what will melt under hydrous conditions, and what the magma compositions would be. He produced some useful cartoon models, one of which is shown below:
The important points to note are that the ocean crust reaching a subduction zone will be relatively "cold" and "wet". Just how cold it will be will depend on just how many hundreds or thousands of km it has travelled from the spreading ridge. It will be wet as a result of hydrothermal alteration near the ridge axis. As the plate subducts the basaltic crust will undergo a progressive increase in metamorphic grade – Greenshist > Amphibolite > Eclogite facies – which is also a series of dehydration reactions to about 100km depth.
More recently, Peacock (1991) and Bickle & Davies (1991) have produced much better thermal models. For instance, Peacock (1991) has produced useful thermal numerical models. He explores the thermal effect of:
(a) Age of the oceanic crust being subducted. Clearly young warm ocean crust will be more likely to melt if subducted than old cold lithosphere. The diagram below shows the increase in temperature at 1 my intervals (dots) as ocean crust ranging in age from 5 my [A] to 200 my [D] is subducted to 200 km. The surprising result is that only when quite young crust is being subducted is there a possibility of melting
(i.e. temperatures reach >900°C beneath the arc). So as subduction continues and older and older crust begins to be subducted, it is less easily melted:

The blocks labelled eclogite and blueschist show the P-T conditions found in exhumed subduction complexes (e.g. the Franciscan of California) which are consistent with an average age of 50 Ma old for subucted ocean crust.
(b) Amount of previously subducted lithosphere. Clearly the more you stuff cool oceanic lithosphere into the upper mantle, the more it will cool it (the iced drink analogy!). With subduction rates of 10 cm/yr it is possible to subduct 100 km of ocean crust per m.y. [the diagrams are drawn for a much slower subduction rate of
3 cm/yr]
The implication from the diagram below is that the cooling effect of continued subduction is quite severe, So after less than 600 km (= 6 m.y.) of ocean crust subduction, temperatures are below those at which the slab melts. But what about the mantle wedge?

The diagram also shows how the top and base of oceanic crust heats up. The base is initially hotter, but the top eventually gets hotter because of heat conducted from the mantle wedge.
(c) Magmas from the mantle wedge? Curves E and F show the temperatures of the mantle wedge (straddling the depths at which magmas are generated below arc volcanoes) at 10 m.y. and 20 m.y. after the start of subduction, but without allowing any convection in the mantle wedge. The cooling effect of the slab is very important, quickly taking the wedge below temperatures at which magmas would be generated.

However, Curve G shows the effect of allowing induced convection in the mantle wedge (a similar curve linked with E would be even higher temperature . . . ). In this case the temperatures stay above 950
°C as the wedge material is dragged down, and so hydrous melting would be possible . An important implication from this diagram is that it is much more likely that arc magmas are derived from the mantle wedge: conditions for slab melting are very restricted.
(d) Effect of induced convection on slab. Briefly, the modelling shows that induced convection can enhance the meltability of older slab, but the effect on young ocean crust is not important:

(e) Temperature or pressure control on magma generation?
The diagram above shows effect of water on the melting behaviour of basaltic oceanic crust. Under dry conditions melting increases with pressure (red dashed line). However, under water-saturated conditions (red full line) melting temperatures plummet by almost 400°C at depths of 50 km.
Importantly, the blue curve shows how hornblende becomes an important mineral under hydrous conditions; however, note that the curve turns over at ~70-80 km to become pressure-sensitive – hornblende in mantle breaks down at ~100+ km.
This means that a lot of fluid will be released from hornblende at these depths, which could promote melting. Is this why most arc volcanoes lie ~100 km above the Benioff Zone?
(f) Upward and Downward flow in mantle wedge
There is increasng interest in subduction-induced flow in the mantle wedge. At shallow levels (25-50km) the massive amounts of water entering the subduction zone may hydrate the mantle wedge to give serpentinite: this rock contains >12% water and is significantly less dense than normal mantle, and so can rise diapirically and "intrude" (solid state flow) the fore-arc regions, whether formed of arc volcanics or accreted sediment.
Further down, cooling of the wedge by the subduction zone itself may make it negatively buoyant (i.e. denser) and help drag the wedge down, promoting hornblende breakdown and fluid release. This will enhance induced convection

effects. The amount of coupling between slab and mantle wedge would however be reduced by soft sediment at the interfact between the two.
Upward flow further back in the mantle wedge would compensate these effects, particularly if enhanced by low-density fluid and magmas. (to be continued . . . )
REFERENCES
ANDERSON, R.N., DELONG, S.E. & SCHWARTZ, W.M. 1978. Thermal model for subduction with dehydration in the downgoing slab. Journal of Geology 86 , 731-739.
ANDERSON, R.N., DELONG, S.E. & SCHWARTZ, W.M. 1980. Dehydration, asthenospheric convection and seismicity in subduction zones. Journal of Geology 88 ,
445-451.
CARLSON, R.L., HILDE, T.W.C. & UYEDA, S. 1983. The driving mechanism of plate tectonics: relation to age of the lithosphere at trenches. Geophysics Research Letters 10 ,
297-300.
DAVIES, J.H. & BICKLE, M.J. 1991. A physical model for the volume and composition of melt produced by hydrous fluxing above subduction zones. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London A335 , 355-364.
DAVIES, J.H. & STEVENSON, D.J. 1992. Physical model of source region of subduction zone magmatism. Journal of Geophysical Research 97 , 2037-2070.
DEFANT, M.J. & DRUMMOND, M.S. 1990. Derivation of some modern arc magmas by melting of young subducted lithosphere. Nature 347 , 662-665.
DEWEY, J.F. 1981. Episodicity, sequence and style at convergent plate boundaries. In The
Continental Crust and its Mineral Deposits . Geological Association of Canada, Special
Paper 20 , 553-572.
GARFUNKEL, Z., ANDERSON, C.A. & SCHUBERT, G. 1986. Mantle circulation and the lateral migration of subducted slabs. Journal of Geophysical Research 91 , 7205-7223.
HARGRAVES, R.B. 1986. Faster spreading or greater ridge length in the Archean?
Geology 14 , 750-752.
KINCAID, C. & OLSON, P. 1987. An experimental study of subduction and slab migration .
Journal of Geophysical Research 92 , 13832-13840.
MOLNAR, P. & ATWATER, T. 1978. Interarc spreading and cordilleran tectonics as alternates related to the age of subducted ocean lithosphere. Earth and Planetary Science
Letters 41 , 330-340.
PEACOCK, S.M. 1987. Thermal effects of metamorphic fluids in subduction zones.
Geology 15 , 1057-1060.

PEACOCK, S.M. 1991. Numerical simulations of subduction zone pressure-temperaturetime paths: constraints on fluid production and arc magmatism. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London A335 , 341-353.
RINGWOOD, A.E. 1974. The petrological evolution of island arc systems. Journal of the
Geological Society, London 130 , 183-204.
STERN, R.J. & BLOOMER, S.H. 1992. Subduction-zone infancy - Examples from the
Eocene Izu-Bonin-Mariana and Jurassic California arcs. Geological Society of America
Bulletin 104 , 1621-1636.
SUDO, A. & TATSUMI, Y. 1990. Phlogopite and K-amphibole in the upper mantle: implications for magma genesis in subduction zones. Geophysics Research Letters 17 , 29-
32.
UYEDA, S. & KANAMORI, H. 1979. Back-arc opening and mode of subduction. Journal of
Geophysical Research 84 , 1049-1061.
WYLLIE, P.J. 1988. Magma genesis, plate tectonics and chemical differentiation of the earth. Reviews of Geophysics 26 , 370-404.
THE FATE OF SEDIMENTS AT SUBDUCTION ZONES
The floors of the world's oceans are covered by sediment up to 1 km thick (age dependent) as a result of slow accumulation of calcareous and siliceous biogenic oozes capped by fine clays that have been carried in suspension to the middle of oceans. Additionally, nearer continents there may be much thicker accumulations of clastic sediments brought in by deltas and turbidity currents, and further redistributed by strong bottom water currents. Sooner or later this sedimenty must finish up at a subduction zone. What happens to it? Does it get scraped-off, or does it get dragged down the subduction zone? If the latter, does it just disappear into the deep mantle, or does it get recycled into island arc magmas? The balance is shown as follows:

Effectively, subduction at active margins can be likened to a conveyor belt carrying a lot of loose rubbish moving against a buttress: some material is going to get scraped-off:
There are many variables in the whole process. So it is important to look at a number at different tectonic situations.
(1) Primitive Island Arcs: no sediment accretion
At intraoceanic island arcs, such as the Marianas, there is no sediment supply from the continent (this is trapped by the back-arc basin), and the arc itself produces only a minor amount of volcanic ash (the eruptions are basaltic and not violent). Most of the sediment arriving at the subduction zone is abyssal ooze and clay carried on the subducting plate (on old ocean crust, at least 0.5km thick). It used to be thought that this abyssal sediment was scraped off to form an accretionary wedge in the fore-arc. However, dredging and drilling in the Mariana forearc and trench has shown that there is little on no sediment in the Mariana trench. Yet during the 40 my since the arc system has been in existence, up to
40 km³ of sedimen / km length of arc should have been scraped off the subducting plate (which is subducting at 10 cm/year).

The sediment must be subducted - but how? The answer seems to be that, as the subducting plate bends over to become vertical, the flexure causes horsts and graben to develop. Sediments are scraped off from the horsts into the graben and thus encased as the ocean lithosphere deforms (for this reason it was thought this would be a good place to dispose of nuclear waste!) In fact the ocean crust acts as a gigantic rasp on the arc too - the forearc is gradually, but slowly, eroded:
However geochemical studies have shown that very little of the sediment is actually incorporated into the arc volcanics, so most of it must be cycled into the deeper mantle. Presumably, as the slab at the Marianas is avalanching into the lower mantle, the sediments may be taken down also.
(2) Northern Chile: no sediment to subduct
Here the sediment supply is also very limited because of the arid climate. Many of the rivers from the high Andes never quite make it to the ocean, and in any case there few floods (which produce the turbidity currents that carry the sediment out into the ocean proper). Also, major faults parallel to the coast tend to obstruct the rivers, forming saline lakes (were common in N. Chile).
So the situation is similar to that in the Marianas, although the dip of the subducting slab is not so great. Some geologists have suggested that the rasping action of the subducting slab has actually eroded back the continental margin of N.
Chile and Peru. Is this why the locus of volcanic activity continually moves eastwards with time in the N. Andes? And why Palaeozoic batholiths are exposed right at the coast, close to the trench? (Although difficult to prove it was there when it has gone!).
Where sediment supply is a little higher, trench gets partly filled with sediment.
Some of this sediment may get scraped off. But drilling in the Middle America
Trench suggests that the abyssal ocean floor sediments are still subducted (soft oozes act as a lubricant)
(3) S. Chile and Alaska: high sediment input
Here the climate is temperate and wet. Abundant rivers, some deriving from glaciers. Floods common. High rate of sediment supply to the ocean. Sediment

supply was even higher during the Pleistocene (and there has not been time yet to subduct them).
Result is that large amount of sediment is carried into the trench. Trench quickly gets filled, and sediment then carried out onto subducting plate. As this continues the weight of sediment actually depresses the plate as it approaches the trench so that angle of dip is smaller (dip increases under the continental margin proper).
With a shallower dip, no horsts & graben form, and sediment is scraped off. This can readily be seen from reflection profiles. Layering of sediments disappears as continent is approached. Low angle thrusts appear. Younger sediments are progressively underplated. If sedimentation rates are high (as they are in high northern/southern latitudes) this can give rise to lateral growth of continents. The process is called subduction-accretion and the structures are called Accretionary
Prisms. The general features are shown below:
(4) Characteristics of Accretionary Wedges/Prisms
Lateral continental growth by subduction-accretion is dependent on (a) the supply of material from the ocean, and (b) the sediment supply from the continent. These two might vary over a large range.
(a) Material accreted from oceans
The ocean floor is not smooth. Study of the Pacific map shows that the pre-
Tertiary ocean floor is considerably rougher than that generated in the Tertiary.
There are more oceanic plateaus, aseismic ridges, ocean island chains and arcs – in large part this results from the spate of mantle plumes which punched through the Pacific ocean plate in the late Cretaceous (120 - 80 Ma).. Many of these upstanding structures are capped by carbonate banks, because they stayed above the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) much longer than normal ocean floor.
Ocean floor that is rough and upstanding is more likely to be scraped off when it reaches subduction zones at active margins. So this sceaped-off material will be a mixture of mafic rocks (metamorphosed to amphibolite) associated with thick limestone (marble) sequences, as well as sileceous and carbonate oozes (=

