Description: Rio Grande Rise: microcontinent, mantle plume, or both? The origin of the Rio Grande Rise (RGR) is debated. It could represent a continental sliver, or a large igneous province that was emplaced in the late Cretaceous after the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. The interplay between the RGR and the nearby Jean Charcot Seamount Chain (JCSC) is also not understood. Cruise MSM82 dredge sampled rocks from the JCSC and the RGR and measured two seismic refraction profiles across the RGR where it is bisected by a long rift graben. A range of geophysical data were also collected during much of the expedition, including magnetics, gravity, bathymetry (Kongsberg EM 122), sub-bottom profiling (ATLAS PARASOUND DS P70) and ADCP data. The combination of geochronological, geochemical and geophysical information will provide a unique window on the relation between mantle plumes, continental fragments and the evolution of large igneous provinces.

Description: We used ambient seismic noise recorded by 24 broadband ocean bottom seismometers (OBS-BB) deployed in the Gulf of Cadiz during the EC funded NEAREST project and seven broadband land stations located in the South of Portugal to image the sedimentary and crustal structure beneath the Eastern Atlantic and SW Iberia. We computed ambient noise cross-correlations to obtain empirical Green’s functions (EGFs) between all station pairs, and using both sort of sensors, namely seismometers and hydrophones. Despite the great difference between the crustal structure below beneath OBSs and land stations and the recording conditions, we were able to compute high signal-to-noise ratio EGFs, by applying a linear cross-correlation with a running absolute mean average time normalization, followed by a time-frequency phase weighted stack. Dispersion analysis was then applied to the EGFs, between 4 and 20s period. The obtained 395 reliable group velocity dispersion curves, between all station pairs, allowed mapping the lateral variation of Rayleigh wave group velocities, as a function of period. Finally, dispersion curves extracted from each cell of the 2D group velocity maps were inverted, as a function of depth, to obtain the 3D distribution of the shear-wave velocities. The 3-D shear wave velocity model, computed from joint inversion of OBS and land stations data allowed to estimate the thickness of sediments and crust and the Moho depth. Although, we could perceive the impact of the spatial gap between OBSs and land stations, our model displays a good correlation with the main geological features. The main results on the sedimentary layer thickness and on the Moho depth are in agreement with the model proposed by other studies using observations from multi-beam bathymetry and seismic profiling, thus confirming that, not only that ambient noise tomography is a valuable tool to image oceanic domains, but also that we can integrate seafloor- and land-based stations.

Description: Tristan da Cunha Island is one of the classical hot spots in the Atlantic Ocean, situated at the western end of the aseismicWalvis Ridge which forms a connection to the Cretaceous Etendeka flood basalt province in northwestern Namibia. The discussion about its source (in shallow asthenosphere or deeper mantle) have not reached consensus yet because of lack of the geophysical observations in the area. A marine magnetotelluric (MT) experiment was conducted together with seismological observations in the area in 2012–2013 through a German-Japanese collaboration with the goal to constrain the physical state of the mantle beneath the area. A total of 26 MT seafloor stations were deployed around the Tristan da Cunha Islands and available data were retrieved and processed from 24 stations. We applied iterative topographic effect correction and one-dimensional (1-D) conductivity structure inversion to the data. Then, three-dimensional (3-D) inversion analysis incorporating the topographic effect was carried out, using the 1-D model as the initial model. The local small-scale topography and the far continental coast effects are incorporated as the distortion term in the 3-D inversion. The preliminary result of our analysis shows no evidence of a significant conductive anomaly arising from the mantle transition zone, suggesting that the current magmatic source (major place of melting) of the hotspot activity is in the shallow upper mantle. This is in contrast to results from geochemical analysis, in which samples along the Tristan track exhibit an ocean-island-basalt-type incompatible element pattern pointing to a deep mantle source of the melt. Our findings therefore might indicate that the deep mantle up-welling underneath Tristan da Cunha Islands may be almost dead. A conductive anomaly at approx. 100 km depth in our derived conductivity model to the southwest of Tristan da Cunha Islands suggests an interaction between the mid-ocean ridge and/or up-welling further south, e.g., beneath the Gough Island, which is the other termination of the Walvis Ridge and shows clearer geochemical evidence for a plume source.