Geophysical clues about oceanic plateau formation from magnetic anomalies and machine learning

University Of Houston, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

The fundamental science problem is understanding the origin of oceanic plateaus. Oceanic plateaus are massive underwater volcanoes resulting from voluminous volcanic eruptions. They represent about 5% of oceanic crust and can easily cover areas as large as Alaska and reach thickness of tens of kilometers. The formation of oceanic plateaus coincides with significant paleoclimate change and mass extinction. Therefore, studying oceanic plateaus is an important scientific pursuit which will advance our understanding of Earth’s dynamic systems and, possibly, past climate changes. However, the formation and internal structures of the oceanic plateaus are poorly understood because they are located kilometers underwater and thousands of kilometers away from land. The project will focus on advancing our understanding of the formation and structure of oceanic plateaus using marine magnetic data, and machine learning. The main hypothesis is that oceanic plateaus formed near spreading ridges and are dominated by linear magnetic anomalies, and therefore, linear volcanism. To test this hypothesis, the team will compare the spatial patterns of marine magnetic anomalies from three selected oceanic plateaus with good magnetic data coverage against those from two mid-ocean ridges, namely, the East Pacific Rise and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Instead of relying on visual inspection of magnetic anomalies, the team will implement three proven machine learning methods to help quantitatively compare the spatial patterns of the magnetic anomalies from the five regions. The project will help to accelerate new discoveries based on magnetic data and will help to retain and attract young talent to the area of magnetics, a proven method in critical mineral and planetary exploration. In addition, the project activities will create educational and training opportunities for students from underrepresented groups and help to develop America’s artificial intelligence workforce. The prevailing view of oceanic plateaus is that they are centralized shield volcanoes formed by massive volcanism onto already existing oceanic crust. However, recent research proposed that Tamu and Ori Massifs formed by linear volcanism, a process similar to seafloor spreading volcanism. This project will provide new evidence to understand whether either of these two theories is valid or whether oceanic plateaus formed in a hybrid manner (i.e., both are true to an extent). In addition to investigating whether magnetic anomalies are linear, the research will give new clues about the geologic structure of oceanic plateaus, which is poorly known. An important aspect of the study is the application of machine learning to the analysis of marine magnetic anomalies over oceanic plateaus, which has not been attempted even though machine learning has achieved great success in many other areas including geoscience. Therefore, the proposed research will also advance our understanding of how machine learning, a new yet rapidly growing interest in the geoscience community, generates new knowledge when combined with marine magnetic data and applied to oceanic plateaus. The research will also help understand the advantages and limitations of the machine learning methods when applied to marine magnetic data. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.