"cypoline schists") and lithified cherts. Large oceanic structures such as plateaus and arcs may "choke" the subduction zone, causing back-stepping of the subduction zone, the arcs being left as an ophiolite (e.g. the classic Troodos complex on Cyprus). However, normal ocean floor, which is smooth and cold, may not be scraped off at all (it is th is that converts to eclogite to provide the slab-pull force), so the soft carbonate-siliceous oozes and cloay may not be scraped off quite so readily.
(b) Material supplied from the continents
This is largely material supplied by river systems feeding active continental margins. Of course at the present day there are not many rivers feeding active continental margins -- they are mostly still feeding the passive margins of the
Atlantic, the Indian ocean and around Antarctica/Australia.
It is important to note that in the Upper Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic, the southern continents formed part of Gondwanaland - a very large continental landmass. Moreover much of Gondwanaland was rimmed by active margins. The margin had low relief (the present high Andes is not typical, and results from
Miocene deformation and uplift). So it is probable that very large rivers were dumping sediment onto the subducting plate, and the sediment was then accreted back on to the continental margin . . . now exhumed and exposed, particularly in southern Chile, where they are of late Palaeozoic age (before the Andean magmatic cycle), and South Island, New Zealand. But they can also be seen in
Alaska, and of course occur in older mountain belts (commonly termed Flysch).
Compared with the partly-lithified material scraped off from the oceanic plate, the material coming from the continent is unlithified clastic sediment. The two get tectonically intermixed and intensely deformed (the subduction interface allows tho usands of km of relative movement in just a few tens of Ma ™ far more than with continental collision), so most rocks from this environment have strong penetrative foliations and linear fabrics (see New Harbour Group on Anglesey) and finish up as teconic melanges -- lenses of oceanic rocks in deformed soft sediment.
As soft wet sediment (greywacke-shale) is continually underplated beneath the accretionary wedge, it heats up slowly. Water is progressively driven off. Hot water dissolves silica from sandy beds, and deposits it at higher levels as abundant cross-cutting quartz veins. However, because underplating is continuous process, sediments and quartz veins become progressively and very strongly deformed.
Can be almost mylonite-like fabric. No bedding remains. Cross-cutting quartz veins are stretched out to become sub-parallel to foliation. Very characteristic rock type. Many tens or even hundreds of km of 'new' crust can accrete laterally onto continental margins in this way.

Erosion of upper part of accretionary wedge may occur, and younger sediments deposited on top in fore-arc basins. These may also become deformed, but less so (could the South Stack Series on Anglesey may represent such fore-arc basin rocks?).
References
DAVIES, J.H. & von BLANCKENBURG, F. 1995. Slab breakoff: A model of lithosphere detachment and its test in the magmatism and deformation of collisional orogens. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 129, 85-102.
von HUENE, R. & SCHOLL, D.W. 1993. The return of sialic material to the mantle indicated by terrigenous material subducted at convergent margins. Tectonophysics 219,
163-175.
TERRANES
"Terrane" concepts are now quite widely used in interpreting geological relationships in many parts of the world, and in rocks of many ages. Basically plate tectonics can move segments of continental crust or oceanic crust (e.g. ocean plateaus) many thousands of km in just a few tens of m.y., and as plates can change their direction of motion (c.f. kinik in Hawaiian chain), this can lead to the juxtaposition of segments of crust that have a completely different geological histories. So it is not just collision of major continents (e.g. India and Asia to form
Himalayas) but also on a much smaller scale. In particular, major transform faults can transport differnt crustal segments laterally for many 1000s of km (e.g. San
Andreas Fault). Of course terranes are usually fault- or thrust-bounded.
Terrane Terminology (Jargon)
" A fault-bounded package of strata that has a geological history distinct from the adjoining geologic units "
Howell (1989) divided terranes as follows:
Stratigraphic (1) representing fragments of continents
(2) fragments ofcontinental margin
(3) fragments of volcanic arc

(4) fragments of ocean basins
Disruptive
Metamorphic
However, a genetic terminology is also prevalent:
Exotic, Suspect, Displaced or Accreted terranes: this implies that the terrane has been transported some distance to its current position.
Pericratonic : Contains cratonal detritus and formed on attenuated continental crust.
Terranes are sometimes described in terms of tectonic assemblages, which are rock-stratigraphic units formed in actualistic tectonic settings, such as island arcs or ocean floors. A terrane may consist of one or more tectonic assemblages
Domain : A volume of rock, bounded by compositionalor structural discontinuities, within which there is structural homogeneity; these may contain minor stratigraphic distinctions as well andcan be viewed as subterranes.
Superterranes : A composite terrane, consisting of two or more compound terranes, that were amalgamated prior to subsequent orogenesis.
REFERENCES ( General)
CONEY, P., JONES, D.L. & MONGER, J.W. 1980. Cordilleran suspect terranes. Nature
288 , 329-333.
BEN-AVRAHAM, Z., NUR, A., JONES, D. & COX, A. 1981. Continental accretion: from oceanic plateaus to allochthonous terranes. Science 213 , 47-54.
HOWELL, D.G. 1989. Tectonics of Suspect Terranes . Chapman & Hall, NewYork, 232pp.

BEBOUT, G.E. & BARTON, M.D. 1989. Fluid flow and metasomatism in a subduction zone hydrothermal system: Catalina Schist terrane, California. Geology 17 , 976-980.
References On Alaskan Terranes
VROLIJK, P., MYERS, G. & MOORE, J.C. 1987. Warm fluid migration along tectonic melanges in the Kodiak accretionary complex, Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research
93 , 10313-10324.
BARKER, F., JONES, D.L., BUDAHN, J.R. & CONEY, P.J. 1988. Oceanic plateauseamount origin of basaltic rocks, Angayuchan Terrane, Central Alaska. Journal of
Geology 96 , 368-374 .
References On Caledonian Terranes
DEWEY, J.F. & SHACKLETON, R.M. 1984. A model for the evolution of the Grampian tract in the Caledonides and Appalachians. Nature 312 , 115-121
MURPHY, F.C. & HUTTON, D.H.W. 1986. Is the Southern Uplands of Scotland really an accretionary prism? Geology 14 , 54-57.
HUTTON, D.H.W. 1987, Strike-slip terranes and a model for the evolution of the British and
Irish Caledonides. Geological Magazine 124 , 405-425.
BENTLEY, M.R., MALTMAN, A.J. & FITCHES, W.R. 1988. Colonsay and Islay: a suspect terrane within the Scottish Caledonides. Geology 16 , 26-28.
HAUGHTON, P.D.W. 1988. A cryptic Caledonian flysch terrane in Scotland . Journal of the
Geological Society, London 145 , 685-703.
MARCANTONIO, F., DICKIN, A.P., McNUTT, R.H., & HEAMAN, L.M. 1988. A 1800 million year old Proterozoic gneiss terrane in Islay with implications for the crustal structure evolution of Britain. Nature 335 , 62-64.
SOPER, N.J., GIBBONS, W. & McKERROW, W.S. 1989. Displaced terranes in Britain and
Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society, London 146 , 365-367.
THIRLWALL, M.F. 1989. Movement on proposed terrane boundaries in northern Britain: constraints from Ordovician-Devonian igneous rocks. Journal of the Geological Society,
London 146 , 373-376.
BLUCK, B.J. & DEMPSTER, T.J. 1991. Exotic metamorphic terranes in the Caledonides:
Tectonic history of the Dalradian block, Scotland. Geology 19 , 1133-1136.
RYAN, P.D. & DEWEY, J.F. 1991. A geological and tectonic cross-section of the
Caledonides of western Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society, London 148 , 173-180.
MURPHY, F.C., ANDERSON, T.B., DALY, J.S. & 16 others, 1991 An appraisal of
Caledonian suspect terrains in Ireland. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences 11 , 11-41.

SOPER, N.J., ENGLAND, R.W., SNYDER, D.B. & RYAN, P.D. 1992. The Iapetus suture zone in England, Scotland and eastern Ireland: a reconciliation of geological and deep seismic data. Journal of the Geological Society, London 149 , 697-700.
BROWN, C. & WHELAN, J.P. 1995. Terrane boundaries in Ireland inferred from the Irish
Magnetotelluric Profile and other geophysical data. Journal of the Geological Society,
London 152 , 523-534.
References On Appalachian Terranes
WILLIAMS, H. & HATCHER, R.D. 1982. Suspect terranes and accretionary history of the
Appalachian region. Geology 10 , 530-536.
References On Andean Terranes
ASPDEN, J.A. & McCOURT, W.J. 1986. Mesozoic oceanic terrane in the central Andes of
Colombia. Geology 14 , 415-418.
Baltic Shield Proterozoic Terranes
PARK, A.F. 1991. Continental growth by accretion: a tectonostratigraphic terrane analysis of the evolution of the western and central Baltic Shield, 2.50 to 1.75 Ga. Bulletin of the
Geological Society of America 103 , 522-537.
References On Archaean Terranes
(to be continued)
PLATE TECTONICS: Lecture 2

Magma production at the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system far exceeds that in any other tectonic environment, and this has been so since the early Precambrian. It is the dominant way in which internal heat is dissipated. The structure of a midocean ridge is shown below:
Note how the lithosphere thickens as it moves away from the ridge. Because the
Earth's magnetic field oscillates between north and south at intervals of a few hundred thousand (or the odd million) years the basalts erupted then take on the current magnetisation, and so give rise to the seafloor magnetic lineations
(patterns shown above) that can be used to date the ocean floor. Melting of pyrolite mantle extracts basaltic liquids to form the ocean crust, leaving a residue of harzburgite (ol+opyx) forming the underlying lithosphere.

