Publications and Research

Authors

Lisa C. McNeill, University of Southampton
Donna J. Shillington, Columbia University
Gareth D. O. Carter, British Geological Survey
Jeremy D. Everest, British Geological Survey
Erwan Le Ber, University of Leicester
Richard E. L. Collier, University of Leeds
Aleksandra Cvetkoska, Justus Liebig University
Gino De Gelder, Université Paris Diderot
Paula Diz, Universidad de Vigo
Mai-Linh Doan, Université Grenoble Alpes
Mary Ford, Université de Lorraine
Robert L. Gawthorpe, University of Bergen
Maria Geraga, University of Patras
Jack Gillespie, University of Adelaide
Romain Hemelsdaël, Université de Montpellier
Emilio Herrero-Bervera, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Mohammad Ismaiel, University of Hyderabad
Liliane Janikian, São Paulo Federal University
Katerina Kouli, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Shunli Li, China University of Geosciences Beijing
Malka Leah Machlus, CUNY Kingsborough Community College
Marco Maffione, University of Birmingham
Carol Mahoney, University of Leeds
Georgios Michas, Technological Educational Institute of Crete
Clint Miller, Rice University
Casey W. Nixon, University of Bergen
Sabire Asli Oflaz, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Abah Philip Omale, Louisiana State University
Konstantinos Panagiotopoulos, University of Cologne
Sofia Pechlivanidou, University of Bergen
Marcie Purkey Phillips, University of Texas at Austin
Simone Sauer, Centre Bretagne
Joana Seguin, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Spyros Sergiou, University of Patras
Natalia V. Zakharova, Central Michigan University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-28-2019

Abstract

The primary objective of International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 381 was to retrieve a record of early continental rifting and basin evolution from the Corinth rift, central Greece. Continental rifting is fundamental for the formation of ocean basins, and active rift zones are dynamic regions of high geohazard potential. However, the detailed spatial and temporal evolution of a complete rift system needed to understand rift development from the fault to plate scale is poorly resolved. In the active Corinth rift, deformation rates are high, the recent synrift succession is preserved and complete offshore, and earlier rift phases are preserved onshore. Additionally, a dense seismic database provides high-resolution imaging of the fault network and seismic stratigraphy around the basin. As the basin has subsided, its depositional environment has been affected by fluctuating global sea level and its absolute position relative to sea level, and the basin sediments record this changing environment through time. In Corinth, we can therefore achieve an unprecedented precision of timing and spatial complexity of rift-fault system development, rift-controlled drainage system evolution, and basin fill in the first few million years of rift history. The following are the expedition themes:

  • High-resolution fault slip and rift evolution history,
  • Surface processes in active rifts,
  • High-resolution late Quaternary Eastern Mediterranean paleoclimate and paleoenvironment of a developing rift basin, and
  • Geohazard assessment in an active rift.

These objectives were and will be accomplished as a result of successful drilling, coring, and logging at three sites in the Gulf of Corinth, which collectively yielded 1645 m of recovered core over a 1905 m cored interval. Together, these cores provide (1) a long rift history (Sites M0078 and M0080), (2) a high-resolution record of the most recent phase of rifting (Site M0079), and (3) the spatial variation of rift evolution (comparison of sites in the central and eastern rift). The sediments contain a rich and complex record of changing sedimentation, sediment and pore water geochemistry, and environmental conditions from micropaleontological assemblages. The preliminary chronology developed by shipboard analyses will be refined and improved during postexpedition research, providing a high-resolution chronostratigraphy down to the orbital timescale for a range of tectonic, sedimentological, and paleoenvironmental studies. This chronology will provide absolute timing of key rift events, rates of fault movement, rift extension and subsidence, and the spatial variations of these parameters. The core data will also allow us to investigate the relative roles of and feedbacks between tectonics, climate, and eustasy in sediment flux, basin evolution, and basin environment. Finally, the Corinth rift boreholes will provide the first long Quaternary record of Mediterranean-type climate in the region. The potential range of scientific applications for this unique data set is very large, encompassing tectonics, sedimentary processes, paleoenvironment, paleoclimate, paleoecology, geochemistry, and geohazards.

Comments

This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.