Abstract
Abstract. A new International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) project will drill through the 50-year-old edifice of Surtsey Volcano, the youngest of the Vestmannaeyjar Islands along the south coast of Iceland, to perform interdisciplinary time-lapse investigations of hydrothermal and microbial interactions with basaltic tephra. The volcano, created in 1963–1967 by submarine and subaerial basaltic eruptions, was first drilled in 1979. In October 2014, a workshop funded by the ICDP convened 24 scientists from 10 countries for 3 and a half days on Heimaey Island to develop scientific objectives, site the drill holes, and organize logistical support. Representatives of the Surtsey Research Society and Environment Agency of Iceland also participated. Scientific themes focus on further determinations of the structure and eruptive processes of the type locality of Surtseyan volcanism, descriptions of changes in fluid geochemistry and microbial colonization of the subterrestrial deposits since drilling 35 years ago, and monitoring the evolution of hydrothermal and biological processes within the tephra deposits far into the future through the installation of a Surtsey subsurface observatory. The tephra deposits provide a geologic analog for developing specialty concretes with pyroclastic rock and evaluating their long-term performance under diverse hydrothermal conditions. Abstracts of research projects are posted at http://surtsey.icdp-online.org.
Highlights
The very young volcanic island of Surtsey, which formed over a 3.5-year episode of eruptions along the southern offshore extension of the SE Icelandic volcanic rift zone (Figs. 1, 2), represents a world-class example of a rift zone volcano that has grown from the seafloor in historic time
An International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) workshop on Heimaey Island in October 2014 convened 24 scientists from 10 countries and representatives from the Surtsey Research Society, who developed the scientific objectives of the Surtsey Underwater volcanic System for Thermophiles, Alteration processes and INnovative Concretes (SUSTAIN) drilling project (Jackson, 2014)
Investigations of the core and downhole temperature measurements described the petrologic characteristics of the basaltic tephra, partially altered to palagonite tuff, the thermal conditions and nature of hydrothermal alteration, and the authigenic mineral growth of a rare aluminous calcium-silicate-hydrate and zeolite mineral assemblage above and below sea level (Fig. 3b)
Summary
The very young volcanic island of Surtsey, which formed over a 3.5-year episode of eruptions along the southern offshore extension of the SE Icelandic volcanic rift zone (Figs. 1, 2), represents a world-class example of a rift zone volcano that has grown from the seafloor in historic time. In the SUSTAIN drilling project, time-lapse investigations of dynamic secondary mineral assemblages in the altered tephra deposits will yield information from a geological analog for the long-term performance behavior of specialty concretes formulated with pyroclastic rock. The results of these investigations will advance technological developments initiated by ancient Roman en-. A ∼ 300 m long inclined hole with steel casing will intersect tephra deposits, dikes and other vent facies beneath the crater; provide additional information on deep stratigraphy and submarine structure below the 181 m depth of the 1979 hole; and investigate the changing temperatures and the compositions of whole-rock, glass and mineral assemblages of the hydrothermal system. Core segments from the inclined hole will be oriented to ±1◦ of azimuthal accuracy to further evaluate the internal structure, stratigraphy, composition and mineralogy of the volcanic edifice
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