The ocean lithosphere suffers extensive hydrothermal alteration at the ridge (see below), but the rocks eventually finish up subducting back into the mantle:
It is because these fluids are released in the Benioff Zone as the slab is subducted that magmas are able to be generated in the mantle wedge above the subduction zone. It is fluid, not friction, which is responsible for active margin magmatism. But it is ridge processes which make it all possible. So we need to look at these.

Why does melting occur? Melting temperatures of most silicate minerals increase with increasing pressures. So temperatures of solid mantle material at depth may be higher than the melting point of mantle near the earth's surface. As hot deep mantle rises beneath spreading ridges it will, as pressure falls, rise above its solidus, and begin melting.
The simplified situation is as follows:
As the uprising mantle crosses the geotherm it begins to melt, and as the solidus temperature of mantle falls with decreasing pressure, the temperature of the melt increases relative to this solidus, thus effectively giving higher degress of melting with decompression, as shown. The amount of melt generated will be limited by the latent heat of fusion (which is high for silicates), and as the melting range of mantle peridotite lies between ca. 1100°C and ca. 1700°C, it is likely that most ridge basalts are partial (rather than complete) melts of mantle. The magma may enter a chamber in the ocean crust and begin crystallising, giving the following P-T path:
There is the possibility of superheat (i.e. temperature above the liquidus) if the magma can rise quickly, but it is apparent that most magmas are erupted or emplaced without superheat (a possible exception are ultramafic lavas called komatiites ).

Because we haven't yet been able to drill very far down into oceanic crust, the only way we can begin to understand what happens to the basaltic magma as it rises up at the ridge is to look at ophiolite complexes. There are many of these in the
Alpine belt, although we are not always sure that these mafic slivers represent true ocean basin crust or whether some (or all) may represent marginal basin crust or the roots of island arcs.
Nonetheless, by putting together information from a number of ophiolite complexes, particularly Troodos on Cyprus, we come up with the following idealised section:
Not every ophiolite has all these components complete, and it is not always for tectonic reasons. Often the gabbro is missing, or the sheeted dykes, and in some cases the dykes may intrude the harzburgite. Of course sheeted dykes can only be formed if there is a continuously extending magma chamber (try doing it without!). So if sheeted dykes are missing it may mean that there has not been such a magma chamber. In fact there is a lot of debate on this issue. Some geophysical studies indicate a possible continuous magma chamber beneath the
East Pacific Rise. However, the EPR is a smooth fast-spreading ridge, and maybe there is enough thermal input to keep a continuous magma chamber going. On the other hand in the slow-spreading Atlantic with its central rift valley and irregular topography, there is no direct evidence for a continuous magma chamber. Some workers, including those at Leicester, suggest that with slow-spreading ridges,

each eruption may be a distinct event, and that any magma chamber is only shortlived. Some sections of the Atlantic ridge, like the FAMOUS area (south of the
Azores) have numerous small volcanic cones, and this is now being recognised all over the Atlantic.
A consequence is that that there may be a variety of magma chamber profiles, with those from fast-spreading ridges having fat "onion" shapes, those from rather slower-spreading ridges having "leek" shapes. Very slow spreading ridges (e.g.
SW Indian Ridge) may just have dykes feeding lavas which directly overly peridotite. There are ophiolites with this profile, where the dykes cut harzburgite tectonite and gabbro is only locally developed. Even with the type Troodos ophiolite, which has a moderatley thick gabbro section, geochemical studies have shown that the gabbros are in fact a compound of a number of small bodies.

It has long been known that the ocean crust is much thinner in the vicinity of oceanic transform faults. Also that a greater variety of rock types can be drilled or dredged in the vicinity of transforms, and that there is usually a significant topographic difference between the two sides of a transform fault (esp. the larger ones).
The latter effect arises because the ocean crust sinks as much as 3 km over the first 50 m.y. of its existence. So the greater the age difference of adjacent bits of ocean crust across a transform, then the greater the height of the transform wall.
Obviously if the wall is 1 km high, then a large amount of rubble will fall down onto the lower plate, and deeper parts will become exposed. Moreover as the transform fault moves, the movement can deform the basalts into hornblende schists.
The thinner crust arises from the cold-wall effect, i.e. that the mantle rising up adjacent to the transform fault are actually in contact with older, and therefore cooler, oceanic crust on the other side. Cooler conditions give less melt and therefore thinner crust. Thinner crust also means there is more likelihood of mantle being exposed in the transform wall, again increasing the variety of rock types.

There has been a very great deal of interest worldwide in the metamorphism and hydrothermal alteration of oceanic crust. After all there are few geological situations where you have a large red-hot magma chamber below and a 3 km column of ocean water on top trying to dowse it. There are a number of important questions that could be asked:
(a) how extensive is the metamorphism, and how far distant from the ridge do the metamorphic effects extend?
(b) if there is extensive hydrothermal activity, does this lead to equally extensive mineral deposits which could be mined?
(c) would the metamorphism affect the magnetic anomaly patterns that are so useful for dating ocean crust?
(d) is the ocean crust so hydrated that this represents an important source of fluids at subduction zones?
(e) does the hydrothermal interchange influence the chemical budget of the oceans?
There is no doubt that ophiolite complexes (obducted bits of ocean crust in mountain belts) are usually >90% altered, and there was debate during the 60's and 70's whether this was a result of metamorphism in the mountain belt during orogensis, or resulted from ocean floor metamorphism. The latter is now the favoured explanation. Many of the samples of ocean crust recovered from the ocean floor by drillling or dredging are altered.
Cann (1979) recognises 5 different mineral assemblage facies in oceanic basalts recovered by dredging, drilling etc. The rocks characteristically preserve igneous textures.
(1) Brownstone Facies
Low temperature ocean floor weathering or cool hydrothermal alteration. Products usually have yellowish brown tint due to oxidising conditions (bluish grey if reducing). Mineral assemblages not in equilibrium; just replace specific primary phases.
Olivine replaced by Celadonite (K-rich dioctahedral Fe-illite) under more extreme alteration. This fills vesicles and replaces glass. Under reducing conditions this is a

Saponite (Mg-rich trioctahedral smectite). Pyrite common. Thus basalt has clay alteraton products.
Plagioclase remains fresh, though under extreme alteration may be partly replaced by K-feldspar (Adularia).
Glass: Where basalt glass is common, Palagonite (orange coloured disordered illite) occurs, often associated with a low temperature zeolite (Phillipsite) and
Calcite.
Fig. 8.
Diagram from
Cann (1979) tries to indicate how the minerals in a basalt affected by hydrothermal activity contribute to the secondary phases. At low temperatures it is mainly the basalt glass and olivine which are unstable and contribute to brownstone facies minerals, but plagioclase and then augite and iron oxide become progressively involved at higher grades until the whole rock recrystallises.

(2) Zeolite facies ( Temperature above 50-
100°C.)
Here Phillipsite is replaced by higher temperature zeolites - Analcite and Natrolite.
Distinct zones of zeolites occur on Iceland.
Mafic minerals replaced by Saponite or Saponite-Chlorite mixed layer minerals, coarser grained than in Brownstone Facies. Plagioclase may also be partly replaced by saponite, but augite stays fresh. Upper limit of facies (250300°C) marked by disappearance of zeolites and saponite and incoming of albite and chlorite.
(3) Greenschist Facies
Albite ± chlorite ± actinolite ± epidote ± sphene. Degree of alteration variable, primary assemblages may be completely replaced. Augite is commonly a relic, veins are common, often quartz-bearing. Assemblages may or may not be equilibrium ones. Upper limit of facies marked by disappearance of albite, chlorite and actinolite and the appearance of green aluminous hornblende associated with more calcic plagioclase (An
20-30
).
(4) Amphibolite Facies
Hornblende+Caplagioclase + titanomagnetite±epidote. This assemblage is most commonly developed in coarser grained rocks - dykes and gabbros - obviously of deeper origin. Degree of metamorphism variable. Some primary hornblende occurs in gabbros or diorites, but it is clear that amphibolite facies metamorphic assemblages are superimposed on this. So metamorphism closely follows magmatic activity.
The results can be summarised in the following table. Note that it is not just the mafic ocean crust (basalt or dolerite) that is altered. The mantle itself is often brought up along faults, transforms and fracture zones, and this is frequently altered to serpentine (ca. 13% water) at temperatu res below 450°C. But other hydrous minerals such as talc, tremolite and chlorite are possible at higher temperatures. There are also 3 different varieties of serpentine: antigorite, chrysotile (the glossy variety) and lizardite.
_________________________________________________________________
_______________
Summary of Mineral Assemblages in Altered Crust
Facies BASALT
Brownstone Celadonite +
PERIDOTITE
Phillipsite +
Palagonite + Saponite

?
Zeolite
Saponite + mixed layers
+ analcite + natrolite
Chlorite + Albite
Greenschist + Actinolite +
Epidote + sphene
Amphibolite
Hornblende +
Plagioclase +
Iron Oxide
Gabbro
Augite +
Plagioclase +
Hypersthene +
Iron Oxide +
?
Lizardite
Chrysotile
Magnetite
Tremolite
+ Olivine
+ Enstatite
Olivine
Enstatite
+ Diopside
Chromite
_________________________________________________________________
___________
General Comments :
Greenschist and amphibolite facies metamorphism of the ocean floor differs from these facies in normal regional metamorphism in that:
(a) The thermal gradient is very high: can be several-
100°C per km compared with 30 - 50°C/km in regional metamorphism.
(b) No garnet is developed in mafic rocks (pressures are not high enough).
(c) The rocks lack deformation textures (except in samples recovered from transform fracture zones)
(d) Very variable degree of recrystallization, because lower grade metamorphic assemblages are superimposed on earlier higher grade ones.
This is because hydrothermal activity continues under cooler conditions as crust progressively moves away from ridge. (In regional metamorphism it is more common for the rocks to equilibrate at one set of P-T conditions)
Despite ca. 20 years of drilling, the deepest drill holes in the ocean floor (several hundred metres) have still only penetrated brownstone- and zeolite-facies rocks.
No greenschist facies or amphibolite facies rocks penetrated. To see what happens deeper down, we really need to examine ophiolite complexes.

The Sarmiento ophiolite (Saunders et al. 1979) is one of a series of discontinuous mafic lenses that represent the mafic floor of an extensional back-arc basin that was closed and uplifted in mid-Cretaceous times in the southern Patagonian
Andes. Excellent vertical exposures have enabled the distribution of metamorphic zones resulting from the hydrothermal metamorphism to be established (Stern &
Elthon, 1982?).
Lithological sequence at Sarmiento consists of:


2 km pillow lavas
 300 m sheeted dykes
1 km gabbros with plagiogranite
Four main metamorphic equilibrium mineral facies can be recognised:
(1) Zeolite Facies
. Zeolites, palagonitized glass ± smectites ± calcite ± quart z ± pyrite ± sphene ± albite.
(2) Greenschist facies . Chlorite, epidote, Naplagioclase, sphene, ± quartz ± calcite ± biotite ± pyrite.

