Sea level Variability and Juan de Fuca Bathymetry

That deglaciation influences mid-ocean ridge volcanism is well established for Iceland, where depressurization associated with melting a ~2 km ice cap led to order of magnitude increases in volcanism during the last deglaciation. The case was also made that the more subtle ~100 m changes in sea level that accompany glacial cycles have identifiable implications for undersea mid-ocean ridge systems using both models and data from the Australian-Antarctic Ridge (Crowley et al., 2015). Sea level rising at ~1 cm/year during deglaciation leads to an expectation of ~10% decreases in melt production at ridges, given mantle upwelling rates of ∼3 cm/yr at intermediate spreading ridges and mantle density being ~3 times that of seawater. The implications of variations in melt production for bathymetry, however, involve numerous considerations, including whether melt signals are cancelled within the melt column, appreciably alter accretionary or fault processes, and have identifiable surface expressions. Further empirical assessment of bathymetry is thus useful for purposes of confirming patterns and constraining processes. Here we report on spectral analyses of bathymetry recently acquired from the Juan de Fuca ridge between 44°30'N and 45°15'N during the SeaVOICE expedition. Multibeam swath sonar data were acquired with an EM122 sonar insonfiying seafloor to crustal ages of ∼2 ma with 35 m spatial resolution. We examine (1.) the statistical significance of concentrations of bathymetric variability at the 100 ky, 41 ky, and 23 ky periods characteristic of late-Pleistocene sea level variability; (2.) whether sea level responses are primarily at 41 ky periods in crust accreted during the early Pleistocene, when global sea level variations were primarily at this period; and (3.) if sea level responses are superimposed on bathymetry variations or, instead, align with fault features. We also note that Juan de Fuca's proximity to the Cordilleran Ice Sheet implies that regional sea level variations could be distinct from global changes.