Report on Mini-Workshop •Œbringing MARGINS Science To
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University of South Florida Masthead Logo Scholar Commons Geology Faculty Publications Geology Fall 2007 Report on Mini-Workshop “Bringing MARGINS Science to the Classroom” Cathy Manduca Carleton College Jeffrey G. Ryan University of South Florida, [email protected] Don Reed San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gly_facpub Part of the Geology Commons Scholar Commons Citation Manduca, Cathy; Ryan, Jeffrey G.; and Reed, Don, "Report on Mini-Workshop “Bringing MARGINS Science to the Classroom”" (2007). Geology Faculty Publications. 156. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gly_facpub/156 This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Geology at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Geology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Published semi-annually by the Workshop to Integrate Subduction MARGINS Office Boston University Department of Earth Sciences Factory and Seismogenic Zone 675 Commonwealth Ave Boston, MA 02215 USA Studies in Central America Heredia, Costa Rica, June 18-22, 2007 Eli Silver1, Terry Plank2 and Peter van Keken3 1UC Santa Cruz; 2Boston University; 3University of Michigan 2007 Fall 19, # Newsletter Figure 1. Participants at the Workshop in Heredia, Costa Rica (courtesy of LeRoy Dorman). Introduction Costa Rica, the US, Germany, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Russia, and the MARGINS Great earthquakes, CO2 and H2O cycling, and their connections across the Czech Republic (Figure 1). Workshop subduction zone, have been the focus of conveners were Eli Silver, Terry Plank, In This Issue: intense international efforts in Central Kaj Hoernle, Marino Protti, Guillermo America for over a decade. This interna- Alvarado, and Victor Gonzales. Fi- MARGINS Workshop Reports tional program has involved geological nancial support was provided by the Central America ................... 1-4 and geophysical studies both on land and National Science Foundation MARGINS From the MARIGNS Chair ...... 5-6 off-shore. This intense effort is paying off Program, and the SFB 574 program of MARGINS Workshop Reports Con’t in new discoveries about the driving fac- the German Science Foundation. The GeoHazards in Oregon ........ 8-9 tors for earthquakes in this environment MARGINS office of Geoff Abers, Cary Global Data Network ........10-11 Kandel, and Pamela Lezaeta provided and the cycling of water and CO2 from Data Management the oceanic plate through to the explosive invaluable support at all levels for the MGDS Status ...........................12 volcanism of the Central American vol- workshop Education and Outreach canic chain. The Costa Rica-Nicaragua The goals of the workshop were to CCLI Mini-Lessons report 14-16 subduction zone is a focus area of the synthesize the data collection efforts, PostDoc biographies ..........17-18 MARGINS themes investigating the discuss their interpretation and model- MARGINS at AGU .....................19 Subduction Factory (SubFac) and the ing efforts, and provide new research Sessions of interest ............21-25 Seismogenic Zone (SEIZE). directions. There was a strong focus on Ocean Sciences Meeting 2008 the geology and tectonics with ample Sessions of interest ..................25 Workshop in Costa Rica opportunity for hands-on experience. In order to display and discuss the Prior to the meeting, Don Fisher and Tom large amount of research that has oc- Gardner led a three day field trip to study curred in this region a workshop was the tectonics of the fore-arc in southern held June 18-22, 2007, at the Hotel La Costa Rica, adjacent to the subducting Condesa in Heredia, Costa Rica. It was Cocos Ridge. Guillermo Alvarado and attended by about 140 participants from Mike Carr led a four day post-meeting Page 2 MARGINS Newsletter No. 19, Fall 2007 Central America Workshop field trip to examine the northern Costa -86 -85.5 -85 Caribbean Plate Rican volcanoes of Arenal and the Gua- Nicoya 0.10 Peninsula nacaste volcanoes. M CR -2000 AT The workshop was organized into 0.05 Site 5 Site 3 -1 11 Cocos 00 Plate four broad themes: the seismogenic zone, 10 10 0 12 0 05 RMS Noise (residual/mean) system structure and evolution, volatile 13 -40 06 09 fluxes, and hazards. Poster sessions were 00 14 Flow rate (cm/d) -0.05 15 interspersed with oral presentations, and 04 03 07 08 Site 2 02 -2000 9.5 -0.10 10 sufficient space was available to allow all -1000 01 -3 0 0 posters to be viewed for the full meeting. 