Magmatic Rifting and Active Volcanism


Book Description

A major rifting episode began in the Afar region of northern Ethiopia in September 2005. Over a ten-day period, c. 2.5 km3 of magma were intruded along a 60 km-long dyke separating the Arabian and Nubian plates. Over the next five years, a further 13 dyke intrusions caused continued extension, eruptions and seismicity. This activity led to a renewed international focus on the role of magmatism in rifting, with major international collaborative projects working in Afar and Ethiopia to study the ongoing activity and to place it in a broader context. This book brings together articles that explore the role of magmatism in rifting, from the initiation of continental break-up through to full seafloor spreading. We also explore the hazards related to rifting and the associated volcanism. This work has implications for our understanding of how continents break-up and the associated distribution of resources in rift basins and continental margins.




Volcanism in Antarctica: 200 Million Years of Subduction, Rifting and Continental Break-up


Book Description

This memoir is the first to review all of Antarctica’s volcanism between 200 million years ago and the Present. The region is still volcanically active. The volume is an amalgamation of in-depth syntheses, which are presented within distinctly different tectonic settings. Each is described in terms of (1) the volcanology and eruptive palaeoenvironments; (2) petrology and origin of magma; and (3) active volcanism, including tephrochronology. Important volcanic episodes include: astonishingly voluminous mafic and felsic volcanic deposits associated with the Jurassic break-up of Gondwana; the construction and progressive demise of a major Jurassic to Present continental arc, including back-arc alkaline basalts and volcanism in a young ensialic marginal basin; Miocene to Pleistocene mafic volcanism associated with post-subduction slab-window formation; numerous Neogene alkaline volcanoes, including the massive Erebus volcano and its persistent phonolitic lava lake, that are widely distributed within and adjacent to one of the world’s major zones of lithospheric extension (the West Antarctic Rift System); and very young ultrapotassic volcanism erupted subglacially and forming a world-wide type example (Gaussberg).




Processes of Continental Rifting


Book Description

Selected papers from the Lunar and Planetary Institute Topical Conference, St. Helena, CA, USA, 3-5 Dec. 1981




Regional Geology and Tectonics: Phanerozoic Rift Systems and Sedimentary Basins


Book Description

Expert petroleum geologists David Roberts and Albert Bally bring you Regional Geology and Tectonics: Phanerozoic Rift Systems and Sedimentary Basins, volume two in a three-volume series covering Phanerozoic regional geology and tectonics. Experience in analyzing and assessing rifts—locations where the Earth's outer shell and crust have been stretched over time by seismic activity—is critical for you as an exploration geologist in identifying Earth's most lucrative hydrocarbon locations in which extraction is both efficient and safe. Vast compilations of related industry data present regional seismic lines and cross sections, and summaries of analogue and theoretical models are provided as an essential backdrop to the structure and stratigraphy of various geological settings. - Named a 2013 Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association's Choice publication - A practical reference for petroleum geologists that discusses the importance of rift systems and the structural evolution of the Earth - Analyses of active rifts in East Africa, China, Siberia, the Gulf of Suez, and the Russian Arctic provide immediately implementable petroleum exploration applications in regions heavily targeted by oil & gas companies - Presents overviews of sequence stratigraphy in rifts and structural controls on clastic and carbonate sedimentation—critical to the exact mapping of the most lucrative hydrocarbon locations by exploration geologists




The Afar Volcanic Province Within the East African Rift System


Book Description

The seismically and volcanically active East African Rift System is an ideal laboratory for continental break-up processes: it encompasses all stages of rift development. Its northernmost sectors within the Afar volcanic province include failed rifts, nascent sea-floor spreading, and youthful passive continental margins associated with one or more mantle plumes. A number of models have been proposed to explain the success and failure of continental rift zones, but there remains no consensus on how strain localizes to achieve rupture of initially 125-250 km-thick plates, or on the interaction between the plates and asthenospheric processes. This collection of papers provides new structural, stratigraphic, geochemical and geophysical data and numerical models needed to resolve fundamental questions concerning continental break-up and mantle plume processes. The focus is on how mantle melt intrudes and is distributed through the plate, and how this magma intrusion process controls along-axis segmentation and facilitates break-up.




