signature=683f77b9cb2e4806477a7f86a42db14e,Distributed, active extension in Bransfield basin Antarct...

摘要：

Bransfield basin, a marginal basin off the west coast of the northern Antarctic Peninsula, lies in a unique tectonic environment with a basement of Paleozoic to Mesozoic accretionary wedge material. Although active subduction occurred during most of the past 200 m.y., it stopped or slowed dramatically at about 4 Ma when the Phoenix-Antarctic spreading center was abandoned offshore, leaving a small remnant of the former Phoenix plate incorporated in the Antarctic plate. Even though geochemical data indicate that unaltered basalt dredged from Bransfield basin is like midocean ridge basalt, there is no clear evidence for normal seafloor spreading. In November 1995, RVIB N.B. Palmer spent three weeks mapping the seafloor in Bransfield basin and searching for hydrothermal activity. The multibeam bathymetric chart of the Central Bransfield basin shows submarine volcanoes and striking, lineated seafloor features that dredging indicated were vesicular basalt. The chemistry of the rocks, combined with high heat flow and evidence for active hydrothermal circulation, strongly suggests present-day extension. At least four parallel zones of linear extrusions can be seen in the multibeam data. Whereas the bathymetry provides new insight into the mode of extension in the basin, it does not explain why or how extension is occurring. The evidence strongly supports active extension in accretionary wedge-derived continental crust that produces linear cracks that leak magma. The present extensional regime may lead to seafloor spreading, but the thickness of the crust in Bransfield basin suggests that normal seafloor spreading is yet to occur and any attempt to correlate magnetic anomalies is premature.

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