Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Plank, T. Articles by Carr, M. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Nicaraguan volcanoes record paleoceanographic changes accompanying closure of the Panama gateway

¹ Department of Earth Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA, and Department of Geology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66044, USA
² Department of Geology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66044, USA, and Department of Geology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
³ Department of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA

A major oceanographic event preserved in the Cocos plate sedimentary column survived subduction and is recorded in the changing composition of Nicaraguan magmas. A uranium increase in these magmas since the latest Miocene (after 7 Ma) resulted from the "carbonate crash" at 10 Ma and the ensuing high organic carbon burial in the sediments. The response of the arc to this paleoceanographic event requires near steady-state sediment recycling at this margin since 20 Ma. This relative stability in sediment subduction invites one of the first attempts to balance sedimentary input and arc output across a subduction zone. Calculations based on Th indicate that as much as 75% of the sedimentary column was subducted beneath the arc. The Nicaraguan margin is one of the few places to observe such strong links between the oceans and the solid earth.

Key Words: Nicaragua • volcano • geochemistry • sediment • uranium

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Funk, P. Mann, K. McIntosh, and J. Stephens Cenozoic tectonics of the Nicaraguan depression, Nicaragua, and Median Trough, El Salvador, based on seismic-reflection profiling and remote-sensing data Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1, 2009; 121(11-12): 1491 - 1521. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Mann Overview of the tectonic history of northern Central America Geological Society of America Special Papers, January 1, 2007; 428(0): 1 - 19. [Full Text] [PDF]