SPP 1375:  SAMPLE: South Atlantic Margin Processes and Links with Onshore Evolution

• Subject Area: Geosciences
• Term: from 2008 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 61089689

Passive continental margins are long-term and large-scale geoarchives of first-order Earth processes related to mantle dynamics, the breakup of continents, lithosphere dynamics, the creation of sedimentary basins, changes in ocean currents and their effect on climate. Passive margins are also of paramount economic importance in terms of hydrocarbon resources.
Volcanic rifted margins also constitute a principle class of Earth's Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs).
The creation of new ocean basins through rifting and continental separation strongly modifies ocean circulation patterns with global implications on biodiversity and on climate. Sedimentary basins are formed both on- and offshore and the evolution of these basins in 4-D is a complex function of uplift, erosion, sedimentation and diagenesis processes, which in turn may be subject to external influences like mantle flow and global climate.
Fluids in basins are of great importance as they are the main agents of heat and mass transfer.
This applies not only to aqueous systems and associated ore-forming processes, but also to the entire carbon cycle, of which 99 percent by mass occurs in the solid Earth, within which oil and gas resources are formed. The scientific-technical and societal importance of passive margins is witnessed by the large number of national and international programmes dedicated to their understanding.
The South Atlantic and its conjugate rifted margins is a key site to study the whole spectrum of phenomena related to continental breakup and passive margin formation. It is an ideal natural laboratory on which to focus research. The Priority Programme will establish a coordinated research programme on passive margin processes by the German geoscience community. While focussed on the South Atlantic research within the Priority Programme will be process-oriented and the programme will maintain a global perspective through comparative studies and exchange with other key regions, most notably the Central and North Atlantic.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: France, Japan, Namibia, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Uruguay, USA