(3) Lower Actinolite Facies . Low-Al (2-5% Al
2
O
3
) fibrous green amphiboles,
Caplagioclase, sphene ± biotite ± calcite.
(4) Upper Actinolite Facies . Higher-Al (5-8% Al
2
O
3
) brown-green amphiboles, Caplag. (>An50), titanomagnetite, ± ilmenite ± biotite.
These are arranged vertically in the complex, with metamorphic grade increasing downwards. However, intensity of metamorphism also varies and is at a maximum within the sheeted dyke unit. Moreover, the lower temperature facies may be superimposed on the higher grade ones. The histograms show the intensity of metamorphism in each of the components of the complex for each of the four metamorphic grades.
Significant Points :
(1) The intensity of metamorphism (recrystallisation) is greatest in the sheeted dykes. This is because the vertical dyke margins permit easy access of circulating fluids, coupled with the fact that higher temperatures speed reaction rates. The high water-rock ratios in the sheeted dyke zone mean that the rocks are strongly leached. Any chemical elements not required by the newly forming minerals
(hornblendes and chlorite) are removed upwards by the fluids. This means elements like Rb, U, Th, K, some Sr, Ba and chalcophile elements like Zn, Cu and
Pb are removed from the deep dyke rocks. Some of the former group will be reabsorbed by the zeolites and clays in the uppermost 'Brownstone' part of the section, others are dissolved in seawater, whereas the chalcophile elements form valuable mounds of sulphide on the seafloor (black smokers). Overall, the hydrothermal activity achieves a major amount of vertical chemical redistribution within the ocean crust. The mobile elements are moved to the top of the ocean crust. These are the same elements that become "mobile" when the ocean crust is subducted and arc magmas are generated.
(2) As thermal gradients fall (i.e. crust moves away from ridge axis) circulating water permits lower grade assemblages to form - superimposed on high grade ones. But this secondary metamorphism is of lower intensity because circulation channels become blocked with the growth of secondary minerals. The sedimentary cap that progressively builds up on top of the basalts will eventually block circulation. There is a good example of this in the "Megaleg"
The Deep Sea Drilling Project Legs 51-53 drilled two deep 200 m holes in
Cretaceous (110 m.y.) oceanic crust in the western Atlantic near Bermuda. The holes were only 450m apart, but one hole, Hole 417A, drilled some of the most altered basalts found on the ocean floor, whereas those in Hole 417D were relatively fresh. All alteration was at 'Brownstone' facies. Basalts in both holes petrographically similar. The differences just reflect the relative access by circulating fluids.

Compare compositions (water free):
417A hyaloclastite
SiO
2
53.6
TiO
2
1.13
Al
2
O
3
11.4
MgO 5.80
CaO 3.68
Na
2
O 1.70
K
2
O 4.36
417A avge 417D avge
49.9
1.50
10.9
5.44
10.3
2.21
1.79
49.4
1.50
10.5
6.14
13.5
2.40
0.12
Note significantly higher K
2
O and lower CaO in altered rocks, particularly the most fragmentary hyaloclastite 417A, which is the most permeable of rock types.
Interpretation : Hole 417A is on basement 'high' which remained uncovered by sediment for a considerable time thus permitting long-term circulation of warm
(30°C) water. Hole 417D was a located in a topographic depression which became quickly filled with sediment which blocked extensive water circulation.
The results were first interpreted to suggest that the ocean crust may be a tremendous 'sink' for K
2
O and Rb transferred from sea water through hydrothermal circulation involving major volumes of seawater. However, how much of the Rb,
K
2
O, etc. is derived through leaching from more altered rocks (e.g. in sheeted dyke unit) at deeper levels?
To see what other chemical changes occur during alteration of oceanic crust it is best to look at the "type" ophiolite, the Troodos Complex on Cyprus. This has been intensively studied through field investigations, mining operations and by scientific drilling. Troodos formed at 91 Ma, but hydrothermal activity continued for a further
40 Ma after crust formation (Gallahan & Duncan 1994).

Studies by Spooner et al. (1977) of zeolite- to amphibolite-facies altered basalts on
Cyprus show that 87Sr/86Sr ratios are increased relative to fresh basalts and gabbros.
Zeolite
Altered Basalt
Fresh Gabbros
Cretaceous Seawater
Fresh Ocean Crust Av.
Seawater Average
Continental Rocks
87 Sr/ 86 Sr
0.80760 ± 3
0.7069
0.70338 ± 10
0.7076
Similar results have been obtained on altered ocean basalts. High 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in altered mineral products can be leached away in dilute acid so that unaltered minerals yield the original magmatic Sr isotopic ratios.
Spooner suggested that interchange of seawater Sr with ocean crust Sr occurs during hydrothermal circulation and may buffer Sr isotope composition of seawater:
87 Sr/ 86 Sr
0.703
0.709
> 0.712

There is a considerable variation in 87Sr/86Sr in seawater with time that can be linked to varying plate activity. This is discussed in more detail below.
Spooner et al. (1977) showed that oxygen isotope ratio values in Troodos and other Mediterranean ophiolites were higher ( d18O = ca. 9) than in fresh 'mantlederived' basalts (d18O = 6) and were consistent with alteration by seawater at high temperatures of ca. 350°C. The interesting point about this is that because oxygen is the most abundant element in any rock, it is necessary to exchange almost all the oxygen in the rock to significantly change the isotopic ratio. In other words, water-rock ratios are high, or large volumes of seawater interact with ocean crust at spreading centres. The implication is that if oxygen can be exchanged on this scale then many other elements can be changed too.
Heaton and Sheppard (1977) showed that the isotopic composition of hydrogen in water in equilibrium with chlorite and amphibole from altered dykes from Cyprus was indistinguishable from that of seawater.
Comment : Altered oceanic crust (now with higher 87Sr, 18O and 2H contents) which is subducted at Benioff Zones may modify the isotopic composition of island arc magmas from "normal" mantle values. The hydrous fluids driven off as the subducting slab heats up as it goes down subduction zones will be enriched in the heavy isotope of these elements. So it is not surprising that island arc magmas differ in their isotopic ratios from other mantle-derived igneous rocks.
Sulphide deposits have been found on East Pacific Rise. They occur at positions of discharge of hydrothermal systems ("black smokers"). On Cyprus ore bodies are 500 m x 350 m x 50 m, and consist of pyrite and chalcopyrite with accessory marcasite, sphalerite and galena. Chemical and isotopic data suggest that the sulphide deposits mostly formed on seafloor:
(a) Fluid inclusions in ore material have composition of seawater.
(b) Ore material has 87 Sr/ 86 Sr = 0.7075.
(c) Hydrogen isotope composition same as seawater.
Calculations suggest ore bodies may have formed in 100,000 yrs. Fluid inclusion studies suggest that the temperature of the plume of rising hydrothermal fluid was
300 - 350°C. Spooner suggests that contained sulphur has isotopic composition of seawater sulphate. So ocean crust ore sulphide may be largely of reduced seawater sulphate origin. The following diagrams illustrate some of the processes of convective seawater circulation and the respective mineral zones in the

formation of hydrothermal mounds on the ocean floor (l.h. side) and other submarine envirnments (r.h. side of 1 st picture):
These diagrams illustrate the importance of fault-control on the location of the discharge zones of hydrothermal activity, of permeability in allowing the hydrothermal solutions to circulate, of P-T-pH-Eh in controlling which minerals are stable and thus which elements are leached and which are deposited.
Comment: Large amounts of sulphide in adddition to chloride and hydroxyl are added to ocean crust as a result of hydrothermal activity. A lot of pre-concentration

of potential ore metals already occurs in the ocean crust. So what happens when ocean crust goes down subduction zones?
At subduction zones chlorine- and sulphide-rich fluids are released during dehydration. Could this give us a possible explanation for porphyry copper deposits that occur commonly at continental margins like the Andes? Spooner has stressed that water is needed as transport medium, chloride for metal complexing and sulphur for fixing the metals as solid phases. All these are present in ocean crust as it is subducted.
Sulphide ores common in ophiolites. Could we locate them on ocean floor? Many hydrothermal discharge zones have now been found at ocean ridges (mostly in the
East Pacific, but also now in the Atlantic) by submersible investigations. These are potentially important ore reserves in terms of total volume, but individual deposits are too small to mine economically, even by remote techniques. Discharge areas may be located by trace element profiles in seawater near the ocean bottom. So we can find them, but to exploit them is another matter.
REFERENCES: Oceanic Crust
CANN, J.R. 1974. A model for ocean crust structure developed . Geophysical Journal of the
Royal Astronomical Society 39 , 169-187.
CANN, J.R. 1979. Metamorphism in the ocean crust. In: TALWANI, M. et al. (eds ) Deep
Drilling Results in the Atlantic Ocean: Ocean Crust . Maurice Ewing Series 2 , 230-238.
American Geophysical Union
CARLSON, R.L. & JOHNSON, H.P. 1994. On modelling the thermal evolution of the oceanic upper mantle: An assessment of the cooling plate model. Journal of Geophysical
Research 99 , 3201-3214.
ELTHON, D. & STERN, C.R. 1978. Metamorphic petrology of the Sarmiento ophiolite complex, Chile. Geology 6 , 464-468.
FLOWER, M.J. 1991. Magmatic processes in oceanic ridge and intraplate settings. In:
FLOYD, P.A. (ed ) Oceanic Basalts . Blackie, Glasgow, pp.116-147.
GALLAHAN, W.E. & DUNCAN, R.A. 1994. Spatial and temporal variability on crystallisation of celladonites within the Troodos ophiolite, Cyprus: Implications for lowtemperature alteration of the oceanic crust . Journal of Geophysical Research 99 , 3147-
3161.
LIN, J. & PARMENTIER, E.M. 1989. Mechanisms of lithosphere extension at mid-ocean ridges . Geophysical Journal International 96 , 1-22.

