More Like this

1. Southwest Indian Ridge Lower Crust and Moho

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.360.2017  

   MacLeod, C.J. ; Dick, H.J.B. ; Blum, P. ( January 2017 , Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program)

   null (Ed.)

   International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 360 was the first leg of Phase I of the SloMo (shorthand for “The nature of the lower crust and Moho at slower spreading ridges”) Project, a multiphase drilling program that proposes to drill through the outermost of the global seismic velocity discontinuities, the Mohorovičić seismic discontinuity (Moho). The Moho corresponds to a compressional wave velocity increase, typically at ~7 km beneath the oceans, and has generally been regarded as the boundary between crust and mantle. An alternative model, that the Moho is a hydration front in the mantle, has recently gained credence upon the discovery of abundant partially serpentinized peridotite on the seafloor and on the walls of fracture zones, such as at Atlantis Bank, an 11–13 My old elevated oceanic core complex massif adjacent to the Atlantis II Transform on the Southwest Indian Ridge. Hole U1473A was drilled on the summit of Atlantis Bank during Expedition 360, 1–2 km away from two previous Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) holes: Hole 735B (drilled during ODP Leg 118 in 1987 and ODP Leg 176 in 1997) and Hole 1105A (drilled during ODP Leg 179 in 1998). A mantle peridotite/gabbro contact has been traced by dredging and diving along the transform wall for 40 km. The contact is located at ~4200 m depth on the transform wall below the drill sites but shoals considerably 20 km to the south, where it was observed in outcrop at 2563 m depth. Moho reflections, however, have been found at ~5–6 km beneath Atlantis Bank and <4 km beneath the transform wall, leading to the suggestion that the seismic discontinuity may not represent the crust/mantle boundary but rather an alteration (serpentinization) front. This in turn raises the interesting possibility that methanogenesis associated with serpentinization could support a whole new planetary biosphere deep in the oceanic basement. The SloMo Project seeks to test these hypotheses at Atlantis Bank and evaluate the processes of natural carbon sequestration in the lower crust and uppermost mantle. A primary objective of SloMo Leg 1 was to explore the lateral variability of the stratigraphy established in Hole 735B. Comparison of Hole U1473A with Holes 735B and 1105A allows us to demonstrate a continuity of process and complex interplay of magmatic accretion and steady-state detachment faulting over a time period of ~128 ky. Preliminary assessment indicates that these sections of lower crust are constructed by repeated cycles of intrusion, represented in Hole U1473A by approximately three upwardly differentiated hundreds of meter–scale bodies of olivine gabbro broadly similar to those encountered in the deeper parts of Hole 735B. Specific aims of Expedition 360 focused on gaining an understanding of how magmatism and tectonism interact in accommodating seafloor spreading, how magnetic reversal boundaries are expressed in the lower crust, assessing the role of the lower crust and shallow mantle in the global carbon cycle, and constraining the extent and nature of life at deep levels within the ocean lithosphere. 

   more » « less
2. Expedition 360 Summary

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.360.101.2017  

   Dick, H ; Macleod, C ; Blum, P ; Abe, N ; Blackman, D ; Boles, J ; Cheadle, M ; Cho, K ; Ciazela, J ; Deans, J ; et al ( January 2017 , Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program)

   null (Ed.)