Projects

• Assessing the time-space distribution of magmatism during the opening and further evolution of the South Atlantic margins: Integrating the volumes, production rates and composition of mantle-derived magmas with dynamic models of mantle convection and surface response (Applicant Trumbull, Robert )
• Combining global and lithospheric-scale thermomechanical models of continental break-up in South Atlantic (Applicant Sobolev, Ph.D., Stephan V. )
• Comparative analysis of the Late Cretaceous to Recent post-breakup basin evolution of the South-American and S-African margin of the southern Atlantic (Applicant Kukla, Ph.D., Peter )
• Consequences of variable degrees of crustal contamination on the phase petrology an halogen budget of plume-related Northern Etendeka effusives and dikes, NW Namibia (Applicant Markl, Gregor )
• Constrained modelling of electromagnetic and potential field data to investigate the Walvis Ridge magmatism and its interaction with the Kaoko Mobile Belt, Namibia. (Applicants Ritter, Oliver ;  Weckmann, Ute )
• Crustal structure and subsidence history of the conjugate South Atlantic passive continental margins (Applicant Schreckenberger, Bernd )
• Crustal structure of the southern Argentine passive margin and implication for plume influence during breakup. (Applicant Franke, Dieter )
• Deformation and syn-rift magmatism at the South Atlantic passive continental margin, Walvis Ridge area. A marine wide angle seismic and magnetotelluric experiment. (Applicant Behrmann, Jan-Hinrich )
• Determination of current geoid trends related to deep Earth processes in the South Atlantic region (Applicants Bunge, Ph.D., Hans-Peter ;  Pail, Roland )
• Electromagnetic, gravimetric and seismic measurements to investigate the Tristan da Cunha hot spot and its role in the opening of the South Atlantic (Applicants Geissler, Wolfram ;  Jegen-Kulcsar, Marion ;  Jokat, Wilfried )
• Exploring plate tectonic force balances and plate boundary forces in the South Atlantic from plate motion histories and coupled global and regional geodynamic models (Applicant Bunge, Ph.D., Hans-Peter )
• Finite-frequency tomography and waveform modeling of the South Atlantic mantle (Applicant Sigloch, Karin )
• Geodynamic models of the relation of subduction under South America and plumes and Large Igneous Provinces in the South Atlantic, with constraints by seismology (Applicant Steinberger, Bernhard )
• Integrated basin analysis of the Brazilian Atlantic continental margin, sequence stratigraphy and numerical basin modeling (Applicant Zühlke, Rainer )
• Late Cretaceous to Recent post-breakup evolution of the African S-Atlantic margin: integrating onshore field studies; sequence development, offshore seismic data, numerical dating and modelling (Applicant Stollhofen, Harald )
• Lithospheric structure of the Namibian continental passive margin at the intersection with the Walvis Ridge from amphibious seismic investigations (LISP-WAL) (Applicants Bauer, Klaus ;  Haberland, Christian ;  Ryberg, Trond )
• Long-term evolution of the Argentine continental margin: implications for hydrocarbon generation, migration, leakage and climate feedback (Applicant di Primio, Rolando )
• Mapping the upper mantle structure beneath the South Atlantic and the adjacent continents using full waveform tomography with geodynamic interpretations of hotspot flux and material transport in the asthenosphere. (Applicant Bunge, Ph.D., Hans-Peter )
• Mineralogical and Dynamic Origin of the South African Superplume (Applicants Bunge, Ph.D., Hans-Peter ;  Steinle-Neumann, Gerd )
• On/offshore deep electrical conductivity structure to investigate the Walvis Ridge magmatism and its interaction with the Kaoko Mobile Belt in northern Namibia. (ELCONA) (Applicants Jegen-Kulcsar, Marion ;  Ritter, Oliver )
• Program management and scientific networking (Applicant Bunge, Ph.D., Hans-Peter )
• Rates, causes, and dynamic of long-term landscape evolution of the South Atlantic passive continental margin, Brazil and Namibia, as revealed by thermo-kinematic numerical modeling (Applicant Glasmacher, Ulrich A. )
• Reconstruction of atmosphere-ocean circulation patterns for geological time slices by self-consistent coupled model simulations (Applicants Matthes, Katja ;  Thomas, Maik )
• Reconstruction of palaeo-currents via the investigation of sediment drifts (Applicant Uenzelmann-Neben, Gabriele )
• Seismic heterogeneities beneath the Atlantic and Africa - thermal or chemical? (Applicant Thomas, Christine )
• Spliting continental lithosphere during rifting in the South Atlantic with emphasis on the role of magmatism. (Applicant Nagel, Thorsten )
• Structural-kinematic history of crustal-scale lineaments along the South Atlantic continental margins (Applicants Frimmel, Hartwig E. ;  Will, Ph.D., Thomas Michael )
• Structures and mechanisms of dyke emplacement at a volcanic rifted margin - AMS, microfabric analyses and geochronology of mafic dyke swarms from NW Namibia (Applicants Greiling, Reinhard ;  Trumbull, Robert )
• Subsidence evolution at the conjugate Argentine and South African passive margins of the South Atlantic. SUBSIDE (Applicant Scheck-Wenderoth, Magdalena )
• Tectonic evolution of the South Atlantic passive continental margin based on onshore structural data (Applicant Passchier, Ph.D., Cornelis )
• The influence of tectonic, climate and ocean circulation on sediment transport and deposition in the western South Atlantic during the past 60 mill years (Applicant Uenzelmann-Neben, Gabriele )
• The role of mantle plumes in the formation of Large Igneous Provinces: con-straints from noble gases (Applicant Stroncik, Nicole )
• Thermal history, exhumation, uplift, and long-term landscape evolution of the South Atlantic passive continental margin in south-eastern Argentina and comparison with SW-South Africa (Applicant Glasmacher, Ulrich A. )
• Thermal history, exhumation, uplift, and long-term landscape evolution of the western south Atlantic passive continental margin, Brazil and Namibia-Angola (Applicants Förster, Andrea ;  Glasmacher, Ulrich A. )
• WALVIS I: Ar/Ar Geochronology and Geochemistry of existing samples from the Walvis Track and Rio Grande Rise (Applicant Hoernle, Kaj )
• Walvis Ridge Passive-Source Seismic Experiment - Seismic structures and seismotectonics in the passive continental margin of NW Namibia (Applicants Scherbaum, Frank ;  Yuan, Xiaohui )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Bunge, Ph.D.