Felsic magmatism and hydrothermal activity of the Central Igneous Complex of Boa Vista (Cape Verde islands): Insights from zircon, titanite and apatite geochronology

The oldest rocks exposed on Maio in the Cape Verde Islands (eastern central Atlantic) are MORB-type ocean-floor pillow basalts, lava breccias, and hyaloclastics generated at an inferred latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous spreading axis, possibly near a fossil fracture zone. Interlava sediments include distal terrigenous turbidites from the West African continental margin. Latest ocean-floor volcanism was accompanied by precipitation of ferruginous oxide sediments from hydrothermal solutions, comparable with modern spreading axes. The overlying latest Jurassic (Tithonian) and Lower Cretaceous sediments are deep–ocean nannoplankton radiolarian chalks, coeval with the similar eastern Atlantic “White Limestone” and the Tethyan Maiolica facies. By the mid-Cretaceous (Albian-Cenomanian), Maio had subsided below the calcite compensation depth with accumulation of the characteristic Atlantic anoxic black-shale facies. Thin interbeds of limestones and siltstones are pelagic calciturbidites and distal terrigenous turbidites lacking volcanic material. After uplift, the Cretaceous pelagics are overlain apparently conformably without tilting by shallower marine to subaerial pyroclastics and epiclastics, which include tuffs, agglomerates, conglomerates, and limestones. The existence not only of rounded water-worn clasts of Mesozoic ocean-floor rocks but also of alkaline extrusive and intrusive igneous rocks points to derivation from an early plutonic complex of unknown age. The earliest preserved extrusives, which are for the most part fragmental basalts and trachytes, are possible Paleogene to Miocene in age. Further dike and sill intrusion then occurred, followed by westward-directed folding and thrusting. Diapiric doming of the Central Igneous Complex ensued, followed by deep erosion, and then eruption of now gently inclined ankaramites. By late in the Miocene, fan deltas radiated from a rapidly eroding, still volcanically active island. The Neogene saw more quiescent alkalic extrusion punctuated by peneplanation. Maio Island is thus a clue to both Mesozoic paleoenvironments in the eastern and central Atlantic and to Tertiary island building related to “hot-spot” activity. Additional tabular matter for this article may be secured free of charge by requesting Supplementary Data 84-9 from the GSA Documents Secretary.

On dating the magmatism of Maio, Cape Verde Islands

A volcanological and geochemical investigation of Boa Vista, Cape Verde Islands; 40Ar/ 39Ar geochronology and field constraints

We performed detailed field and drill core mapping of partial melting features and felsic rocks (footwall granophyres, FWGRs) representing segregated and crystallized partial melts within the contact aureole of the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) in the 1.85 Ga Sudbury impact structure. Our results, derived from mapping within the North (Windy Lake, Foy, Wisner areas) and East Ranges (Skynner, Frost areas) of the structure, reveal that partial melting was widespread in both felsic and mafic footwall units up to distances of 500 m from the basal contact of the SIC. Texturally and mineralogically, significant differences exist between rocks formed by partial melting within and between localities. In general, however, melt bodies are dominated by different quartz-feldspar intergrowths (e.g. granophyric, graphic) and miarolitic cavities up to 5 cm in diameter. Major and trace element compositions of Wisner and Frost FWGRs imply that they crystallized from melts dominantly derived from partial melting of felsic Levack Gneiss and Cartier granitoid rocks, as well as from gabbroic rocks only at Frost. These results accord with our observations on in situ partial melting features and crystallized melt of microscopic scale in both felsic and mafic rocks. We conclude that partial melting occurred at a pressure of 1.5 ± 0.5 kbar and at temperatures up to 750°C in the Wisner area and up to 900°C in the Frost and Windy Lake areas. Segregations of partial melt into veins and dikes are present in all localities, and were promoted by deformation of the Sudbury structure in the Penokean orogeny as indicated by dominant strike directions. Whereas veins and dikes reflect brittle conditions during melt migration, sheared melt pods in the Sudbury breccia matrix indicate ductile conditions during their crystallization. Our results suggest a close genetic association of partial melting, melt segregation, and hydrothermal processes responsible for remobilization of Cu–Ni–PGE sulphides into and within the SIC footwall.

