Description: Since the early discovery of a black-smoker complex in 1978 on the East Pacific Rise at 21°N, speculations and expectations have been driven about the potential and perspectives of mining seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits in the deep-ocean. With a worldwide accelerating industrialization, emerging markets, increased commodity prices and metal demand, and advance¬ments in deep-water mining and extraction technologies, mining of SMS may become economically feasible in the near future (Kowalczyk, 2008). However, we still know little about the resource potential of SMS deposits, and the development of geophysical methods for an assessment of their spatial extent, composition, and inner structure is crucial to derive a proper assessment of their economic value. Novel geophysical mapping techniques and exploration strategies are required to locate extinct and buried clusters of SMS deposits, away from the active vent fields and of larger economic potential, but are difficult to find and sample by conventional methods. In 2015 the International Seabed Authority (ISA) assigned an exploration license for polymetallic sulfide deposits to the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) in a specified area comprising 100 patches, each 10 . 10 km in size, distributed along the Central and Southeastern Indian Ridge. The challenge to acquire high resolution near-surface electromagnetic (EM) data in such geologically and morphologically complex mid-ocean ridge environments has been addressed by our recent development of the deep-sea profiler Golden Eye that utilizes a frequency-domain electromagnetic (FDEM) central loop sensor, of 3.3 m diameter (Müller et al., 2016). This system has been used in 2015 and 2017 to map active and relict hydrothermal vent fields in the SMS licensing areas. Aside from technological developments, this paper discusses new data processing routines and methods to unravel the conductivity-depth-distribution, induced polarization and magnetic susceptibility, and joint interpretation with geochem¬istry as key elements to map and evaluate SMS deposits.

Description: Key Points: Multibeam bathymetric and seismic reflection data image the structure of the North Chilean marine forearc and the oceanic Nazca plate The structural character and tectonic configuration of the offshore forearc and the oceanic plate change significantly along the margin The derived pattern of permanent deformation may hold information for studying seismicity or other types of short term deformation New multibeam bathymetry allows an unprecedented view of the tectonic regime and its along‐strike heterogeneity of the North Chilean marine forearc and the oceanic Nazca Plate between 19‐22.75°S. Combining bathymetric and backscatter information from the multibeam data with sub‐bottom profiler and published and previously unpublished legacy seismic reflection lines, we derive a tectonic map. The new map reveals a middle and upper‐slope configuration dominated by pervasive extensional faulting, with some faults outlining a 〉500 km long ridge that may represent the remnants of a Jurassic or pre‐Jurassic magmatic arc. Lower slope deformation is more variable and includes slope‐failures, normal faulting, re‐entrant embayments, and NW‐SE trending anticlines and synclines. This complex pattern likely results from the combination of subducting lower‐plate topography, gravitational forearc collapse, and the accumulation of permanent deformation over multiple earthquake cycles. We find little evidence for widespread fluid seepage despite a highly faulted upper‐plate. An explanation could be a lack of fluid sources due to the sediment starved nature of the trench and most of the upper‐plate in vicinity of the hyper‐arid Atacama Desert. Changes in forearc architecture partly correlate to structural variations of the oceanic Nazca Plate, which is dominated by the spreading‐related abyssal hill fabric and is regionally overprinted by the Iquique Ridge. The ridge collides with the forearc around 20‐21°S. South of the ridge‐forearc intersection, bending‐related horst‐and‐grabens result in vertical seafloor offsets of hundreds of meters. To the north, plate‐bending is accommodated by reactivation of the paleo‐spreading fabric and new horst‐and‐grabens do not develop.

Description: We present an integrated age model for the incoming Cocos Plate sediments offshore Costa Rica. The data, collected over two IODP Expeditions (334 and 344), provides a medium­ to high­resolution record from the initial formation of the ocean crust in the Miocene to the present day. This study provides 〉50 age control points for the CRISP sediments from Sites U1381 and U1414. Although the two sites are just 10 km apart, there are distinct differences in the sediment and tephra record. Most notable is the presence of a hiatus at Site U1381. The hiatus, which is seen at other sites on the Cocos Plate, but not at Site U1414, may be related to erosion due to bottom water currents, mass wasting from Cocos Ridge subduction or may be related to the closure of the Central American Seaway (CAS). Sediment accumulation rates in the Miocene are comparable to modern abyssal plain rates. However, an increase is observed in the Pleistocene, when detritus from the forearc basin appears at Site U1414 ~2 Ma, shortly after the initiation of Cocos Ridge subduction. A tectonic model is presented that reconstructs the Cocos Plate, from its formation at 23 Ma to the present day. Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) paleoceanographic events, such as the Miocene ‘carbonate crash’ and the Late Miocene­Early Pliocene ‘biogenic bloom’ observed at Site U1414, are also discussed.

