IGPP is pleased to invite you to join its Winter 2024 Seminar Series presentation featuring Ross Parnell-Turner. Dr. Parnell-Turner's talk, "Are Oceanic Gateways Influenced by the Iceland Mantle Plume Pulsing?" will occur at 3pm WEDNESDAY January 31, 2024.
Time: 3:00 pm, Pacific Time
Location: Revelle Conference Room
Abstract: Seafloor south of Iceland is characterized by a series of V-shaped crustal ridges and troughs which are thought to reflect variations in mantle behavior, but whose origin is debated. Blanketing these crustal undulations are rapidly deposited drift sediments, which record changes in climate, oceanic gateway configuration, and deep-water circulation since Miocene times. IODP Expedition 395, completed in summer 2023, aimed to capitalize on the unique juxtaposition of the Iceland mantle plume, a spreading ridge, oceanic gateways, and rapidly accumulated sediment to test ideas about the interactions between Earth’s deep and surficial domains. With operations spread over three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 33 holes were drilled at six sites, located along a plate-spreading flowline transect from near the Reykjanes Ridge axis to crust over 48 million years in age. Combined, over 400 m of oceanic basalt and over 5.8 km of sediment core was recovered, including continuous records through key Pleistocene and Pliocene sequences, and a unique record of progressive basalt alteration. I will present preliminary results of the expedition, comparing changes in the buoyancy flux of the Iceland plume with new constraints sedimentation at Björn, Gardar and Eirik contourite drifts, which provide clues about how oceanic gateways have opened and closed in the past.