The oldest igneous rocks on Maio are pillow lavas of Mid-Ocean Ridge pillow basalts character which have been tilted and uplifted about 4 km from the ocean floor to outcrop as a partial ring, dipping steeply away from a central plutonic complex made up of pyroxenites, essexites, syenites and carbonatites. The ocean floor volcanic rocks are overlain conformably by a stratigraphically continuous pelagic carbonate succession which demonstrates a shallowing depositional environment from the Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous times, when tuffaceous beds indicate renewed volcanism. The tuffs are associated with rudites demonstrating the emergence of the island and amongst the clasts are plutonics indicating Upper Cretaceous magmatism and the unroofing of the volcano to a substantial depth. Deformation under compressive stress resulted in the folding and local repetition by thrusting of this sedimentary cover, which, together with the plutonic core, had been intensively injected by major sills. The Mesozoic succession has been planed off and overlain with marked unconformity by a largely Neogene sequence of volcanic and terrestrial sedimentary rocks. There is a hiatus throughout the Palaeogene, and constructional activity appears to recommence with ankaramitic hyaloclastite and lava deltas and subaerial ankaramitic flows. These are overlain by fluvial sediments and tuffs. Stratigraphically above these is an extensive plateau of silica-undersaturated lavas, olivine-melilitites and nephelinites, which rest on a planed and locally lateritized surface. At topographically higher levels in the eastern part of the island there are thick ankaramitic lavas and pyroclasts which evidently flowed eastward through valleys cut down into the Mesozoic strata, and appear to be of Pliocene age. The subsequent history of the island appears to be non-volcanic.

A past giant lateral collapse and present-day flank instability of Fogo, Cape Verde Islands

Flowering time in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana is regulated by both external environmental signals and internal developmental pathways. Natural variation at the FLOWERING H (FLH) locus has previously been described, with alleles present in the Cape Verde Islands accession causing early flowering, particularly after vernalization. The mechanism of FLH-induced early flowering is not understood. Here, the integration of FLH activity into the known flowering time pathways is described using molecular and genetic approaches. The identification of molecular markers that co-segregated with the FLH locus allowed the generation of multiple combinations of FLH alleles with mutations in flowering time genes in different flowering pathways. Combining an early flowering FLH allele with mutations in vernalization pathway genes that regulate FLC expression revealed that FLH appears to act in parallel to FLC. Surprisingly, the early flowering allele of FLH requires the floral integrator FD, but not FT, to accelerate flowering. This suggests a model in which some alleles of FLH are able to affect the FD-dependent activity of the floral activator complex.

During 31 August 2015, Hurricane Fred traversed through the Cape Verde islands, passing near Boa Vista and possibly making landfall over São Nicolau during the evening hours. Hurricane Fred was a category 1 storm with maximum winds of 75 kt and a sea level pressure of 986 hPa during 31 August. The African easterly wave associated with Tropical Cyclone (TC) Fred emerged from Guinea on 29 August and was named Tropical Storm Fred on 30 August. Prior to impacting Cape Verde, the storm caused the sinking of a ship and the loss of seven lives off the coast of Guinea-Bissau and damage along coastal zones of Senegal. In Cape Verde, there was no loss of life but there was damage on 7 of the 10 islands. Station data show tropical-storm-force winds in Boa Vista and Sal and hurricane-force winds in São Nicolau. Heavy precipitation with amounts in excess of 200 mm occurred on the islands of Santiago, São Nicolau, and Santo Antão. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model and Global Forecast System (GFS) were used as primary guidance several days prior to the formation of TC Fred. Challenges for protecting populations from tropical cyclones can be addressed through annual hurricane awareness and preparedness programs in several languages. This is also an adaptation strategy related to anthropogenic climate change as warming tropical oceans may increase the risk of damage and threaten populations. Radar and buoy observations are needed now, and the movement of vulnerable populations and other adaptation strategies will need to be implemented in the coming decades.

One of the outstanding problems of petrogenesis at the present time is that offered by the remarkable association of sharply contrasted acid and basic rocks (e.g. granite-gabbro; granophyredolerite; pitchstone-tholeiite; and rhyolite-basalt) in igneous complexes such as those of the British Tertiary Province and those of the great lopoliths of Duluth and Sudbury in North America and the Bushveld in South Africa. The contrast was first recognized in the lavas of Iceland by Bunsen (1) and it led him to the conception that two fundamental magmas, respectively acid and basic, were concerned in the genesis of the igneous rocks of Iceland and similar provinces elsewhere. Bunsen's view, however, has had little influence in the development of petrological philosophy. The petrologists of the Geological Survey in this country, and Bowen and others in North America, have assembled a very weighty and reasonable mass of field and laboratory evidence supporting the hypothesis that the acid rocks are residual products arising from the crystallization-differentiation of basaltic magmas. In the recently published Ardnamurchan Memoir (2), for example, it is claimed that as a result of the early extraction from the Plateau Magma of olivine, pyroxenes, basic plagioclase, and iron ores, the residual magma would reach a composition “which would find expression as quartz-doleritic rocks with an acid mesostasis capable of mechanical separation and a separate existence as acid lavas or intrusions” (p. 95). Bunsen's two magmas are thus regarded as successive products from a single parent stock.

