Giant pit craters on the modern seafloor above magma-induced hydrothermal vent complexes of Scotia Sea, offshore Antarctica.

ABSTRACT: Massive injection of ¹³C depleted carbon to the ocean and atmosphere coincided with major environmental upheaval multiple times in the geological record. For several events, the source of carbon has been attributed to explosive venting of gas produced when magmatic sills intruded organic-rich sediment. The concept mostly derives from studies of a few ancient sedimentary basins with numerous hydrothermal vent complexes (HTVCs) where craters appear to have formed across large areas of the seafloor at the same time, but good examples remain rare in strata younger than the Early Eocene. We present geophysical data documenting at least 150 large (km-scale) craters on the modern seafloor across ∼148,000 km² of Scan Basin in the southern Scotia Sea, a remote region offshore

SUBMITTER: Somoza L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11760963 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature