The objectives of International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 398, Hellenic Arc Volcanic Field (11 December 2022 to 10 February 2023), were to study the volcanic record of the central Hellenic island arc; document the links and feedbacks between volcanism/magmatism, crustal tectonics, and sea level; investigate the processes and products of shallow submarine eruptions of silicic magma; and groundtruth the seismic stratigraphy of Santorini caldera.Reconstructing the subsidence history of the southern Aegean Sea and searching for deep life inside and outside of Santorini caldera were additional objectives.During the expedition, 10 primary and alternate sites that were originally proposed were drilled, in addition to 2 extra sites that were requested during the expedition.Outside of Santorini caldera, drilling penetrated the thick basin fills of the crustal rift system hosting the Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo volcanic field, identifying numerous pumice and ash layers, some known from on land and others hitherto unknown, pushing back the onset of volcanism in the area into the Early Pleistocene or even Pliocene.Significant events of mass wasting into the basins, accompanied by very high sedimentation rates, were also documented.These basin sites served to groundtruth the seismic stratigraphy of the basins and open the way to unraveling relationships between volcanic activity and crustal rift pulses.Two sites of condensed sequences served to sample many volcanic layers within the detailed age-depth constraints provided mainly by biostratigraphy, as diagenetic effects complicated the magnetic reversal record significantly.Drilling penetrated the Alpine basement at three basin sites northeast of Santorini, whereas in the Christiana Basin to the southwest it penetrated a thick sequence of Messinian evaporites.Drilling inside Santorini caldera penetrated to ~120 meters below seafloor, less than planned due to hole instability issues but deep enough to groundtruth the seismic stratigraphy and sample the different layers.One intracaldera hole yielded a detailed tephra record of the history of the Kameni Islands, as well as possible evidence for deep bacterial colonies within the caldera.Despite variable recovery in the unstable pumice and ash deposits, the expedition was a significant success that may address almost all the scientific objectives once the laboratory work has been done. Plain language summaryAbout 800 million people are threatened by volcanic eruptions around the globe: high plumes of ash, ground-hugging flows of hot ash and rock, earthquakes, and associated tsunamis.The Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo volcanic group in the Aegean Sea of Greece is particularly hazardous because the volcanoes have produced many eruptions in the past, and some were highly explo-
Abstract At oceanic spreading centers, the interactions between the igneous system that builds the crust, and the hydrothermal system that cools it govern the plumbing system architecture and its thermokinetic evolution. At fast‐spreading centers, most of those interactions occur around the axial magma lens (AML) that feeds the upper crust, and possibly part of the underlying mushy igneous reservoir. Heat extracted from crystallizing AML is transferred through a conductive boundary layer to the overlying hydrothermal system. Quantifying the AML physical and thermal evolutions and its interactions with hydrothermal system is therefore essential to understand oceanic accretion. Those general issues were the rationale of drilling ICDP OmanDP Hole GT3A, and we present herein the geological, structural, and petrological data that were used as a site survey to select its location. GT3 area enables observations in three dimensions of fossilized AMLs and overlying dikes. The new field data and corresponding mineral compositions are used together with thermokinetic and thermodynamic models to deliver an integrated dynamic model for the AML/hydrothermal system interactions. Results attest that the isotropic gabbro interval is composite, with gabbro bodies intruding and reheating both gabbros and dikes (up to 1,040°C). We show that AMLs should be considered as transient igneous bodies that likely crystallize from primitive MORBs in decades, releasing heat to the intruded hosts, and feeding high temperature vents on the seafloor. We show for the first time that the thermal gradient recorded in AML roof is consistent with the heat fluxes reported at active hydrothermal vents.
