Deciphering the Mysteries of an Ancient Seafloor Goliath
Filed under: Discovery,News & Resources,Press Releases,Scientific Ocean Drilling
(Click to enlarge image) Scientific research vessel JOIDES Resolution in Yokohama, Japan, on 7 September 2009, preparing to embark on Shatsky Rise expedition. (Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMU)
Deciphering the Mysteries of an Ancient Seafloor Goliath
“Supervolcanoes” have been blamed for multiple mass extinctions in Earth’s history, but the cause of these massive eruptions remains poorly understood. To explore the origins of these seafloor giants, scientists drilled into a large, 145 million-year-old volcanic mountain chain lying underwater off the coast of Japan.
The eruptions of “supervolcanoes” on Earth’s surface have been blamed for causing mass extinctions, belching large amounts of gases and particles into the atmosphere, and re-paving the ocean floor. The result? Loss of species, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and changes in ocean circulation. Despite their global impact, the origin and triggering mechanism of these eruptions remain poorly understood. New data collected during a recent Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) scientific research expedition in the Pacific Ocean may provide clues to unlocking this unsolved mystery in Earth’s geologic record.
(Click to enlarge image) Crew onboard scientific research vessel JOIDES Resolution prepares to deploy an underwater camera system in preparation for drilling at one of five sites at Shatksy Rise off the coast of Japan. (Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMU)
In fall 2009, an international team of scientists participating in IODP Expedition 324 “Shatsky Rise Formation,” drilled five sites in the ocean floor to study the origin of the 145 million-year-old Shatsky Rise volcanic mountain chain. Located approximately 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Japan, Shatsky Rise measures roughly the size of California. This underwater mountain chain represents one of the largest supervolcanoes in the world: the top of Shatsky Rise lies three and a half kilometers (about two miles) below the sea surface, while its base plunges to nearly six kilometers (four miles) below the surface. Shatsky Rise is composed of layers of hardened lava, with individual lava flows that are up to 23 meters (75 feet) thick.
“Seafloor supervolcanoes are characterized by the eruption of enormous volumes of lava. Studying their formation is critical to understanding the processes of volcanism and the movement of material from the Earth’s interior to the surface,” remarked Dr. William Sager of Texas A&M University, who led the expedition together with co-chief scientist Dr. Takashi Sano of Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.
About a dozen supervolcanoes exist on Earth – some are found on land, while others lie at the bottom of the ocean. Those found on the seafloor are often referred to as “large oceanic plateaus.” Current scientific thinking suggests that these supervolcanoes were caused by eruptions occurring over a period of a few million years or less – a rapid pace in geologic time. Each of these supervolcanoes produced several million cubic kilometers of lava – about three hundred times the volume of all the Great Lakes combined – dwarfing the volume of lava produced by the biggest present-day volcanoes such as Hawaii.
(Click to enlarge image) Curator Chad Broyles (IODP-USIO/Texas A&M University; back to camera), Expedition Project Manager and Staff Scientist Jörg Geldmacher (IODP-USIO/Texas A&M University), Co-Chief Scientist Takashi Sano (National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan), and Co-Chief Scientist Will Sager (Texas A&M University, USA) discuss a core recovered from Shatsky Rise. (Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMU)
Since the 1960s, geologists have debated the formation and origin of these large oceanic plateaus. The mystery lies in the origin of the magma, which is molten rock that forms within the Earth. A magma source rising from deep within the interior of the Earth has a different chemical composition than magma that forms just below the Earth’s crust. Some large oceanic plateaus exhibit signs of a deep-mantle origin. Others exhibit chemical signatures indicative of magma originating from a much shallower depth.
The IODP Shatsky Rise expedition focused on deciphering the relationship between supervolcano formation and the boundaries of tectonic plates, which may prove crucial to understanding what triggers supervolcano formation. A widely-accepted explanation for oceanic plateaus is that they form when a huge blob of magma source (a “plume head”) rises from deep in the Earth to the surface. An alternative theory suggests that large oceanic plateaus can originate at the intersection of three tectonic plates, known as a “triple junction,” but this mechanism is poorly understood. Shatsky Rise could play a key role in this debate, because it formed at a triple junction, but also displays certain characteristics that could be explained by the plume head model.
(Click to enlarge image) Metamorphic Petrologist Adélie Delacour (Institut de Physique du Globe, Paris, France) and Assistant Lab Officer Chieh Peng (IODP-USIO/Texas A&M University) work at the sampling table, onboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution. (Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMU)
“Shatsky Rise is one of the best places in the world to study the origin of supervolcanoes,” Sager pointed out. “What makes Shatsky Rise unique is the fact that it is the only supervolcano to have formed during a time when Earth’s magnetic field reversed frequently.” This process creates “magnetic stripe” patterns in the seafloor. As Sager explained, “We can use these magnetic stripes to decipher the timing of the eruption and the spatial relationship of Shatsky Rise to the surrounding tectonic plates and triple junctions.”
According to preliminary results, sediments and microfossils collected during the expedition indicate that parts of the Shatsky Rise plateau were at one time at or above sea level, and formed an archipelago during the early Cretaceous period (about 145 million years ago). Shipboard lab studies further show that much of the lava erupted rapidly and that Shatsky Rise formed at or near the equator. As analyses continue in the months and years ahead, data collected during this expedition may help scientists to resolve the 50 year-old debate about the origin and nature of large oceanic plateaus.
(Click to enlarge image) Curator Chad Broyles (IODP-USIO/Texas A&M University) works on a rock core at the sampling table onboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution. (Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMU)
IODP Expedition 324 “Shatsky Rise Formation” took place onboard the scientific ocean drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution from September 4 to November 4, 2009. The JOIDES Resolution is one of the primary research vessels of IODP, an international marine research program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth through drilling, coring, and monitoring the subseafloor. The vessel is operated by the U.S. Implementing Organization of IODP, consisting of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Texas A&M University, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
IODP is supported by two lead agencies, the U.S. National Science Foundation and Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. Additional program support comes from the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), the Australian-New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC), India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences, the People’s Republic of China (Ministry of Science and Technology), and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources.
For more information about IODP Expedition 324 – Shatsky Rise Formation, visit http://iodp.tamu.edu/scienceops/expeditions/shatsky_rise.html
For more information about the JOIDES Resolution, visit www.joidesresolution.org.
For more information about the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, visit www.iodp.org.
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Media Contacts:
Kristin Ludwig
Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Washington, D.C. USA
kludwig@oceanleadership.org\
+1-202-448-1254
Jamus Collier
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International, Inc. (IODP-MI), Tokyo, Japan
jcollier@iodp.org
+81-3-6701-3185