MARSH, B.D. 1989. Magma chambers. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences
17 , 439-474.
NICOLAS, A. 1989. Structures of ophiolites and dynamics of ocean lithosphere . Kluwer,
Amsterdam, 367pp.
NICOLAS, A., FREYDIER, Cl., GODARD, M. & VAUCHEZ, A. 1993. Magma chambers at oceanic ridges: How large? Geology 21 , 53-56.
RONA, P.A. 1985. Hydrothermal mineralization at slow spreading centers: Red Sea,
Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean. Marine Mining 5 , 117-145.
RONA, P.A. 1986. Mineral deposits from sea-floor hot springs. Scientific American XX, 66-
74.
SAWKINS, F.J. 1976. Metal deposits related to intracontinental hotspot and rifting environments. Journal of Geology 84 , 427-430.
SAUNDERS, A.D. & TARNEY, J. 1984. Geochemical characteristics of basaltic volcanism within back-arc basins. In KOKELAAR, B.P. & HOWELLS, M.F. (eds) Marginal Basin
Geology . Special Publication of the Geological Society, London 16 , pp.59-76.
SAUNDERS, A.D. & TARNEY, J. 1991. Back-arc basins. In: FLOYD, P.A. (ed) Oceanic
Basalts . Blackie, Glasgow, pp.219-263.
SAUNDERS, A.D., TARNEY, J., STERN, C.R. & DALZIEL, I.W.D. 1979. Geochemistry of
Mesozoic marginal basin floor igneous rocks from southern Chile. Geological Society of
America Bulletin 90 , 237-258.
SINTON, J.M. & DETRICK, R.S. 1992. Mid-ocean ridge magma chambers. Journal of
Geophysical Research 97 , 197-216.
SPOONER, E.T.C., CHAPMAN, H.J. & SMEWING, J.D. 1977. Strontium isotopic contamination and oxidation during ocean floor hydrothermal metamorphism of the ophiolitic rocks of the Troodos Complex, Cyprus. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 41 ,
873-890.
THOMPSON, G. 1991. Metamorphic and hydrothermal processes: basalt - seawater interactions. In: FLOYD, P.A. (ed) Oceanic Basalts . Blackie, Glasgow, pp.148-173.
WHITE, R.S. 1991. Structure of ocean crust from geophysical measurements. In: FLOYD,
P.A. (ed) Oceanic Basalts . Blackie, Glasgow, pp.30-48.
You may wonder what the strontium isotopic composition of seawater has to do with plate tectonics? Surprisingly the variation in the Sr isotopic composition of ocean seawater with time it is turning out to be an excellent monitor of past plate tectonic activity. But we are only just beginning to understand why. For instance the present day seawater Sr isotopic composition (expressed as 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) is

0.709, and because ocean water is globally well mixed, all modern shells and limestones that incorporate seawater Sr have this ratio. By measuring the Sr isotopic ratios in limestones or shells from older geological formations it is possible to log the Sr isotopic variations in seawater with time. The early work by Peterman et al. (1970) and others produced the following curve:
It can be seen that there is a progressive increase from the late Jurassic to the present day. However there is also a decrease from the early Carboniferous to the late Jurassic. So there must be some geological process or processes which produce a decrease in 87 Sr/ 86 Sr as well as those which produce an increase. So what are these processes?
Rubidium-87 ( 87 Rb) is radioactive and decays to 87 Sr , so that the ratio 87 Sr/ 86 Sr must increase in the Earth with time ( 86 Sr is unradiogenic so stays constant).
However the rate at which the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratio will increase depends on the elemental Rb/Sr ratio of the rock. The Earth's mantle is low in Rb relative to Sr, so mantle derived rocks, which have a very low Rb/Sr ratio, tend to have low 87 Sr/ 86 Sr
(the ratio has increased from only 0.699 to 0.703 over the last 4500 m.y.!).
However, crustal rocks such as granites and shales are rich in Rb and have a high
Rb/Sr ratio so, given time, become enriched in 87 Sr and have a high 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. So if seawater interchanges chemically with crustal rocks its ratio of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr will increase, wheareas if it interchanges with mantle rocks this ratio will be pulled down again. Clearly to change the ratios in a reservoir the size of an ocean must indicate (at least) two very big process, one pushing the ratio up and the other dragging it down. What are they?
Clearly, enhanced erosion of high 87 Sr/ 86 Sr continental material will drive the ratio up. As feldspars and micas weather and breakdown to clays their radiogenic Sr is released. This is very soluble in river water and finishes up in the sea. But enhancement can only come if the proportion of mountain belts is increased. And this will be brought about by continental collision at the end of the Wilson Cycle.
So does the sharply increasing curve since the late Jurassic then monitor the

development of our recent mountain belts such as the Alps, Himalayas and
Andes? There have been a number of attempts to model this most recent 100 m.y. growth, since the seawater variation curve for this period is very well known (after
Richter et al . 1992):
The Sr flux into the oceans can be estimated from the large rivers, e.g.,
River
Amazon
Orinoco
Himalayan-Rivers total
Global Total
Sr Flux (mol/yr)
2.2 × 109
0.2 × 109
7.7 × 109
3.3 × 1010
87 Sr/ 86 Sr
0.7109
0.7183
0.7127
0.711
The growth is most rapid between 40 m.y. to the present, and particularly in the period 20 - 15 m.y. Richter et al. (1992) find that they can model this rapid growth mainly as a consequence of uplift of the Himalayan-Tibetan plateau, following the collision of India with Asia. See the high values for the Sr flux in the Himalayan
Rivers (Indus, Ganges, Irrawady, Yangtze, Mekong, etc.). So can we detect mountain belt formation in the geological record by rapid increases in the Sr isotopic ratio of seawater?
This poses an interesting problem as to why, if mountain belts are repeatedly formed throughout history, the Sr ratio does not just go on up and up. After all, if the seawater ratio can rise by 0.002 in the last 40 m.y., why has it risen by only
0.010 in the last 4500 m.y. Some equally powerful process must be bringing it down again.

The curve for the whole of the Phanerozoic (Cambrian to present) was established by Burke et al. (1982) by very careful work on limestones of various ages, taking care to avoid rocks that experienced later diagenetic effects:
It can be seen that we actually have to go back to the Cambrian before the seawater Sr ratio was as high as it is at the present day. In fact there has been a general decline for a period of almost 400 m.y. between the Cambrian and the late
Jurassic, and superimposed on this is at least five sharp falls.
The main reason for the decrease must be hydrothermal exchange of seawater with hot basalt at mid-ocean spreading centres. As we have seen from ophiolites, the breakdown of feldspars with low "mantle" Sr ratios releases Sr into the seawater. At the same time, zeolites and clays growing in the low-temperature altered basalts take Sr out of seawater with a high "continental" component.
Because ocean crust is eventually subducted at trenches, the net effect is to remove some of this "continental" Sr component located in the hyrothermallyaltered ocean crust deep into the Earth's mantle.
So can we correlate these periods of rapidly falling Sr isotope composition with periods of faster spreading? Or with the breakup of major continents like
Gondwanaland? Note that if there is enhanced ridge activity, this probably means that the uprising mantle is hotter and less dense, and that most likely it will displace ocean water volume, like Iceland, and flood the continental shelves. Of course the more the continents are flooded, the less active will be the rivers, and the lower their content of "continental" Sr. But, in contrast, once there is a major continental collision, like that following the closure of Tethys and the formation of the Alps and the Himalayas, then ridge activity must stop, or slow, for a while until new plate configurations are established. So is this why the curve oscillates around. It is advisable to try to model it. This is what Richter et al. (1992) have tried to do.

Richter et al. (1992) used the following numbers:
Total Sr in Oceans:
River flux:
Hydrothermal flux:
Diagenetic flux:
1.25 × 1017 (mol)
3.3 × 1010 (mol/yr)
0.82 × 1010(mol/yr)
0.3 × 1010 (mol/yr)
0.7092
0.711
0.7030
0.7084
The latter flux is that due to carbonate diagenesis, but is not an important controlling factor.
They then tried to model the Sr isotopic variation throughout the Phanerozoic by making various assumptions about plate motions, collisions, spreading rates, etc.
Obviously things get more uncertain the further back in time, and because there are parts of the Earth where the geology is not very well known. The result is shown below:
The model accounts reasonably well for the large-scale structure of the sewater Sr isotopic curve, but fails to reproduce several of the local maxima and minima, especially in the period 300 - 100 m.y. However the "highs" in the Cambrian,
Devonian and present day do correlate with extensive mountain building.
The interesting point about such graphs is that they tell us that there may be something missing from our current plate tectonic models. For instance, Richter et al. assume that all mountain building is due to continent collision. But there was no major continent collision as such involved in the uprise of the Andes, which is also

a major contributor to seawater Sr. The Andean uplift may have resulted in part from the docking and attempted subduction of major ocean plateaus. This would add a new dimension to the story because the formation of hot ocean plateaus would substantially enhance the ridge hydrothermal Sr flux, to be followed later by an enhanced "continental" flux as mountain belts were formed as these hot thick plateaus tried to subduct.
For further discussion of long-term changes in geological features, and possible implications, see Moores (1993).
BURKE, W.H., DENISON, R.E., HETHERINGTON, E.A., KOEPNICK, R.B., NELSON, H.F.
& OTTO, J.B. 1982. Variation of seawater 87 Sr/ 86 Sr throughout Phanerozoic time. Geology
10 , 516-519.
HESS, J., BENDER, J.L. & SCHILLING, J.-G. 1986. Evolution of the ratio of strontium 87 to strontium 86 in seawater from the Cretaceous to the Present . Science 231 , 979-984.
MOORES, E.M. 1993. Neoproterozoic oceanic crustal thinning, emergence of continents, and origin of the Phanerozoic ecosystem: A model. Geology 21 , 5-8.
PALMER, M.R. & EDMOND, J.M. 1989. The strontium isotope budget of the modern ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 92 , 11-26.
PETERMAN, Z.E., HEDGE, C.E. & TOURTELOT, H.A. 1970. isotopic composition of strontium in seawater throughout Phanerozoic time. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 34 ,
104-120.
RICHTER, F.M., ROWLEY, D.B. & DePAOLO, D.J. 1992. Sr isotope evolution of seawater: the role of tectonics. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 109 , 11-23.
VEIZER, J. 1985. Strontium isotopes in seawater through time. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences 17 , 141-156.
PLATE TECTONICS: Lecture 5
Subduction Zones are where cool lithospheric plates sink back into the mantle. It takes about 50 my for the ocean lithosphere that formed in the hot (>1000°C) environment at mid-ocean ridges to cool to an equilibrium state and sink to its maximum depth below sea-level. Although there is no universal agreement on the balance of forces that drives plate tectonics, the " slab-pull " force is thought to be an important one. For instance the Pacific Plate is the fastest moving plate (ca. 10 cm/yr), and this is the plate that supplies most of the Earth's subducting lithosphere, and thus where the overall slab-pull force will be the larger. The normal argument is that the cool ocean crust will more easily convert to dense eclogite which, as we have seen in Lecture 1, is much more dense than pyrolite.

What is most surprising is the great variation in geological features associated with subduction. There is a huge difference between the East Pacific and the West
Pacific. Not only that, but there are differences along the Andean margin, and also quite major differences as we go back in time. But it is important to understand subduction because this is where the continental crust grew progressively with time.
Subduction is where tectonics, structural geology, sedimentation, igneous petrology, metamorphism, geochemistry, geophysics and applied geology all interact. Typical "textbook" features of a mature continental margin subduction zone are shown below. The cartoon shows sediment being scraped off the downgoing plate to form an accretionary wedge, and that a forearc basin is forming on top of the wedge as it is dragged down (and is presumably fed by volcanic debris from the arc). However, the cartoon avoids the issue of how and where the volcanic magmas come from. To what extent does the basaltic subducted slab contribute to arc magmas? Is it just the fluids carried down in altered oceanic crust that migrate into the mantle wedge overlying the subduction zone and cause melting? Ot what extent do sediments carried down the subduction zone then contribute to arc magmas? Why are arc volcanoes nearly always situated about 110 km above the Benioff Zone? What happens to material taken down the subduction zone?
MARGINAL BASINS & BACK ARC SPREADING

Marginal basins are a common feature of the Western Pacific. Examples (north to south) are the Sea of Japan, the West Philippine Basin, the Parace Vela &
Shikoku Basins, the Mariana Trough, the Woodlark Basin, the Fiji and Lau Basins.
By contrast marginal basins are rarer in the Eastern Pacific. The two examples in the Atlantic are the Caribbean and the Scotia Sea.
Marginal basins are small oceanic basins, usually adjacent or "marginal" to a continent, which are separated from larger oceans by an island arc. Some marginal basins at continental margins may be imperfectly developed and represented by thinned crust, often associated with basic volcanism. Karig (1971,
1974) divided marginal basins into:
(1) Active marginal basins with high heat flow .
(2) Inactive marginal basins with high heat flow .
(3) Inactive marginal basins with normal heat flow .
The first two are thought to have formed by back-arc spreading, either still active
(1), or recently active (2). The third may represent basins formed by even older back-arc spreading, or normal ocean crust that has been "trapped" behind a recently developed oceanic island arc.
FRAMEWORK OF AN ISLAND ARC SYSTEM
The commonly held model of an arc - back-arc system has the following components:
(1) Subduction Zone
(2) Fore-arc region with accretionary sedimentary prism
(3) Frontal Arc
(4) Active Arc
(5) Marginal Basin with spreading centre
(6) Remnant Arc
(7) Inactive Marginal Basin
Although the extensive fore-arc region of many island arcs was thought to be composed of off-scraped sediments, drilling has not substantiated this. It appears that - at least at intraoceanic arcs - abyssal sediments on the downgoing plate are largely subducted.

