fyi
S H!
Some many things that are going to kill us all, but they never get around to it in a timely fashion.
What built Shatsky Rise, a mantle plume or ridge tectonics?
A quick 1 page read....
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The mid-Cretaceous (~125-85 Ma) and early Paleogene (~60-45 Ma) were characterized by some of the most equable climates of the Phanerozoic and are among the best known ancient "greenhouse" climate intervals. In addition, these intervals contain some of the most abrupt and transient climatic changes in the geologic record, including the late Paleocene thermal maximum (LPTM), the mid-Maastrichtian deep-water event (MME), and the early Aptian oceanic anoxic event (OAE1a). These critical transitions involved dramatically modified oceanic circulation patterns, profound changes in geochemical cycling, and abrupt turnover in marine biotas.
The objectives of ODP Leg 198 on Shatsky Rise were to address the origin and consequences of both the abrupt climatic events and the long-term climatic transition into and out of "greenhouse" climate. Shatsky Rise, a medium-sized large igneous province (LIP) in the west-central Pacific (Figure 1), contains sediments of Cretaceous and Paleogene age at relatively shallow burial depths on three prominent highs. As a result, sediments of both ages could be reached readily through drilling, and fossil materials are sufficiently well preserved for stable isotope and trace element analyses and for faunal and floral assemblage studies.
Eight sites were drilled during Leg 198 on a broad depth transect designed to characterize changes in the nature of surface and deep waters through time, including vertical gradients of temperature, oxygenation, and corrosiveness. Six sites were cored on the Southern High, and one each on the Central and Northern Highs (Figure 2).
A summary of the Leg 198 scientific results can be found in the Preliminary Report
Interesting article. Of course we have known for a long time about these sea floor volcanic systems. It is not like it is new news.