Dispersed Volcanic Ash and Terrigenous Matter in Sediment from the Northwest Pacific

大洋和半大洋的泥沙覆盖了世界大部分海洋的海底，一直被认为主要来自大陆。我们现在知道，海底火山爆发并不像我们曾经认为的那么罕见，这些泥浆很有可能实际上含有大量的火山灰成分。这项研究揭示了这些泥浆的来源，并采用了一种新的统计方法来定量确定其中的火山灰成分的数量和成因/来源。就我们对海底沉积物的理解而言，这项工作具有潜在的变革性，并可能彻底改变我们对深海沉积的描述和理解。它还可能使我们能够确定海底火山喷发的火山灰扩散模式，并首次了解海底火山喷发对全球海底沉积物收支和地球化学循环的重要性。这项工作的更广泛影响包括支持在科学领域性别比例偏低的研究生和本科生。这项工作与NSF资助的边际和海洋钻探计划任务和科学计划相关。由此产生的数据将通过NSF资助的SedDB数据门户和数据档案公开提供。

Pelagic and hemipelagic muds, which cover the floor of most of the world's oceans, have always been thought to be primarily of continental origin. We now know that undersea explosive volcanism is not as rare as we once thought and there is a distinct possibility that these muds may, in fact, have large volcanic ash components. This research unravels the origin of these muds and employs a novel, new, statistical approach to determine quantitatively the amount and origin/source of the volcanic ash component in them. The work is potentially transformative in terms of our understanding of seafloor sediments and could completely change how we characterize and understand deep sea sedimentation. It may also allow us to determine seafloor volcanic eruption ash-dispersal patterns and understand, for the first time, how important undersea volcanic eruptions are to the global seafloor sediment budget and geochemical cycling. Broader impacts of the work include support of a graduate student whose gender is under-represented in the sciences and undergraduates. The work is relevant to the NSF-funded MARGINS and Ocean Drilling Program missions and science plans. Resulting data will be publicly available through the NSF-funded SedDB data portal and data archive.