That the back-arc region is a zone of asthenospheric upwelling is supported by seismic evidence which suggests a low-Q (seismic attenuation) zone behind the arc, compatible with a small amount of melt in the back-arc region:
Magnetic anomalies in back-arc basins are not so well developed, nor have such symmetrical linear patterns, as those in the normal ocean basins. There have been difficulties in identifying the anomalies. It has been suggested by Lawver &
Hawkins (1978) that spreading may be more diffuse and not constrained to one central well-defined spreading centre. Good dateable magnetic anomaly patterns were first described from the Scotia Sea back-arc basin (IA Hill). Spreading in some basins may be asymmetric, with accretion favoured on the active arc side.
Models for Back-arc Spreading ( see Karig, 1974 )

Active Diapirism : One of the earliest models, based on the Mariana Arc System, is that of an uprising diapir splitting the arc. The diapir is initiated either as a result of frictional heating at the subduction zone, or more likely through fluids released from the dehydrating subducting slab. The rising diapir then splits the arc in two and the two halves are progressively separated by seafloor spreading:
Passive Diapirism : This results from regional extensional stresses in the the lithosphere across the arc system. In effect the downgoing slab, although acting like a conveyor belt, also has a vertical component that causes "roll-back". The arc and forearc then stays with the subduction zone, as a result of a supposed trench suction force:
Stepwise Migration : Here it is assumed that the subducting slab is snapped off near the hinge, presumably because something on the downgoing slab is too light to go down, and so a new subduction is initiated oceanwards. The arc stays near the hinge and the asthenosphere wells up behind it:

Convection-driven : This model proposed by Toksoz & Bird (1978), and requires that subsidiary convection cells are driven by the downward drag of the downgoing slab. Calculations suggest that spreading would occur about 10 my after the start of subduction. This might explain why back-arc spreading is more common in oceanic regions ™ the lithosphere is thinner and thus more easily disrupted than under continents:
Uprising Harzburgite Diapir : This model (Oxburgh & Parmentier 1978) depends on the fact that refractory lithosphere (which has lost its basalt component at midocean ridges) is less dense and inherently more buoyant than normal fertile mantle. Thus it would rise if heated to same temperature as surrounding mantle.
Such diapirs could in theory be derived from subducting lithosphere, although it is doubtful that subducting lithosphere could be heated within 10 my; more likely it takes 1000 - 2000 my according to megalith concepts of Ringwood (1982):
Old and Young Lithosphere : Molnar & Atwater (1978) have argued that it depends on the dip of the subducting slab whether extension occurs in the back arc region. In the W. Pacific it is old (Jurassic), cold and dense lithosphere that is

subducting - with very steep dip and strong vertical component. Thus extensional conditions in back-arc region. In the E. Pacific, on the other hand, the lithosphere subducting beneath the Andes is young (Tertiary), warm and less dense, and subducts at a shallow angle. Thus convergence is more compressive than extensional. Uyeda & Kanamori (1979) have characterised these two extreme types of subduction as Mariana and Chilean type respectively. See also Dewey
(1981)
Other models : Various researchers have since commented on the possible causes of back-arc spreading, including assessments of dependence on absolute and relative plate motions. Consult some of references listed below. Experimental laboratory studies have been carried out by Kincaid & Olsen (1987), observing the effects of continued subduction where the subducting slab 'hits' the 650 km discontinuity. The results show that steep subduction does produce a significant roll-back effect on the hinge, which will generate extensional conditions in the back-arc region. Note that with subduction rates of about 7 cm/yr it would take about 10 my before newly subducted ocean lithosphere would 'hit' the 650 km discontinuity and begin to initiate 'roll-back' of the hinge, and thus extensional conditions.
EVOLUTION OF MARIANA ARC SYSTEM
The Mariana Arc is perhaps the type intra-oceanic arc system, and the most extensively studied through marine geophysical studies, dredging and drilling
(particularly Legs 58, 59 and 60 of DSDP in late 1970's). From west to east it consists of the following features:
(1) West Philippine Basin
(2) Kyushu-Palau Ridge (a remnant arc)
(3) Shikoku & Parece-Vela Basins
(4) West Mariana Ridge (a remnant arc)
(5) Mariana Trough
(6) Active Mariana Arc
(7) Mariana Fore-arc (made of old arc)
(8) Mariana Trench (up to 11 km deep )
(9) The subducting Pacific Plate (Jurassic age)

West Philippine Basin : This may be 'trapped' in origin and not strictly formed by back-arc spreading. It appears to pre-date the Kyushu-Palau Ridge. Magnetic anomalies suggest active spreading in the early Tertiary (62-40 Ma) with the NW-
SE trending Central Basin Fault as the spreading centre. The Oki-Daito Ridge in the northern West Philippine Sea is aligned parallel to this feature and has been regarded as an old remnant arc: however drilled samples from the Oki-Daito Ridge are alkaline basalts, not island arc basalts. Drilled samples from the W. Philippine
Basin are fairly typical MORB.
The Philippine Basin is slowly subducting to the west beneath Taiwan, etc. The subduction rate is much less than that of the Pacific Plate beneath the Marianas.
Kyushu-Palau Ridge : This is over 2000 km long and rises 2 km above the adjacent basin floors. Consists of vesicular lava flows, dykes and sills, interbedded with volcaniclastic breccias lying below Middle Oligocene oozes. Lavas all belong to Island Arc Tholeiite (IAT) Series, typical of the most primitive island arcs. Now an inactive Remnant Arc that was active between about 42 and 32 my ago.
Parece-Vela and Shikoku Basins : Magnetic anomaly patterns indicate back-arc spreading between 30 and 17 my in Parece-Vela and between 26 and 15 my in the Shikoku Basin in north. Basaltic sills common in sediments near basement, indicating high rates of sedimentation near near ridge axis. Basalts are vesicular.
Similar to MORB.
West Mariana Ridge : Shallower and younger than the Kyushu-Palau Ridge.
Drilling penetrated about 1000 m of volcaniclastic material composed of basalts, basaltic andesites, rare andesites and plagioclase phenocrysts. Their character is calc-alkaline, with much higher contents of Ba and Sr than those of K-P Ridge. Arc was active 17-8 my ago. So now a Remnant Arc. Arc built up when spreading in P-
V / Shikoku Basins ceased.
Mariana Trough : This is 1500 km long, 250 km wide. Rough topography, high heat flow. Magnetic lineations poorly developed, but suggest back arc spreading from about 6 my ago - i.e. when activity on West Mariana Ridge ceased. Near the
West Mariana Ridge metabasalts, gabbros and anorthositic cumulates were drilled
- deeper part of a rifted-apart arc? Basalts in Mariana Trough are MORB-like, but have some arc characteristics. Vesicular. Spreading still in progress. Further north, on Iwo-Jima Ridge, there is an incipient back-arc basin just beginning to form - the
Bonin Trough.

Mariana Active Arc : This consists of numerous small islands and seamounts, on the eastern edge of the extensive Fore-arc region. Lavas are mainly basalts, basaltic andesites and andesites.
Mariana Fore-arc : The forearc region shows a history of continual subsidence. The basement is Eocene in age (similar to Kyushu-Palau Ridge) and consists of two distinct lava types:
(1) Island Arc Tholeiites (very similar in character to those of Kyushu-
Palau Ridge). These magmas can normally be easily distinguished from calc-alkaline basalts from more mature arc systems.
(2) Boninites , or high-magnesian andesites. These are unusual lavas, combining high Si with high Mg, Ni and Cr. They are thought to have formed by wet-melting of rather refractory lithosphere.
(3) Dacites also occur on Guam.
Drilling and dredging in the trench area of the fore-arc has recovered mainly volcanic materials. No scraped-off sediments from the oceanic plate - with the implication that all sediment is being subducted, and that the fore-arc itself is suffering tectonic erosion as a result of the rasping action of the downgoing slab.
TECTONIC EVOLUTION OF MARIANA ARC SYSTEM
Combining evidence from magnetic anomalies, drilling, dredging and geochronology, the geologic history of the arc system can be pieced together. In the period immediately preceding the development of the arc, the plate configuration in the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific was dominated by the rapid movement of India northward. There were some major N - S oriented transform faults at this time, so about 60 Ma ago the plate tectonic configuration probably looked like this:

India was just about to collide into Asia to form the Himalayas, Australia had just begun to separate from Antarctica, and note the very large ridge offsets on the N-
S transforms. The critical point at this time was that slab-pull associated with the rapidly-moving Indian Plate will stop as soon as India collides. Similarly, the

spreading ridge in the NE Pacific is going to push itself under the Aleutians, when upon the slab-pull will also stop. This leaves the northerly pull forces on the Pacific plate very weak, and very vulnerable to change in plate motion direction. So about
40 my ago the Pacific Plate changed motion from northwards to westward (c.f. kink in Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain). The sequence of events can be tracked as follows:
(1) The Kyushu-Palau Ridge is thought to mark the position of one of these major transform faults, with younger, warmer and thinner ocean ocean lithosphere to the west, and older, cooler and denser lithosphere to east. Drawn to scale, the position immediately before the change in plate motion probably looked like this:

It can easily be envisaged how the eastern side would easily subduct under the new young warm lithosphere to the west that had recently formed at a spreading ridge. After the change in plate motion direction, the map then looked like:
A new volcanic arc forms at the site of the easternmost transform, and many complications develop in SE Asia (Philippines, etc.) because of transforms turning into arcs, and various subduction-flips as thick (plateau-type) ocean crust refuses to subduct. A new subduction zone develops north of Australia.

