September Gsat 03
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Inside: The subduction factory: How it operates in the evolving Earth, by Yoshiyuki Tatsumi, p. 4 2005 Medal and Award Recipients, p. 12 New GSA Fellows, p. 13 2005 GSA Research Grant Recipients, p. 17 2006 Section Meetings, p. 23 VOLUME 15, NUMBER 7 JULY 2005 Cover: Classic Japanese woodblock print by Hiroshige II (1829–1863) of Asama Volcano, showing an ash plume and volcanic bombs ejected by explosive activity. Image © MK Krafft CRI Nancy-Lorraine, GSA TODAY publishes news and information for more than http://www.imagesdevolcans.fr, dedicated to Katia 18,000 GSA members and subscribing libraries. GSA Today lead science articles should present the results of exciting new and Maurice Krafft’s work on volcanoes. An eruption research or summarize and synthesize important problems of Asama in 1783 killed 1,491 people (U.S. Geological or issues, and they must be understandable to all in the earth Survey–Smithsonian Institution map, This Dynamic science community. Submit manuscripts to science editors Planet, in press). Asama, like other volcanoes on Keith A. Howard, [email protected], or Gerald M. Ross, the Pacific ring of fire, is above a subduction zone. [email protected]. See “The subduction factory: How it operates in the GSA TODAY (ISSN 1052-5173 USPS 0456-530) is published 11 evolving Earth” by Yoshiyuki Tatsumi, p. 4–10. times per year, monthly, with a combined April/May issue, by The Geological Society of America, Inc., with offices at 3300 Penrose Place, Boulder, Colorado. Mailing address: P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Boulder, Colorado, and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to GSA Today, GSA Sales and Service, SCIENCE ARTICLE P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140. Copyright © 2005, The Geological Society of America, Inc. (GSA). 4 The subduction factory: How it operates in the evolving All rights reserved. Copyright not claimed on content prepared Earth YOSHIYUKI TATSUMI wholly by U.S. government employees within scope of their employment. Individual scientists are hereby granted permission, without fees or further requests to GSA, to use a single figure, a single table, and/or a brief paragraph of text in other subsequent works and to make unlimited photocopies of items in this journal 10 Correction for noncommercial use in classrooms to further education and science. For any other use, contact Copyright Permissions, 11 Comment and Reply: The extinction of the dinosaurs in GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA, Fax 303- 357-1073, [email protected]; reference GSA Today, ISSN North America 1052-5173. Permission is granted to authors to post the abstracts only of their articles on their own or their organization’s Web site 12 GSA Names 2005 Medal and Award Recipients providing the posting includes this reference: “The full paper was published in the Geological Society of America’s journal GSA 13 2005 GSA Fellows Elected by Council Today, [include year, month, and page numbers if known, where the article will appear].” GSA provides this and other forums for 16 GSA Celebrates New 50-Year Members the presentation of diverse opinions and positions by scientists worldwide, regardless of their race, citizenship, gender, religion, or political viewpoint. Opinions presented in this publication do 16 2005 Cole Awards not reflect official positions of the Society. 17 2005 GSA Research Grant Recipients SUBSCRIPTIONS for 2005 calendar year: Society Members: GSA Today is provided as part of membership dues. Contact Commentary: GSA Sales and Service at 1-888-443-4472, (303) 357-1000, 22 National Geologic Trail option 3, or [email protected] for membership information. Nonmembers & Institutions: Free with paid 23 Limnogeology Division Offers Kerry Kelts Awards subscription to both GSA Bulletin and Geology, otherwise $75. Contact Subscription Services at (800) 627-0629 or 23 Call for Geological Papers: 2006 GSA Section Meetings [email protected]. Also available on an annual CD-ROM (together with GSA Bulletin, Geology, GSA Data Repository, and 24 Second Call for GSA Committee Service an Electronic Retrospective Index to journal articles from 1972); $99 to GSA Members, others call GSA Subscription Services 27 GSA Foundation Update for prices and details. Claims: For nonreceipt or for damaged copies, members contact GSA Sales and Service; all others contact Subscription Services. Claims are honored for one year; 28 GSA Memorials: Help Us Remember please allow sufficient delivery time for overseas copies, up to six months. 