An animal moving through complex terrain must consider sensory cues around it and alter its movements accordingly. In the arthropod brain, the central complex (CC) receives highly preprocessed sensory information and sends outputs to premotor regions, suggesting that it may play a role in the central control of oriented locomotion. We performed tetrode recordings within the CC in cockroaches walking on an air-suspended ball to examine the role of the CC in turning behaviors. When a rod was placed near the cockroach's head, the cockroach touched the rod repeatedly with one or both antennae before locomotion was initiated. Some CC units responded to self-generated antennal contact with the object, but at lower levels compared with externally imposed antennal stimulation. The neural activity of other CC units responded to locomotion. We found that some CC units showed discrete firing fields corresponding to specific locomotion states. We also found that changes in firing rate of some CC units preceded changes in turning speed in one direction but not the other. Furthermore, such biased units were located in the side of the brain ipsilateral to the direction of the turning speed they could predict. Moreover, electrical stimulation of the CC elicited or modified locomotion, and the direction of some evoked locomotion could be predicted by the response property of locomotion-predictive units near the stimulation site. Therefore, our results suggest that, at the population level, asymmetrical activity in the CC precedes and influences turning behavior.

The Northern Marginal Zone of the Rum Central Igneous Complex in NW Scotland represents part of the early, felsic phase of the volcano. The marginal zone is a relic of the early caldera floor and the infilling of sedimentary and igneous rocks. Its formation has been explored through field examination of the ring fracture system of the Complex and its pyroclastic and epiclastic intracaldera facies. A sequence of magmatic tumescence and chamber growth caused initial doming, followed by the formation of a collapse structure without accompanying volcanism. This collapse structure, circular in plan, is akin in origin to a salt basin formed by crustal stretching above a rising diapir. We call this the proto-caldera. Collapse breccias, which represent the slumping and sliding of megablocks, blocks and boulders of the Torridonian sandstones which form the walls of the basin, were the original infilling. Logs of these deposits reveal considerable variation in thickness of the breccias (from 80–170 m) in the Complex, indicating an uneven floor to the proto-caldera, consistent with piecemeal collapse. Following accumulation of up to >70 m thickness of breccia, thin interbedded rhyodacitic crystal tuffs (10–30 cm) record the earliest eruptions of felsic magma in the caldera. Caldera formation was then interrupted by a period of quiescence, recorded by the presence of an epiclastic sandstone of locally several metres thickness, formed by washout of fines from the breccias. Subsequent resurgence created a fracture pattern characteristic of doming, along which rhyodacite magma rose in dykes and erupted up to perhaps 10 km3 of rhyodacitic intracaldera ignimbrites. This major eruption caused further incremental subsidence of the caldera floor into a now partly emptied magma chamber. Mafic inclusions in the ignimbrites point to the eruption being triggered by multiple injections of basic magma into a chamber occupied by felsic magma.

Petrogenesis of the early Cretaceous Valle Chico igneous complex (SE Uruguay): Relationships with Paraná–Etendeka magmatism

The Cape Verde Islands are emerged portions of a Mesozoic-Cenozoic volcanic accretion in the form of a westward-opening horseshoe along fracture zones converging from the mid-Atlantic ridge toward Africa. An interior abyssal plain slopes westward, increasing in depth from 2.7 to 4.5 km. The plain is underlain by low relief on acoustic basement that is associated with a 300-gamma negative magnetic anomaly. The flanks of the Sal-Maio ridge appear bounded by large-displacement normal faults; superficial slumping is common. The trends of magnetic anomalies are linear N-S north of the islands and less linear within the islands and may change coincident with E-W bathymetric trends south of the islands. A triangular pattern of reversed refraction lines 200–250 km long along the north and east ridges and NW-SE across the interior abyssal plain indicated 2–3 km of semiconsolidated sediments underlain by 3–6 km of basalt and 6–8 km of plutonic rocks. The depth of the Moho is between 16 and 17 km. A deep NW-SE trending fault intersects the Sal-Maio ridge near Boa Vista. The consistent depth to Moho and the regional Bouguer anomaly indicate lack of local relief at the base of the crust. The crustal load of the entire archipelago is regionally adjusted.

Neural Activity in the Central Complex of the Insect Brain Is Linked to Locomotor Changes

North-East Atlantic Islands: The Macaronesian Archipelagos