(2) Rapid build-up of Kyushu-Palau Arc in late Eocene – Oligocene through voluminous eruption of island arc tholeiites and high-Mg boninites. Activity continued for ca 10 my. So what happened to bring about such a rapid rate of magma production. It is possible that the earliest stages of subduction looked as follows:
Note that the downgoing plate not only has "conveyor-belt" motion, but also a strong vertical component so that it is sinking into the mantle. At this point hot asthenosphere mantle rushes in to replace it. So in a rather unique rapidly extensional tectonic environment, wet altered ocean crust is juxtaposed next to very hot asthenospheric mantle. With an abundance of heat and water, it is not surprising that huge amounts of magma are generated. This tectonic situation is actually even more extensional than at a mid-ocean ridge, so it may be expected that all the features of a "type" mid-ocean ridge are reproduced: pillow lavas, sheeted dykes, gabbros, etc. This is shown below:
(to come)
(3) Splitting of K-P Arc in half about 30 my ago with formation of Parece-
Vela & Shikoku Basins by back-arc spreading. Spreading stopped about 16 my ago.
(4) Formation of West Mariana Arc between about 17 and 8 my ago through eruption of calc-alkaline basalts and basaltic andesites.
(5) Splitting of West Mariana Arc abut 6 my ago to form Mariana Trough by back-arc spreading, and leaving West Mariana Ridge as remnant arc.
(6) Formation of new Mariana Arc 5 my ago to present. Now erupting lavas with mixed calc-alkaline - island arc tholeiite characteristics.
Presumably the Mariana Arc will continue migrating eastwards into the Pacific.
Magma Compositions
Arc Magmatism
The magmas erupted at the Mariana Arc show a gradual evolution in composition with time. Note that the whole arc system has evolved entirely within the oceanic regime (no continental crust or sub-continental lithosphere involved).

The earliest lavas erupted (now seen on Kyushu-Palau Ridge and Mariana Forearc) are island arc tholeiites ( IAT ) and boninites. These are characteristic of very primitive oceanic island arcs, and are not usually erupted on continents or in the later stages of arc development. IAT have similarities with mid-ocean ridge basalts
( MORB ), in having depleted rare-earth element ( REE ) patterns, but are usually more Fe-rich and with low Cr and Ni contents, very low Nb and Ta, higher K contents and high K/Rb ratios. Boninites are high-Mg lavas, but have high silica contents more typical of andesites; they have high Cr and Ni contents, but have lower Ti contents and higher K, Rb, Ba and Sr contents than would normally be expected of high-Mg rocks.
Boninites are thought to result from wet melting of the rather refractory Mg-rich mantle wedge beneath the developing arc - with the wedge being contaminated with elements such as K, Rb, Ba, Sr transported from the subduction zone during dehydration of the hydrous ocean crust.
IAT could be melts of the more fertile asthenosphere, the magmas then undergoing extensive crystal fractionation en route to the surface. Or they could represent melts of subducted ocean basalt crust (only possible at the very start of subduction when the ocean lithosphere is pushed down into hot mantle).
After opening of the Parece Vela basin by back-arc spreading, arc volcanic activity was transferred 17 my ago to the what is now the West Mariana Ridge, and continued building up that arc for ca. 9 my. The lavas erupted however were mainly calc-alkaline basalts ( CAB ) and basaltic andesites, with higher Al contents, much higher Sr and Ba contents and light rare-earth enriched rather than depleted
REE patterns. These lavas are more similar to calc-alkaline lavas erupted at continental margins (though the latter are usually dominated by andesite rather than basaltic andesites).
These CAB magmas may have been derived from the mantle wedge. But if so there is an implication that the wedge may have been enriched in Ba, Sr, light
REE, etc., perhaps as a result of continued fluid transport of these elements into the wedge from the dehydrating subducting slab.
Modern lavas erupted at the active Mariana Arc tend to be mainly andesites and basaltic andesites having characteristics in between those of IAT and CAB. There is some evidence that a small component (ca. 0.5%) of subducted abyssal sediment is involved in their source regions.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Mariana arc is that at least three distinct magma types appear to have been generated from the one subduction zone. Yet the whole arc system evolved entirely within the oceanic environment.
Back-arc Basalts
In many respects marginal basin basalts ( MBB ) are similar to normal mid-ocean ridge basalts ( N-type MORB ). However during the early stages of back-arc

spreading, when the uprising mantle diapir splits the volcanic arc, the basalt magmas are derived from the sub-arc mantle. These basalts tend to have an arclike geochemical signature. Thus their REE patterns may be slightly light REE enriched, they have higher Ba, Sr, K and Rb, but low Nb and Ta. Moreover they tend to have higher water contents and be vesicular - a consequence of fluids distilled from the subducting slab. These features are useful discriminants in trying to characterise ophiolites as being derived from either obducted ocean floor or marginal basin crust. See Saunders & Tarney (1984; 1991) for summary.
Addition : Schematic cross-section across the Mariana Arc showing the components involved in magma generation.
Fluids are released from the sub-ducting slab as "wet" amphibolite recrystallises at ca. 100km depth to dry dense eclogite. These fluids migrate upwards into the mantle wedge and induce melting of the sub-arc lithosphere. (The more water, the more melting, and higher the magma production?). However, this mantle varies in it's fertility because of previous metasomatic events affecting the deeper lithosphere.
More active mantle diapirism occurs in the back-arc region, and this results in much more melting and active spreading. Hydrous fluids are still involved in these mamgas, but to a lesser extent than in the arc rocks.
WHAT CAUSED THE CHANGE IN PACIFIC PLATE MOTION THAT
PRODUCED THE MARIANA ARC?

If we bear in mind that plate motions are dominantly controlled by 'slab pull', then anything which reduces the slab-pull force will encourage changes in the direction and speed of plate motion. It is notable that in the southeastern Pacific the Aluk
Ridge (spreading centre) began to progressively subduct along the Antarctic
Peninsula; at the same time, the northwestern Pacific the Kula Ridge began to subduct beneath the Aleutians - Kamchatka. A result was a marked reduction in the N™S slab-pull, because recently formed hot lithosphere is not very dense and not keen to subduct. In combination with other plate re-configuring events worldwide, this may have been enough to cause switch in Pacific Plate motion from N
– S to E – W. But see Richards et al. (1996)
REFERENCES: Arcs and Marginal Basins
The references below lead to most aspects of interest to island arcs, even if you just look at the abstracts & diagrams!
BLOOMER, S.H. 1987. Geochemical characteristics of boninite- and tholeiite-series volcanic rocks from the Mariana forearc and the role of an incompatible element-enriched fluid in arc petrogenesis. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 215 , 151-164.
CARLSON, R.L., HILDE, T.W.C. & UYEDA, S. 1983. The driving mechanism of plate tectonics: relation to age of the lithosphere at trenches. Geophysics Research Letters 10 ,
297-300.
CHASE, C.G. 1978. Extension behind island arcs and motions relative to hot spots.
Journal of Geophysical Research 83 , 5385-5387.
CHASE. C.G. 1979. Asthenospheric counterflow: a kinematic model. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 56 , 1-18.
CRAWFORD, A.J., BECCALUVA, L. & SERRI, G. 1981. Tectono-magmatic evolution of the West Philippine-Mariana region and the origin of boninites . Earth and Planetary
Science Letters 54 , 346-356.
DAVIES, J.H. & STEVENSON, D.J. 1992. Physical model of source region of subduction zone magmatism. Journal of Geophysical Research 97 , 2037-2070.
GARFUNKEL, Z., ANDERSON, C.A. & SCHUBERT, G. 1986. Mantle circulation and the lateral migration of subducted slabs. Journal of Geophysical Research 91 , 7205-7223.
HAMILTON, W.B. 1988. Plate tectonics and island arcs. Geological Society of America
Bulletin 100 , 1503-1527.
HASTON, R. & FULLER, M. 1991. Palaeomagnetic data from the Philippine Sea plate and their significance. Journal of Geophysical Research 96 , 6073-6098.

HAWKINS, J.W., BLOOMER, S.H., EVANS, C.A. & MELCHIOR, J.T. 1984. Evolution of intra-oceanic arc-trench systems. Tectonophysics 102 , 174-205.
HICKEY, R.L. & FREY, F.A. 1982. Geochemical characteristics of boninite series volcanics: implications for their source. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 46 , 2099-2115.
HILDE, T.W., UYEDA, S. & KROENKE, L. 1977. Evolution of the western Pacific and its margin. Tectonophysics 38 , 145-167.
HOLE, M. J., SAUNDERS, A. D., MARRINER, G. F. & TARNEY, J. 1984. Subduction of pelagic sediment: implications for the origin of Ce-anomalous basalts from the Mariana
Islands . Journal of the Geological Society, London 141 , 453-472.
HSUI, A.T., MARSH, B.D. & TOKSOZ, M.N. 1983. On melting of the subducted ocean crust: effects of subduction induced mantle flow. Tectonophysics 99 , 207-220.
IDA, Y. 1983. Convection in the mantle wedge above the slab and tectonic processes in subduction zones. Journal of Geophysical Research 88 , 7449-7456.
JURDY, D.M. 1979. Relative plate motions and the formation of marginal basins. Journal of
Geophysical Research 84 , 6796-6802.
JURDY, D.M. & STEFANICK, M. 1983. Flow models for back-arc spreading.
Tectonophysics 99 , 191-200.
KARIG, D.E. 1974. Evolution of arc systems in the Western Pacific . Annual Reviews of
Earth and Planetary Sciences 2 , 51-78.
KARIG, D.E. 1971. Structural history of the Mariana island arc system. Geological Society of America Bulletin 82 , 323-344.
KARIG, D.E. 1971. Origin and development of marginal basins in the Western Pacific.
Journal of Geophysical Research 76 , 2542-2561.
KARIG, D.E. 1982. Initiation of subduction zones - Implications for arc evolution and ophiolite development. Geological Society of London, Special Publication 10 , 563-576.
KINCAID, C. & OLSON, P. 1987. An experimental study of subduction and slab migration.
Journal of Geophysical Research 92 , 13832-13840.
KUSHIRO, I. 1990. Partial melting of mantle wedge and evolution of island arc crust.
Journal of Geophysical Research 95 , 15929-15939.
LAWVER, L.A. & HAWKINS, J.W. 1978. Diffuse magnetic anomalies in marginal basins: their possible tectonic and petrologic significance. Tectonophysics 45 , 323-339.
MARSH, B.D. 1979. Island arc development: some observations, experiments and speculations. Journal of Geology 87 , 687-713.
MOLNAR, P. & ATWATER, T. 1978. Interarc spreading and cordilleran tectonics as alternates related to the age of subducted ocean lithosphere. Earth and Planetary Science
Letters 41 , 330-340.

