RESUMO
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RESUMO
Young rifts are shaped by combined tectonic and surface processes and climate, yet few records exist to evaluate the interplay of these processes over an extended period of early rift-basin development. Here, we present the longest and highest resolution record of sediment flux and paleoenvironmental changes when a young rift connects to the global oceans. New results from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 381 in the Corinth Rift show 10s-100s of kyr cyclic variations in basin paleoenvironment as eustatic sea level fluctuated with respect to sills bounding this semi-isolated basin, and reveal substantial corresponding changes in the volume and character of sediment delivered into the rift. During interglacials, when the basin was marine, sedimentation rates were lower (excepting the Holocene), and bioturbation and organic carbon concentration higher. During glacials, the basin was isolated from the ocean, and sedimentation rates were higher (~2-7 times those in interglacials). We infer that reduced vegetation cover during glacials drove higher sediment flux from the rift flanks. These orbital-timescale changes in rate and type of basin infill will likely influence early rift sedimentary and faulting processes, potentially including syn-rift stratigraphy, sediment burial rates, and organic carbon flux and preservation on deep continental margins worldwide.
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No consensus has been reached so far on the properties of the geomagnetic field during reversals or on the main features that might reveal its dynamics. A main characteristic of the reversing field is a large decrease in the axial dipole and the dominant role of non-dipole components. Other features strongly depend on whether they are derived from sedimentary or volcanic records. Only thermal remanent magnetization of lava flows can capture faithful records of a rapidly varying non-dipole field, but, because of episodic volcanic activity, sequences of overlying flows yield incomplete records. Here we show that the ten most detailed volcanic records of reversals can be matched in a very satisfactory way, under the assumption of a common duration, revealing common dynamical characteristics. We infer that the reversal process has remained unchanged, with the same time constants and durations, at least since 180 million years ago. We propose that the reversing field is characterized by three successive phases: a precursory event, a 180° polarity switch and a rebound. The first and third phases reflect the emergence of the non-dipole field with large-amplitude secular variation. They are rarely both recorded at the same site owing to the rapidly changing field geometry and last for less than 2,500 years. The actual transit between the two polarities does not last longer than 1,000 years and might therefore result from mechanisms other than those governing normal secular variation. Such changes are too brief to be accurately recorded by most sediments.
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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.