   International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 360 was the first leg of Phase I of the SloMo (shorthand for “The nature of the lower crust and Moho at slower spreading ridges”) Project, a multiphase drilling program that proposes to drill through the out- ermost of the global seismic velocity discontinuities, the Mohor- ovičić seismic discontinuity (Moho). The Moho corresponds to a compressional wave velocity increase, typically at ~7 km beneath the oceans, and has generally been regarded as the boundary be- tween crust and mantle. An alternative model, that the Moho is a hydration front in the mantle, has recently gained credence upon the discovery of abundant partially serpentinized peridotite on the seafloor and on the walls of fracture zones, such as at Atlantis Bank, an 11–13 My old elevated oceanic core complex massif adjacent to the Atlantis II Transform on the Southwest Indian Ridge. Hole U1473A was drilled on the summit of Atlantis Bank during Expedition 360, 1–2 km away from two previous Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) holes: Hole 735B (drilled during ODP Leg 118 in 1987 and ODP Leg 176 in 1997) and Hole 1105A (drilled during ODP Leg 179 in 1998). A mantle peridotite/gabbro contact has been traced by dredging and diving along the transform wall for 40 km. The contact is located at ~4200 m depth on the transform wall be- low the drill sites but shoals considerably 20 km to the south, where it was observed in outcrop at 2563 m depth. Moho reflections, how- ever, have been found at ~5–6 km beneath Atlantis Bank and <4 km beneath the transform wall, leading to the suggestion that the seis- mic discontinuity may not represent the crust/mantle boundary but rather an alteration (serpentinization) front. This in turn raises the interesting possibility that methanogenesis associated with ser- pentinization could support a whole new planetary biosphere deep in the oceanic basement. The SloMo Project seeks to test these hy- potheses at Atlantis Bank and evaluate the processes of natural car- bon sequestration in the lower crust and uppermost mantle. A primary objective of SloMo Leg 1 was to explore the lateral variability of the stratigraphy established in Hole 735B. Comparison of Hole U1473A with Holes 735B and 1105A allows us to demon- strate a continuity of process and complex interplay of magmatic ac- cretion and steady-state detachment faulting over a time period of ~128 ky. Preliminary assessment indicates that these sections of lower crust are constructed by repeated cycles of intrusion, repre- sented in Hole U1473A by approximately three upwardly differenti- ated hundreds of meter–scale bodies of olivine gabbro broadly similar to those encountered in the deeper parts of Hole 735B. Specific aims of Expedition 360 focused on gaining an under- standing of how magmatism and tectonism interact in accommo- dating seafloor spreading, how magnetic reversal boundaries are expressed in the lower crust, assessing the role of the lower crust and shallow mantle in the global carbon cycle, and constraining the extent and nature of life at deep levels within the ocean lithosphere. 

   more » « less
3. Expedition 360 Scientific Prospectus: Southwest Indian Ridge Lower Crust and Moho

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.sp.360.2015  

   Dick, H.J.B ; MacLeod, C.J. ; Blum, P. ( February 2015 , Scientific prospectus)

   null (Ed.)

   International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 360 will form the first leg of a multiphase drilling project that aims to drill through the crust/mantle boundary at the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge and investigate the nature of the Mohorovičić seismic discontinuity (Moho). Expedition 360 is expected to drill ~1300 m into lower crustal gabbro and is unlikely to penetrate the crust–mantle transition or recover a significant amount of peridotite. Drilling will be sited at Atlantis Bank, on an elevated wave-cut platform on the east flank of the Atlantis II Transform. Previous drilling and mapping shows that Atlantis Bank is a large oceanic core complex, exposing a tectonic window of deep crustal and lithospheric mantle exhumed on the footwall of an oceanic detachment fault. The shallowest part of Atlantis Bank, at 700 m water depth, consists of a ~25 km2 wave-cut platform rimmed by a thin bioclastic limestone cap. The platform is part of a continuous gabbro massif ~40 km long by 30 km wide, overlying granular mantle peridotite that forms the lower slopes of the eastern wall of the Atlantis II Transform. Mapping shows that basement on the wave-cut platform consists largely of shallow-dipping amphibolitized gabbro mylonite generated by detachment faulting. This fault rooted near-continuously into partially crystalline gabbro for >4 million years. The mylonite exposed on the platform, and by cross-faulting and landslips on the sides of Atlantis Bank, both cut and are cut by steeply north dipping greenschist-facies diabase dikes. Thus, the gabbro crystallized at depth was uplifted into the zone of diking at the ridge axis, creating, in effect, the equivalent to the base of a dike–gabbro transition seen in many ophiolites. Previous Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) operations at Atlantis Bank drilled the 1508 m deep Hole 735B and 150 m deep Hole 1105A, both recovering long sections of gabbro. During Expedition 360, we propose to drill to a nominal depth of 1.3 km at a site on the northern edge of the Atlantis Bank platform, ~1 km north-northeast of Hole 1105A and ~2 km northeast of Hole 735B. A future drilling expedition, SloMo-Leg 2, aims to deepen the hole to ~3 km, with the overall goal of penetrating the crust–mantle transition, which is believed to be ~2.5 km above the seismically determined Moho. Specific objectives of Expedition 360 include establishing the lateral continuity of the igneous, metamorphic, and structural stratigraphies previously drilled to the southwest, testing the nature of a magnetic polarity transition, and investigating the biogeochemistry of the lower crust. 

   more » « less
4. Microbial Abundance and Diversity in Subsurface Lower Oceanic Crust at Atlantis Bank, Southwest Indian Ridge

   https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01519-21  

   Wee, Shu Ying ; Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Beaudoin, David ; Yvon-Lewis, Shari ; Sylvan, Jason B. ( October 2021 , Applied and Environmental Microbiology)

   Semrau, Jeremy D. (Ed.)