MUELLER, S. & PHILLIPS, R.J. 1991. On the initiation of subduction. Journal of
Geophysical Research 96 , 651-665.
NATLAND, J.H. & TARNEY, J. 1982. Petrological evolution of the Mariana Arc and Backarc Basin System: a synthesis of drilling results in the South Philippine Sea. Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project 60 , 877-908 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing
Office).
PEACOCK, S. M. 1990. Fluid processes in subduction zones. Science 248 , 329-337.
RICHARDS, M.A. & LITHGOW-BERTELLONI, C. 1996. Plate motion changes, the
Hawaiian™Emperor bend, and the apparent success and failure of geodynamic models.
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RINGWOOD, A.E. 1974. The petrological evolution of island arc systems. Journal of the
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SAUNDERS, A.D. & TARNEY, J. 1984. Geochemical characteristics of basaltic volcanism within back-arc basins. In KOKELAAR, B.P. & HOWELLS, M.F. (eds) Marginal Basin
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SAUNDERS, A.D. & TARNEY, J. 1991. Back-arc basalts. In FLOYD, P.A. (ed) Oceanic
Basalts . Blackie, Glasgow, pp. 219-263.
SHEMENDA, A.I. 1993. Subduction of the lithosphere and back arc dynamics: insights from physical modeling. Journal of Geophysical Research 98 , 16167-16185.
SPENCE, W. 1987. Slab pull and the seismotectonics of subducting lithosphere. Reviews of Geophysics 25 , 55-69.
STERN, R.J. & BLOOMER, S.H. 1992. Subduction-zone infancy - Examples from the
Eocene Izu-Bonin-Mariana and Jurassic California arcs. Geological Society of America
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STERN, R.J., BLOOMER, S.H., LIN, P.-N. & SMOOT, N.C. 1989. Submarine arc volcanism in the southern Mariana arc as an ophiolite analogue. Tectonophysics 168 , 151-
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TARNEY, J., SAUNDERS, A.D. & WEAVER, S.D. 1977. Geochemistry of volcanic rocks from the island arcs and marginal basins of the Scotia Arc region. In: TALWANI, M. &
PITMAN, W.C. (eds) Island Arcs, Deep Sea Trenches and Back-arc Basins . American
Geophysical Union, Maurice Ewing Series 1 , 367-378.
TARNEY, J., SAUNDERS, A. D., MATTEY, D. P., WOOD, D. A. & MARSH, N. G. 1981.
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Back-arc Basins . American Geophysical Union, Maurice Ewing Series 1 , 379-393.
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19909-19928.
TECTONICS OF SUBDUCTION ZONES
Contrasts between West & East Pacific
Uyeda & Kanamori (1979) emphasised that there were two contrasting types of subduction zone: Mariana Type and Chilean Type - with of course many intermediate types. The Mariana Type is characterised by a very steeply dipping slab; the Chilean Type by a shallow-dipping slab. These differences were further amplified by Dewey (1981).
Mariana Type has:
1. Deep open trench (up to 11 km deep) that subducts old cold Jurassic crust.
2. A very steep Benioff Zone
3. Extensive faulting, subsidence and tectonic erosion of the outer trench wall.
4. Widespread intra-arc extension and back-arc spreading.
5. More earthquakes in the under-riding than in the over-riding plate.
6. A rather thin mafic-intermediate composition volcanic-plutonic crust.
7. Extensive volcanism; mainly basaltic with only minor andesites.
8. Little or no sedimentary accretion at the trench.
9. Subdued morphological expression.
10 Lavas have quiet eruptive style.

11 Volcanoes are mainly submerged cones with fringing reefs.
12 Poorly developed volcaniclastic dispersal fans.
Chilean Type has:
1. Shallower trench (up to 6 km) that subducts younger, warmer, Eocene age oceanic crust.
2. Thrust faulting common on outer trench wall.
3. Major thrust faulting in the under-riding Nazca Plate up to 200 km west of the trench.
4. A Benioff Zone with a very shallow dip down to about 200 km, and then a steeper deeper portion below a seismic gap.
5. Widespread intra-arc compression and back-arc thrusting over a foreland trough.
6. More, and higher energy, earthquakes in the over-riding than in the under-riding plate.
7. Plutonism is dominant over volcanism.
8. Volcanism is dominantly of andesite-dacite-rhyolite type; basalts being much rarer.
9. Thick (ca 70km) continental crust gradually tapering trenchward to less than 10 km.
10 Because of dominant compression, continental arc has high uplift rates.
11 Violent eruptive style. High viscosity lavas. Extensive volcaniclastic dispersal fans.
12 Spectacular geomorphological expression.
Difference in seismic characteristics: The steep dip of the Benioff Zone in the
Mariana type means that the contact interface between the subducting slab and the mantle wedge lithosphere is less than 100 km, hence not much frictional drag .
In any case tectonic conditions are extensional. In Chilean type however, the

shallow slab dip and greater thickness of continental lithosphere means that the contact interface can be as much as 400 km. Hence considerable resistance and friction and much greater seismic activity .
Tectonic Erosion and Accretion : In the Mariana Arc there is no accretion of abyssal sediments at the trench. Yet considerable volumes of sediment are entering the trench: sediments are 0.5km thick on Pacific Plate entering the trench, subduction rate 10 cm/yr for ca. 40 m.y. (work out how many cubic km per unit length of arc!). Instead forearc is undergoing tectonic erosion (" subcretion "). Most of the sediment is being subducted - only a small proportion of it is re-cycled into arc volcanics. Along Chilean margin the sediment supply varies: very little in north where desert conditions, but much more in south where rainfall is high. It has been suggested that the continental basement may be eroding by subcretion in
Northern Chile, but growing by sediment accretion in Southern Chile. Where sediment supply is high, sediments may fill the trench and flood over on to the oceanic plate; thus depressing it so that it approaches subduction zone at a shallow angle.
Explanation for differences between East and West Pacific Margins
Contrast cannot be explained simply by differences in convergence rate, since
Chilean, Mariana, Japanese and Tonga arcs all have head-on convergence rate of about 10 cm/yr. Contrast must be related to balance between "roll-back" of hinge and convergence rate. If roll-back is faster than convergence rate then back-arc extension results; if slower, then back-arc compression.

Roll-back may be determined by age of subducting lithosphere (Molnar & Atwater
1978). Old cold lithosphere is denser and subducts at steeper angle . . presumably takes less time to reach 650 km discontinuity. If it cannot penetrate discontinuity then splays back (see experiments of Kinkaid & Olsen (1987)) and induces rollback of hinge at subduction zone, giving extensional tectonics. However, with shallower angle subduction of younger warmer lithosphere the slab will take longer to reach 650km discontinuity, and will warm up more and become less coherent and less able to induce roll-back effect. So no extension. An additional factor is that in the Eastern Pacific the American Plate is over-riding the Pacific (Nazca)
Plate due to the opening of the Atlantic . . although the rate is quite small.
Wider implications : If the balance between compression and extension at convergent plate margins is related to dip of slab (and hence age of lithosphere subducting), then it may explain why intraoceanic island arcs are essentially a
Phanerozoic phenomenon, and become rare or absent in the middle to early
Precambrian. Higher thermal gradients in Precambrian would mean greater ridge length and smaller plates (see Hargraves 1986), so subducting plates would be younger and warmer, and less likely to subduct at steep angle. Hence much less likely to induce extensional conditions at convergent plate boundaries. Is it only when there is extension that island arcs are produced?
References
DEWEY, J.F. 1981. Episodicity, sequence and style at convergent plate boundaries. In:
The Continental Crust and its Mineral Deposits . Geological Association of Canada, Special
Paper 20 , 553-572.
Drilling at sea poses a few obvious problems. Drilling crews have to operate through the depth of the sea water column.. Some environments, the North sea for example, have hostile climates, inhospitable to man and corrosive to machines. To deal with these specialized problems, drilling contractors have fashioned new tools. This machinery is employed once suitably promising locations have been pin pointed by cheaper geophysical methods. The operating company sets up their exploration drilling program, usually using either a jack-up unit , a semi-submersible rig or a drill ship.

A jack-up unit is a barge with legs that can be lowered or raised.
The barge is towed to the drilling location with its legs in the raised position. Once in position, the legs are lowered. When they reach the sea-bed, the
Image used with permission from UK
Offshore Operators
Association Ltd barge's body is hoisted above the water, creating a stable drilling platform. The length of the legs determines the depth of water in which a jack-up barge can be used. They can generally be used in up to 100 meters of water.
Jack-up barges are widely employed in the relatively shallow waters of the North Sea's
Southern basin.
A semi-submersible drilling rig is normally a self-propelled working platform supported by vertical columns on submerged pontoons.
By varying the amount of ballast water in the pontoons, the unit can be raised or lowered in the water.
The lower the pontoons lie beneath the surface of the water, the less they are affected by wave action.
This reduces vertical movement and allows drilling to continue in moderately rough seas.
A semi-submersible vessel is normally held in position by up to eight very large anchors, or by dynamic positioning. Dynamic positioning systems use computer
Image used with permission from UK Offshore Operators
Association Ltd

controlled directional propellers to keep the vessel stationary relative to the sea-bed, compensating for wind, wave or current.
Semi-submersibles can drill in water depths to 300 meters or more all year round.
Drill ships have a broadly conventional ship's hull, but also feature a large aperture, known as a "moon pool", through which drilling takes place.
Either purpose built, or converted from some other use, drill ships can be moved easily between locations.
Images used with permission from
They can carry large stocks of supplies, but are
UK Offshore Operators Association
Ltd not as stable as semisubmersibles.
Drill ships use either anchors or dynamic positioning to maintain station.
The latest drill ships can operate in 1,500 meters of water.

Almost without exception, exploration drilling units are owned and operated by drilling contractors who are hired by the oil companies.
The duration of drilling contracts can range from a few months, in the case of a single well, to as long as three years for a series of wells.
Once the drilling unit is in position, the well is started, or "spudded", typically by drilling a 36 inch hole in the sea-bed. To prevent the hole from caving in, heavy steel pipe casing is cemented in to form a solid lining.
The casing becomes progressively narrower as the hole deepens so that, for example, a 4,000 ft well may start with 30 inch casing and finish with 7 inch casing
(Imperial measures remain standard for most drilling activities). Formation pressure can be unpredictable, and is therefore potentially hazardous. If the bit penetrates a high pressure zone unexpectedly, oil or gas, sometimes a mixture of both, may rush up the bore hole, producing an uncontrollable gusher at the well head. This is known as a blow-out, and to help reduce this danger all wells are fitted with an emergency valve called a blow-out preventer (BOP)
A production test involves the drill crew attaching a perforating gun to the bottom of the drill string and lowering it to the target zone. The gun fires off explosive charges which perforate the casing, allowing hydrocarbons to flow into the bore hole and up to the surface
© Copyright J. Rochester (1998)
Drilling techniques have been constantly improved to maximize performance and reduce costs. For example, directional drilling is a widely used technique that allows the drilling crew to reach different parts of the reservoir from a single drilling location. The crew use special fittings to deviate the drill string to specific predetermined angles.
Horizontal drilling is now being carried out in the
North Sea. This technique is primarily used to improve recovery from low permeability reservoirs.
Other techniques developed for North Sea exploration drilling include poly-crystalline diamond drill bits , which are harder and faster than conventional steel bits, and turbo drills or mud turbines which use the pressure of the mud to drive the bit, eliminating the need to rotate the whole drill string from the surface.

Summary table of drilling methods available at sea and off land, adapted from
Evans (1995)
Floating rigs
Drill ships
Exploration Drilling Deep waters
Drilling barges
Exploration
Development drilling
Shallow waters
Swamps
Semi-submersibles Exploration drilling Deep waters
Bottom supported rigs
Jack up rigs
Exploration Drilling Shallow waters
Submersibles
Platform rigs
Exploration
Development drilling
Development drilling
Production operations
Swamps
Shallow or Deep waters
4,000 feet
4,000 feet
350 feet
1,000 feet
:
From Left to right , Land based oil exploration rig , Platform rig , Jack-up rig ,
Semi-submersible ,
Drill ship and another deeper water Semi-submersible .

Image used with permission from Offshore Technology
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