29 Geologic Past GSA TODAY STAFF: 30 Announcements Executive Director: John W. Hess Science Editors: Keith A. Howard, U.S. Geological Survey, MS 919, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, [email protected]; 37 Classified Advertising and Gerald M. Ross, Kupa’a Farm, Box 458, Kula, HI 96790, [email protected]. 37 Journal Highlights Director of Publications: Jon Olsen Managing Editor: Kristen E. Asmus, [email protected] 38 GeoMart Geoscience Directory Editorial Staff: Matt Hudson Production Coordinator: Margo Y. Sajban Graphics Production: Margo Y. Sajban ADVERTISING: CORRECTIONS to the Professional Development Program in the June issue of Classifieds & Display: Ann Crawford, 1-800-472-1988, ext. 1053, (303) 357-1053, Fax 303-357-1070; [email protected] GSA Today are as follows. GSA ONLINE: www.geosociety.org Short Course #2. Measurement of Indoor Radon in Geologically Diverse Terrains Printed in the USA using pure soy inks. [502]. The registration form (p. 27) shows the incorrect fee for this course of $150. The correct fee is $360. (The $150 pertains to an additional fee to take the optional exam and earn a Radon Measurement Specialist Certificate.) 50% Total Recovered Fiber Short Course #6. Three-Dimensional Geologic Mapping for Groundwater 10% Postconsumer Applications Workshop [506]. The correct fee for this workshop is $195. The subduction factory: How it operates in the evolving Earth Yoshiyuki Tatsumi, Institute for Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan, [email protected] ABSTRACT The subduction factory processes raw materials such as oceanic sediments and oceanic crust and manufactures mag- mas and continental crust as products. Aqueous fluids, which are extracted from oceanic raw materials via dehydration reactions during subduction, dissolve particular elements and overprint such elements onto the mantle wedge to gener- ate chemically distinct arc basalt magmas. The production of calc-alkalic andesites typifies magmatism in subduction zones. One of the principal mechanisms of modern-day, calc-alkalic andesite production is thought to be mixing of two end- member magmas, a mantle-derived basaltic magma and an arc crust-derived felsic magma. This process may also have contributed greatly to continental crust formation, as the bulk continental crust possesses compositions similar to calc-alkalic andesites. If so, then the mafic melting residue after extrac- tion of felsic melts should be removed and delaminated from the initial basaltic arc crust in order to form “andesitic” crust compositions. The waste materials from the factory, such as chemically modified oceanic materials and delaminated mafic lower crust materials, are transported down to the deep man- tle and recycled as mantle plumes. The subduction factory has played a central role in the evolution of the solid Earth through creating continental crust and deep mantle geochemi- Figure 1. Role of the subduction factory in the evolution of the solid Earth. cal reservoirs. Raw materials, such as oceanic sediments, oceanic crust, mantle lithosphere, and wedge materials, are fed into the factory and are manufactured into arc INTRODUCTION magmas and continental crust. The waste materials or residues processed Subduction zones, where the oceanic plates sink into the in this factory, such as chemically modified slab components (oceanic crust mantle, have been “factories” since plate tectonics began and sediments) and delaminated mafic lower arc crust, are transported and stored in the deep mantle and recycled as raw materials for mantle plume– on Earth (Fig. 1). Oceanic materials such as pelagic and ter- related hotspot magmatism. EMI—enriched mantle type I; EMII—enriched rigenous sediments, altered and fresh basaltic oceanic crust, mantle type II; HIMU— high-μ mantle. and mantle lithosphere enter the factory as raw materials. These materials, together with mantle-wedge peridotites, during subduction, and possibly delaminated mafic lower- are processed into products, during which the entire factory arc crust. These waste materials founder into Earth’s deeper adjusts and deforms, causing magmatism and earthquakes. interior, reside somewhere in the deep mantle, and may The products of the factory are arc magmas, their solidified contribute greatly to the evolution of mantle because of their materials, and ultimately continental crust. Such products may significant mass and characteristic compositions; assuming be volumetrically small, as the continental crust occupies <1% steady-state subduction of the entire 7-km-thick oceanic of the total mass of solid Earth. However, they possess “differ- crust for 3 billion years, accumulated crust materials with entiated” compositions, quite distinct from a chondritic bulk basaltic compositions occupy ~10% of the lower mantle. Earth, which suggests that the origin of products from the This paper outlines how the subduction factory creates