Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Hole 1256D successfully sampled a complete section of an intact oceanic crustal sheeted dike complex (SDC) (from 1061 to 1320 meters below seafloor; mbsf) on a 15 Ma old Cocos Plate. A series of rock magnetic measurements were carried out to understand the magmatic processes that accreted this end-member, superfast-spread (200 mm/yr full rate) oceanic crust. Results indicate that main ferromagnetic minerals are predominantly pseudo single-domain (titano)magnetite crystals, responsible for both anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) and magnetic remanence signals. AMS fabrics were reoriented into a geographic reference frame using magnetic remanence data, and corrected for a counterclockwise rotation of the Cocos Plate relative to the East Pacific Rise (EPR) ca. 15 Ma. Corrected AMS fabrics were then compared with the orientations of chilled margins previously obtained from Formation MicroScanner (FMS) images of the SDC at Hole 1256D. For some samples taken from close to dike margins, a dike-normal orientation of the minimum AMS axes (Kmin) of prolate AMS ellipsoids mean that the long axis (Kmax) can be used to infer magma flow directions. Subvertical Kmin orientations in the interior of the dikes, however, may have required settling or compaction of the magma shortly after intrusion, thus rearranging the AMS fabric. Despite this orientation of Kmin axes, orientation of Kmax axes indicate a rather constant subhorizontal paleo-flow direction, suggesting that magmas most probably traveled to the surface considerable distances from source regions within the EPR system.
Abstract Microbathymetry data, in situ observations, and sampling along the 13°20′N and 13°20′N oceanic core complexes (OCCs) reveal mechanisms of detachment fault denudation at the seafloor, links between tectonic extension and mass wasting, and expose the nature of corrugations, ubiquitous at OCCs. In the initial stages of detachment faulting and high‐angle fault, scarps show extensive mass wasting that reduces their slope. Flexural rotation further lowers scarp slope, hinders mass wasting, resulting in morphologically complex chaotic terrain between the breakaway and the denuded corrugated surface. Extension and drag along the fault plane uplifts a wedge of hangingwall material ( apron ). The detachment surface emerges along a continuous moat that sheds rocks and covers it with unconsolidated rubble, while local slumping emplaces rubble ridges overlying corrugations. The detachment fault zone is a set of anostomosed slip planes, elongated in the along‐extension direction. Slip planes bind fault rock bodies defining the corrugations observed in microbathymetry and sonar. Fault planes with extension‐parallel stria are exposed along corrugation flanks, where the rubble cover is shed. Detachment fault rocks are primarily basalt fault breccia at 13°20′N OCC, and gabbro and peridotite at 13°30′N, demonstrating that brittle strain localization in shallow lithosphere form corrugations, regardless of lithologies in the detachment zone. Finally, faulting and volcanism dismember the 13°30′N OCC, with widespread present and past hydrothermal activity (Semenov fields), while the Irinovskoe hydrothermal field at the 13°20′N core complex suggests a magmatic source within the footwall. These results confirm the ubiquitous relationship between hydrothermal activity and oceanic detachment formation and evolution.
Sampling an intact sequence of oceanic crust through lavas, dikes, and gabbros is necessary to advance the understanding of the formation and evolution of crust formed at mid-ocean ridges, but it has been an elusive goal of scientific ocean drilling for decades. Recent drilling in the eastern Pacific Ocean in Hole 1256D reached gabbro within seismic layer 2, 1157 meters into crust formed at a superfast spreading rate. The gabbros are the crystallized melt lenses that formed beneath a mid-ocean ridge. The depth at which gabbro was reached confirms predictions extrapolated from seismic experiments at modern mid-ocean ridges: Melt lenses occur at shallower depths at faster spreading rates. The gabbros intrude metamorphosed sheeted dikes and have compositions similar to the overlying lavas, precluding formation of the cumulate lower oceanic crust from melt lenses so far penetrated by Hole 1256D.
Tamu Massif, the southernmost plateau of Shatsky Rise, is recently reported as the largest single volcano known on Earth. This work seeks to understand the type of volcanism necessary to form such an anomalously large single volcano by integrating core and high-resolution wireline logging data. In particular, resistivity imagery obtained by the Formation MicroScanner, in Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Hole U1347A, located on the eastern flank of Tamu Massif, was used to construct a logging-based volcanostratigraphy. This model revealed two different volcanic stages formed Tamu Massif: (i) the core part of the massif's basaltic basement was formed by a “construction phase” of volcanism with cyclic eruption events from a steady state magma supply and (ii) the very topmost basaltic section was formed by a “depositional phase” of volcanism during which long-traveling lava flows were deposited from a distant eruption center.
Summary Borehole wall shifts during lost circulations are studied and parameter studies are conducted for evaluating the magnitude of the shifts under the following typical drilling conditions. slant-crack induced around vertical wells during lost circulations borehole wall shifts induced during the drilling of normal, thrust, and strike-slip fault areas borehole wall shifts induced for an inclined well because of a fracture induced perpendicular to the minimum in-situ stress Parameters varied are the frac size/wellbore size, frac angle, borehole pressure, and σh1,σH2,σv ratio. These analyses are significant for the following reasons: A new fracture model from a borehole is coded using a 3D-dual-boundary element method. This method allows different displacement and stress traction at the two fracture surfaces along a fracture plane around a borehole. Note that other boundary element methods for 3D nonplanar hydraulic fracture problems have been developed by another group, but these methods did not include a borehole (Yamamoto et al. 1999). Minor borehole wall shifts occur with small-scale fluid losses as observed with borehole imagers (Maury and Zurdo 1996). Although these minor shifts do not create drilling problems, the in-situ stresses may be evaluated from the borehole wall shift if the fractured area is identified by acoustic devices. The current model quantifies the relation between these shifts and other parameters (such as the geological properties and frac size and angle). Significant borehole wall shifts occur if a lost circulation is significant and the leakoff plane is inclined with respect to the principal in-situ stress direction. Some stuck pipe problems may be caused by shear type borehole wall shifts rather than by borehole breakouts or differential sticking problems.
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0v30h60V0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='6' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='4' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30' clip-path='url(%23b)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='10' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='6' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