   ABSTRACT International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 360 drilled Hole U1473A at Atlantis Bank, an oceanic core complex on the Southwest Indian Ridge, with the aim of recovering representative samples of the lower oceanic crust. Recovered cores were primarily gabbro and olivine gabbro. These mineralogies may host serpentinization reactions that have the potential to support microbial life within the recovered rocks or at greater depths beneath Atlantis Bank. We quantified prokaryotic cells and analyzed microbial community composition for rock samples obtained from Hole U1473A and conducted nutrient addition experiments to assess if nutrient supply influences the composition of microbial communities. Microbial abundance was low (≤10 4 cells cm −3 ) but positively correlated with the presence of veins in rocks within some depth ranges. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the rocks downhole (alternating stretches of relatively unaltered gabbros and more significantly altered and fractured rocks), the strength of the positive correlations between rock characteristics and microbial abundances was weaker when all depths were considered. Microbial community diversity varied at each depth analyzed. Surprisingly, addition of simple organic acids, ammonium, phosphate, or ammonium plus phosphate in nutrient addition experiments did not affect microbial diversity or methane production in nutrient addition incubation cultures over 60 weeks. The work presented here from Site U1473A, which is representative of basement rock samples at ultraslow spreading ridges and the usually inaccessible lower oceanic crust, increases our understanding of microbial life present in this rarely studied environment and provides an analog for basement below ocean world systems such as Enceladus. IMPORTANCE The lower oceanic crust below the seafloor is one of the most poorly explored habitats on Earth. The rocks from the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) are similar to rock environments on other ocean-bearing planets and moons. Studying this environment helps us increase our understanding of life in other subsurface rocky environments in our solar system that we do not yet have the capability to access. During an expedition to the SWIR, we drilled 780 m into lower oceanic crust and collected over 50 rock samples to count the number of resident microbes and determine who they are. We also selected some of these rocks for an experiment where we provided them with different nutrients to explore energy and carbon sources preferred for growth. We found that the number of resident microbes and community structure varied with depth. Additionally, added nutrients did not shape the microbial diversity in a predictable manner. 

   more » « less
5. Hole 1105A redescription1

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.360.104.2017  

   MacLeod, C ; Dick, H ; Blum, P ; Abe, N ; Blackman, D ; Bowles, J ; Cheadle, M ; Cho, K ; Ciazela, J ; Deans, J ; et al ( January 2017 , Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program)

   null (Ed.)

   During the 11 day transit from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Site U1473 at Atlantis Bank, the Expedition 360 science party reexamined cores drilled during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 179 in Hole 1105A (Pettigrew, Casey, Miller, et al., 1999; Casey et al., 2007). This activity involved rigorously describing the cores and many of the accompanying thin sections with the primary purpose of familiarizing the science party with the material likely to be encountered at the new Site U1473, situated 1.4 km to the north. The science party developed templates for description of the igneous, metamorphic, and structural features of the cores and analyzed thin sections made during Leg 179 to establish core description protocols for the new Site U1473 cores. An additional benefit of redescribing Hole 1105A cores is that the data generated are in a format directly comparable with those for Hole U1473A. In general, our findings were very similar to those produced by the Leg 179 scientists; however, with a larger science party to work on the cores, some of the information collected is new. We include this information in this chapter, as a basis for direct comparison with the results of drilling at Site U1473. In addition, we were able to make certain physical properties measurements on Hole 1105A cores, including magnetic susceptibility measurements of core section halves, that had not been possible during Leg 179. It is important to note here that the observations made on Hole 1105A cores by the Expedition 360 science party augment rather than replace those made by the Leg 179 scientists. 

   more » « less