Description: Alternative reconstructions of the Jurassic northern extent of Greater India differ by up to several thousand kilometers. We present a new model that is constrained by revised seafloor spreading anomalies, fracture zones and crustal ages based on drillsites/dredges from all the abyssal plains along the West Australian margin and the Wharton Basin, where an unexpected sliver of Jurassic seafloor (153 Ma) has been found embedded in Cretaceous (95 My old) seafloor. Based on fracture zone trajectories, this NeoTethyan sliver must have originally formed along a western extension of the spreading center that formed the Argo Abyssal Plain, separating a western extension of West Argoland/West Burma from Greater India as a ribbon terrane. The NeoTethyan sliver, Zenith and Wallaby plateaus moved as part of Greater India until westward ridge jumps isolated them. Following another spreading reorganization, the Jurassic crust resumed migrating with Greater India until it was re-attached to the Australian plate ∼95 Ma. The new Wharton Basin data and kinematic model place strong constraints on the disputed northern Jurassic extent of Greater India. Late Jurassic seafloor spreading must have reached south to the Cuvier Abyssal Plain on the West Australian margin, connected to a spreading ridge wrapping around northern Greater India, but this Jurassic crust is no longer preserved there, having been entirely transferred to the conjugate plate by ridge propagations. This discovery constrains the major portion of Greater India to have been located south of the large-offset Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone, excluding much larger previously proposed shapes of Greater India.

Description: At the Costa Rica margin along the Middle America Trench along‐strike variations in heat flow are well mapped. These variations can be understood in terms of either ventilated fluid flow, where exposed basement allows fluids to freely advect heat between the crustal aquifer and ocean, or insulated fluid flow where continuous sediment cover restricts heat advection to within the crustal aquifer. We model fluid flow within the subducting aquifer using Nusselt number approximations coupled with finite element models of subduction and explore its effect on temperatures along the subduction thrust. The sensitivity of these models to the initial thermal state of the plate and styles of fluid flow, either ventilated or insulated, is explored. Heat flow measurements on cool crust accreted at the East Pacific Rise are consistent with ventilated hydrothermal cooling that continues with subduction. These models yield much cooler temperatures than predicted from simulations initialized with conductive predictions and without hydrothermal circulation. Heat flow transects on warm crust accreted at the Cocos‐Nazca spreading center are consistent with models of insulated hydrothermal circulation that advects heat updip within the subducting crustal aquifer. Near the trench these models are warmer than conductive predictions and cooler than conductive predictions downdip of the trench. Comparisons between microseismicity and modeled isotherms suggest that the updip limit of microseismicity occurs at temperatures warmer than 100°C and that the downdip extent of microseismicity is bounded by the intersection of the subduction thrust with the base of the overriding crust.

Description: To date, the parameters that determine the rupture area of great subduction zone earthquakes remain contentious. On 1 April 2014, the Mw 8.1 Iquique earthquake ruptured a portion of the well-recognized northern Chile seismic gap but left large highly coupled areas un-ruptured. Marine seismic reflection and swath bathymetric data indicate that structural variations in the subducting Nazca Plate control regional-scale plate-coupling variations, and the limited extent of the 2014 earthquake. Several under-thrusting seamounts correlate to the southward and up-dip arrest of seismic rupture during the 2014 Iquique earthquake, thus supporting a causal link. By fracturing of the overriding plate, the subducting seamounts are likely further responsible for reduced plate-coupling in the shallow subduction zone and in a lowly coupled region around 20.5°S. Our data support that structural variations in the lower plate influence coupling and seismic rupture offshore Northern Chile, whereas the structure of the upper plate plays a minor role.