Ornithogenic vegetation: how significant has the seabird influence been on the Aleutian Island vegetation during the Holocene?

We have studied the long- and short-term periods of seabird influence on coastal vegetation. In the Aleutian Islands during the Holocene, terrestrial predators were virtually absent; as a result, large seabird colonies thrived along the coasts or across entire islands. Bird guano enriches the soil with nitrogen, which can lead to the formation of highly modified ornithogenic (bird-formed) ecosystems. The vegetation of several Aleutian Islands has been reconstructed; however, only the vegetation on Carlisle Island had noticeable impact from the seabird guano. For more detailed investigation of bird influence, we conducted pollen analysis to reconstruct the 9,300-year-old vegetation dynamics of the coast of Shemya Island. From earlier studies of nitrogen isotopes in peat, we discovered that a large seabird colony existed on Shemya from 4600 to 2400 years ago, and birds also influenced coastal ecosystems between 1470–1160 and 810–360 years ago. In these sequences, the tundra dominated by Ericaceae dwarf shrubs initially spread on the coast. During a period of at least 2200-years nitrogen enrichment led to the development of herb meadows with a high presence of Apiaceae. After a noticeable reduction in seabird colonies due to human hunting, grass-meadows spread. During the late Holocene several hundred years of seabird impact led to an increase in abundance of indicator taxa, ferns and umbelliferous species, as well as in total pollen concentration, but this did not result in a radical change of dominants. In recent decades, due to the extinction of the bird colonies, heather communities have begun to spread on the Shemya coast. Also large ash emissions in the Aleutian Islands can lead to a decrease in pollen concentration even in peat located far from an eruption.

Pliocene adakite-like accent of andesites and dacites from the Orlov volcanic field (Sakhalin Island)

Adakite-like geochemical signature (high Sr/Y ratio at a low Y concentration) is recognized in andesites and dacites, associated with intraplate basalts in the Orlov volcanic field of Sakhalin Island. These rocks denote the final (Pliocene) accent of intraplate volcanism in the Lesogorsk zone, which began in the Middle Miocene in an area of its junction with the Chekhov zone of the preceded (Oligocene-Early Miocene) suprasubduction one. The adakite-like accent was related to the Sakhalin folding phase that accompanied the general structural reorganization in the back-side region in the Japan arc system. Such a geological environment differed from the one of classical adakites generation resulted from melting of a young slab in the Aleutian island arc. It is supposed, that the Sakhalin adakite-like magmas were produced in deep-seated sources of the crust-mantle transition displayed in the Sakhalin-Hokkaido-Japan Sea zone of hot transtension due to drastic change of tectonic deformations from the thin crust of the South Tatar Basin to the thicker one of its northeastern extremity.

Seismogenic-Triggering Mechanism of Gas Emission Activizations on the Arctic Shelf and Associated Phases of Abrupt Warming

A seismogenic trigger mechanism is proposed to explain the abrupt climate warming phases in the Arctic as a result of strong mechanical disturbances in the marginal region of the Arctic lithosphere. Those disturbances might have been caused by great earthquakes in the Aleutian subduction zone, and slowly propagated across the Arctic shelf and adjacent regions, triggering the methane release from permafrost and metastable gas hydrates, followed by greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. The proposed mechanism is based on the identified correlation between the series of the great earthquakes in the Aleutian island arc, which occurred in the early and middle of the 20th century, and the two phases of sharp climate warming, which began in 1920 and 1980. There is a 20-year time lag between these events, which is explained by the time of arrival of deformation waves in the lithosphere (propagating with a velocity of about 100 km per year) at the Arctic shelf and adjacent land from the Aleutian subduction zone, the region of their generation. The trigger mechanism causing the methane release from permafrost and metastable gas hydrates is related to the destruction of micro-sized ice films covering gas hydrate particles, the elements highly important for hydrate self-preservation, as well as destruction of gas-saturated micropores in permafrost rocks due to the slight additional stresses associated with deformation waves, and thus emergence of conditions favorable for gas filtration and its subsequent emission.

The eruptive history, magmatic evolution, and influence of glacial ice at long-lived Akutan volcano, eastern Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA

New 40Ar/39Ar and whole-rock geochemical data are used to develop a detailed eruptive chronology for Akutan volcano, Akutan Island, Alaska, USA, in the eastern Aleutian island arc. Akutan Island (166°W, 54.1°N) is the site of long-lived volcanism and the entire island comprises volcanic rocks as old as 3.3 Ma. Our current study is on the 225 km2 western half of the island, where our results show that the focus of volcanism has shifted over the last ∼700 k.y., and that on occasion, multiple volcanic centers have been active over the same period, including within the Holocene. Incremental heating experiments resulted in 56 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages and span 2.3 Ma to 9.2 ka. Eruptive products of all units are primarily tholeiitic and medium-K, and range from basalt to dacite. Rare calc-alkaline lavas show evidence suggesting their formation via mixing of mafic and evolved magmas, not via crystallization-derived differentiation through the calc-alkaline trend. Earliest lavas are broadly dispersed and are almost exclusively mafic with high and variable La/Yb ratios that are likely the result of low degrees of partial mantle melting. Holocene lavas all fall along a single tholeiitic, basalt-to-dacite evolutionary trend and have among the lowest La/Yb ratios, which favors higher degrees of mantle melting and is consistent with the increased magma flux during this time. A suite of xenoliths, spanning a wide range of compositions, are found in the deposits of the 1.6 ka caldera-forming eruption. They are interpreted to represent completely crystallized liquids or the crystal residuum from tholeiitic fractional crystallization of the active Akutan magma system. The new geochronologic and geochemical data are used along with existing geodetic and seismic interpretations from the island to develop a conceptual model of the active Akutan magma system. Collectively, these data are consistent with hot, dry magmas that are likely stored at 5−10 km depth prior to eruption. The prolonged eruptive activity at Akutan has also allowed us to evaluate patterns in lava-ice interactions through time as our new data and observations suggest that the influence of glaciation on eruptive activity, and possible magma composition, is more pronounced at Akutan than has been observed for other well-studied Aleutian volcanoes to the west.

Geodynamic nature of magmatic sources of North-West Pacific: an interpretation data on isotope composition of Sr and Nd in rocks dredged at Stalemate ridge, Ingenstrem depression, and Shirshov Rise

First data on isotope composition of Sr and Nd in rocks dredged at different areas belong to lithosphere of the NW Pacific are present. All samples examined were obtained from NW termination of Stalemate Ridge (NW Pacific) and Central part of Shirshov Rise (Western Bering Sea). Results of conducted study allow sure enough to judge on geodynamic affinity of the central segment of Shirshov Rise. Mafic-ultramafic rocks dredged here originated due evolution of magmatic melt formed by partial melting of source parental for MORB belongs to mantle wedge perhaps. Thus, this interpretation means that Shirshov Rise is remnant Back-Arc Spreading Center. Data on petrology and isotope chemistry of rocks from Stalemate magmatic assemblage demonstrate geochemical heterogeneity of their possible magmatic sources. The presented data allow to assume participation in magmatism of this region of NW Pacific source that responsible for formation of most older volcanic seamounts from NW Termination of Hawaiian-Emperor volcanic chain. There is petrographic similarity between rock assemblage recovered at NW Stalemate and plutonic rocks composed of xenoliths from volcanic effusions of Aleutian Island Arc exists. Considering the scarcity of existing information about the structure of the lithosphere in the NW Pacific it is possible to assume with caution the participation in the construction of the oceanic slope of the Aleutian Trench and the adjacent segment of the Stelmate Ridge fragments of Aleutian Arc basement.