Geophysics for the Mineral Exploration Geoscientist


Book Description

Providing a balance between principles and practice, this state-of-the-art overview of geophysical methods takes readers from the basic physical phenomena, through the acquisition and processing of data, to the creation of geological models of the subsurface and data interpretation to find hidden mineral deposits. Detailed descriptions of all the commonly used geophysical methods are given, including gravity, magnetic, radiometric, electrical, electromagnetic and seismic methods. Each technique is described in a consistent way and without complex mathematics. Emphasising extraction of maximum geological information from geophysical data, the book also explains petrophysics, data modelling and common interpretation pitfalls. Packed with full-colour figures, also available online, the text is supported by selected examples from around the world, including all the major deposit types. Designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in minerals geoscience, this is also a valuable reference for professionals in the mining industry wishing to make greater use of geophysical methods. In 2015, Dentith and Mudge won the ASEG Lindsay Ingall Memorial Award for their combined effort in promoting geophysics to the wider community with the publication of this title.







Postcollisional Tectonics and Magmatism in the Mediterranean Region and Asia


Book Description

"The Mediterranean region and Asia provide a natural laboratory to investigate the driving forces of continental tectonics in an ongoing collisional orogen and the crustal and mantle response to various modes of deformation associated with plate boundary processes. The multidisciplinary research efforts in this region over the last fifteen years have produced a wealth of new data to better understand the interplay and feedback mechanisms between crustal and mantle processes and the dynamic landscape evolution in a complexly deforming area. A number of discrete collisional events between the Gondwana-derived continental fragments (i.e., Adria, Pelagonia, Arabia, India) and Eurasia controlled the geodynamics of the Mediterranean region and Asia during the late Mesozoic and Cenozoic. This book is a collection of research papers, presenting new data, interpretations, and syntheses on various aspects of the collision-induced tectonic, magmatic, metamorphic, and geomorphic processes that have affected the evolution of this orogenic belt. It should help us better understand the mode and nature of tectonic and magmatic processes and crustal evolution in active collision zones, and the distribution and causes of seismic and volcanic events and their impact on landscape evolution."--Publisher's website.




Tectonics of Sedimentary Basins


Book Description

Investigating the complex interplay between tectonics and sedimentation is a key endeavor in modern earth science. Many of the world's leading researchers in this field have been brought together in this volume to provide concise overviews of the current state of the subject. The plate tectonic revolution of the 1960's provided the framework for detailed models on the structure of orogens and basins, summarized in a 1995 textbook edited by Busby and Ingersoll. Tectonics of Sedimentary Basins: Recent Advances focuses on key topics or areas where the greatest strides forward have been made, while also providing on-line access to the comprehensive 1995 book. Breakthroughs in new techniques are described in Section 1, including detrital zircon geochronology, cosmogenic nuclide dating, magnetostratigraphy, 3-D seismic, and basin modelling. Section 2 presents the new models for rift, post-rift, transtensional and strike slip basin settings. Section 3 addresses the latest ideas in convergent margin tectonics, including the sedimentary record of subduction intiation and subduction, flat-slab subduction, and arc-continent collision; it then moves inboard to forearc basins and intra-arc basins, and ends with a series of papers formed under compessional strain regimes, as well as post-orogenic intramontane basins. Section 4 examines the origin of plate interior basins, and the sedimentary record of supercontinent formation. This book is required reading for any advanced student or professional interested in sedimentology, plate tectonics, or petroleum geoscience. Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/busby/sedimentarybasins.




Geoscience of Rift Systems


Book Description

Presents key results of hydrocarbon exploration activities by Amoco and other oil companies during the 1980s and 1990s in a number of rift segments in East Africa. Early chapters give a detailed review of the geological and geophysical data of the main regions explored, and later chapters present ge