December GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY media ...(ater slowed down triggering severe cooli...)

Date:11/29/2007

ater slowed down, triggering severe cooling on the adjacent continents. The authors suggest that the Arctic Ocean is not only an important player in controlling global climate system in modern times, but also was in the recent geological past.

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New insights into mid-ocean ridge volcanic processes from the 20052006 eruption of the East Pacific Rise, 946956N
S. Adam Soule et al., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Geology & Geophysics Department, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA. Pages 1079-1082.

Digital seafloor imagery collected on 37 camera tows and 10 R/V Alvin dives, in which Soule et al. identify 186 contacts between new and old lava, are used to create the most detailed map of a mid-ocean ridge (MOR) eruption to date. Lava flows erupted in 20052006 at the East Pacific Rise (EPR) and covered an area of 14.6 square kilometers along approximately 18 km of the EPR crest between 946′ and 956′N. The 20052006 lava is characterized by inflated lobate and sheet morphologies in the flow interiors, and pillow forms at terminal flow fronts. Numerous lava channels approximately 1050 meters wide and 15 meters deep trending approximately east-west served as distributory pathways. Eruptions were sourced from fissures within the EPR axial summit trough, as well as fissures located on an off-axis fissure mound approximately 600 meters east of the EPR axis between 952′ and 956′N. Portions of the lava flow reached as far as approximately 2 kilometers east of the axis near 951.2′N. Using a conservative estimate of 1.5 meters for the average flow thickness implies that the 20052006 eruptions produced approximately 22 106 meters3 of lava, 45 times larger than estimated volumes of 19911992 EPR lava flows. Estimated lava volume for the 20052006 eruptions represents less than 15% of the magma available in the axial magma chamber.

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Changes in the global carbon cycle occurred as two episodes duri
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Contact: Ann Cairns acairns@geosociety.org 303-357-1056 Geological Society of America Source:Eurekalert

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