0 Extensional Site 5 Noise 5 The meeting was opened officially by Dr. Outer Rise Faults Olman Segura, the Chancellor of Uni- 7/21/2000 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 versidad Nacional, Dr. Roberto Dobles, 9 Days since 1/1/2000 the minister of Environment and Energy and Dr. Gabriel Macaya, president of the Figure 2. From Brown et al., 2005. Left: Continuous fluid flux instruments (numbers) along Costa Rica Academy of Sciences. They with seismic stations (triangles) were deployed offshore the Nicoya Peninsula. Right: Strong were followed by several keynote talks correlation of flow rates and seismic noise were found at stations tens of kilometers apart, given by Guillermo Alvarado, Marino highly suggestive of transient, but wide spread, tectonic strain events within the toe of the forearc. Protti, Kaj Hoernle, and Geoff Abers. Following each theme, an extended open the Nicoya Peninsula, has large (M=7.7) slow slip events that propagate from deep session allowed a wide range of discus- fast earthquakes every ~50 years or so, to shallow levels of the seismogenic zone sion of these topics, and the final after- and at present is quiet but showing sig- and are synchronous with onland strain noon was a wrap-up discussion, giving nificant elastic strain buildup for the next transients (Figure 2). Such sequences all participants opportunity to state their event. Central Costa Rica is affected by may ultimately prove to be important fac- views and raise issues. A full program and a number of large seamounts and has tors in understanding the events leading list of participants is available at http:// frequent fast earthquakes up to M=6.5. to major earthquakes. www.nsf-margins.org/CostaRica2007. In southern Costa Rica the Cocos Ridge Temperature appears to provide one A significant number of research papers subducts, which drives M>7 events every main control on the up-dip limit of the will be part of a special Theme on the 40 years or so. Understanding the nature seismogenic zone. While there was Central American Subduction System of of the mechanical coupling between agreement that the previously proposed Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosys- these features in the seismogenic zone smectite-to-illite transition fails as an tems (G-Cubed). Below we summarize is the subject of much observational and explanation, new hypotheses include some of the key observations, hypotheses laboratory effort, and plans are well un- other diagenetic reactions, silica mo- and problems discussed within each of derway to drill into this zone as part of bilization and fluid pressure effects to the themes. the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. explain onset temperatures in the range Seismogenic Zone A very new discovery is the presence of of 125° to 200°C. An interesting test of this concept was observed along the Earthquakes in Nicaragua and Costa Nicoya peninsula, just inboard of a Rica closely follow the variations in ba- thymetry and structure of the incoming Figure 3. Correlated segmentation in the Cocos and Nazca plates. Nicaragua has geochemical composition (Zr/Nb) of the had earthquakes with variable size and volcanic arc, and the depth to the seis- source duration, from small, rapid (or mically-defined subducting slab. Zr/Nb normal earthquakes) to large (M=7.7) is a measure of Nb depletion, one of the “slow” or “tsunami” earthquakes, unique features of subduction volcanism worldwide, and may relate to the dif- such as the 1992 event that generated ferent contributions of slab and wedge a damaging tsunami much larger than material controlled by pathlength from would be predicted from the size of the the slab to the volcano. Geochemical earthquake. The incoming plate has data and figure from Bolge (2005) and scattered small seamounts and large Bolge et al. (2006). Depth to the slab offsets of the lower plate as it flexes from Syracuse and Abers (2006). and descends beneath the continental slope. Northern Costa Rica, offshore of Central America Workshop MARGINS Newsletter No. 19, Fall 2007 Page that Costa Rica, having no 10Be, rids 0 itself of this material by scraping off the 20 incoming sediments prior to reaching 40 the zone of melting, but seismic studies 60 and drilling have documented that all in- 80 coming material bypasses the lowermost 100 120 slope, and in fact the continental slope Depth [km] 140 has subsided significantly over the past 6 160 Myr, implying a high value of subduction 180 erosion of the upper plate. Thus not only 200 is much of the incoming material brought Vp/Vs down to great depths but also material that formed the edge of the Costa Rican 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 mainland has been removed by as much as 50 km during this period. A key question for the Subduction Factory is how continental crust is generated. In Central America, silicic m] ignimbrites are voluminous and their formation may be a key process in the differentiation of the continental crust. The ignimbrites share a genetic relation- Depth [k ship with the mafic volcanoes, owing to their similar trace element and isotopic ratios, and partial melting is favored over fractional crystallization for their origin. Distance [km] Other geochemical features of the volca- noes are segmented along strike (Figure 3), correlating with the total path length from the volcano to the subducting slab.