Quick
Search: 		  
advanced search
 GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help 
  Geological Magazine   Don't get GSW? Talk to your librarian.
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Geological Magazine; May 2006; v. 143; no. 3; p. 257-268; DOI: 10.1017/S0016756806002019
© 2006 Cambridge University Press (CUP)
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (2)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by MÜNN, S.
Right arrow Articles by KLÜGEL, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

Gravitational spreading controls rift zones and flank instability on El Hierro, Canary Islands

SEBASTIAN MÜNN*,*, THOMAS R. WALTER{dagger} and ANDREAS KLÜGEL{ddagger}

* Leibniz Institute of Marine Science, IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany
{dagger} GFZ Potsdam, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
{ddagger} Universität Bremen, FB Geowissenschaften, 28334 Bremen, Germany

* Author for correspondence: smuenn{at}ifm-geomar.de

Ocean island volcanoes frequently develop local rift zones associated with flank movement and flank collapses. The ocean island El Hierro grew by coalescence and collapse of three volcanic edifices, which are an elongated topographic ridge (the Southern Ridge) and two semi-circular volcanic cones (Tiñor volcano, El Golfo volcano). During edifice growth and volcano coalescence, eruption fissures nucleated into rift zones that developed a complex triangle pattern. In scaled analogue experiments we could successfully reproduce the geometry of rift zones and unstable flanks as observed on El Hierro. The experimental results suggest that the rift configuration on El Hierro is the result of gravitational volcano spreading over deformable basal substrata, rather than of deep-seated magma updoming as thought previously. This paper elucidates the importance of the basal substratum and gravitational spreading, and the relationship to rifting and flank instability on El Hierro Island, and may help in understanding similar volcano architectures elsewhere.

Key Words: rift zones • volcano-tectonic structure • gravity tectonics • structural geology • experimental studies






JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by Cambridge University Press (CUP)