Geophysical and geological data from the North Mozambique Channel acquired during the 2020–2021 SISMAORE oceanographic cruise reveal a corridor of recent volcanic and tectonic features 200 km wide and 600 km long within and north of Comoros Archipelago. Here we identify and describe two major submarine tectono-volcanic fields: the N’Droundé province oriented N160°E north of Grande-Comore Island, and the Mwezi province oriented N130°E north of Anjouan and Mayotte Islands. The presence of popping basaltic rocks sampled in the Mwezi province suggests post-Pleistocene volcanic activity. The geometry and distribution of recent structures observed on the seafloor are consistent with a current regional dextral transtensional context. Their orientations change progressively from west to east (∼N160°E, ∼N130°E, ∼EW). The volcanism in the western part appears to be influenced by the pre-existing structural fabric of the Mesozoic crust. The 200 km-wide and 600 km-long tectono-volcanic corridor underlines the incipient Somalia–Lwandle dextral lithospheric plate boundary between the East-African Rift System and Madagascar. Supplementary Materials: Supplementary material for this article is supplied as a separate file: crgeos-159-suppl.pdf Des données géophysiques et géologiques ont été acquises lors de la campagne océanographique SISMAORE (2020–2021). Deux grands champs tectono-volcaniques sous-marins ont été découverts tout le long et principalement au nord de l’archipel des Comores : la province N’Droundé orientée N160°E au nord de Grande-Comore, et la province Mwezi orientée N130°E au nord d’Anjouan-Mayotte où des roches basaltiques de type popping-rocks suggèrent une activité volcanique possiblement actuelle à pléistocène. La géométrie et la distribution des structures récentes sont cohérentes avec un contexte régional actuel transtensif dextre. Leurs orientations évoluent d’Ouest en Est (∼N160°E, ∼N130°E, ∼EW), suggérant pour la partie occidentale, une mise en place du volcanisme influencée par la structuration crustale préexistante. Le corridor tectono-volcanique de 200 km de large et de 600 km de long dessine une limite de plaque lithosphérique Somalie-Lwandle immature en décrochante dextre entre le système du rift est-africain et Madagascar. Compléments : Des compléments sont fournis pour cet article dans le fichier séparé : crgeos-159-suppl.pdf
Abstract Nanoscale liquid immiscibility is observed in the 2018–2021 Fani Maoré submarine lavas (Comoros archipelago). Heat transfer calculations, Raman spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy reveal that in contrast to thin (500 µm) outer rims of homogeneous glassy lava (rapidly quenched upon eruption, >1000 °C s −1 ), widespread liquid immiscibility is observed in thick (1 cm) inner lava rims (moderately quenched, 1–1000 °C s −1 ), which exhibit a nanoscale coexistence of Si- and Al-rich vs. Ca-, Fe-, and Ti-rich melt phases. In this zone, rapid nanolite crystallization contrasts with the classical crystallization process inferred for the slower cooled ( < 1 °C s −1 ) lava interiors. The occurrence of such metastable liquid immiscibility at eruptive conditions controls physicochemical characteristics of nanolites and residual melt compositions. This mechanism represents a common yet frequently unobserved feature in volcanic products, with the potential for major impacts on syn-eruptive magma degassing and rheology, and thus on eruptive dynamics.
Following an unprecedented seismic activity that started in May 2018, a new volcanic edifice, Fani Maoré, was constructed on the ocean floor 50 km east of the island of Mayotte (Indian Ocean). This volcano is the latest addition to a submarine volcanic chain characterized by an alkaline basanite-to-phonolite magmatic differentiation trend. Here, we performed viscosity measurements on five silicate melts representative of the East-Mayotte Volcanic Chain compositional trend: two basanites from Fani Maoré, one tephri-phonolite and two phonolites from different parts of the volcanic chain. A concentric cylinder viscometer was employed at super-liquidus conditions between 1500 K and 1855 K, and a creep apparatus was used for measuring the viscosity of the undercooled melts close to the glass transition temperature in the air. At super-liquidus temperatures, basanites have the lowest viscosity (0.11 to 0.99 log10 Pa⸱s), phonolites the highest (1.75 to 3.10 log10 Pa⸱s), while the viscosity of the tephri-phonolite falls in between (0.89 - 1.97 log10 Pa⸱s). Viscosity measurements at undercooled temperatures have only been performed for one phonolite melt because Raman spectroscopy showed nanolites within the basanite and tephri-phonolite glass samples. The phonolite has a viscosity of 10.19 to 12.30 log10 Pa⸱s at 1058 to 986 K. Comparison with existing empirical models revealed discrepancies up to 2.0 log units with our experimental measurements. This emphasizes (i) the lack of data falling along the alkaline basanite-to-phonolite magmatic differentiation trend to calibrate empirical models, and (ii) the complexity of modeling the variations in viscosity as a function of temperature and chemical composition for alkaline magmas. The presented new measurements indicate that, at eruptive temperatures between 1050 °C and 1150 °C, the anhydrous, crystal- and bubble-free basanite melt is very fluid with a viscosity around 2.6 log10 Pa⸱s whereas the anhydrous phonolite crystal- and bubble-free melt at eruptive temperatures ranging from 800 to 1000 °C has a viscosity around 6 - 10 log10 Pa⸱s. These new viscosity measurements are essential to define eruptive models and to better understand the storage, transport and ascent dynamics of Comoros Archipelago magmas, and of alkaline magmas in general, from the source to the surface.
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