Draut Amy E.

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Draut
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Amy E.
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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Article
    Origin and significance of the Delaney Dome Formation, Connemara, Ireland
    (Geological Society of London, 2002) Draut, Amy E. ; Clift, Peter D.
    Dalradian meta-sediments of the Laurentian margin and mafic intrusions thereof in SW Connemara, Ireland, tectonically overlie meta-rhyolites of the Delaney Dome Formation. The two units are separated by the Mannin Thrust. A new U–Pb age of 474.6 ± 5.5 Ma shows that the Delaney Dome Formation is a temporal equivalent of arc volcanic rocks preserved in the adjacent South Mayo Trough: the Tourmakeady Volcanic Group, erupted during the collision of an oceanic island arc with the Laurentian margin in the Grampian Orogeny. New rare earth and high field strength element data show that the Delaney Dome Formation and Tourmakeady Volcanic Group are chemically similar and arc-like in character. This suggests that the Delaney Dome Formation is an along-strike equivalent of the Tourmakeady Group, strike-slip faulted south of the South Mayo Trough during or after the Grampian Orogeny. Further correlation of these units with northern Appalachian rhyolites is also possible. The Delaney Dome Formation is an extrusive temporal equivalent of intrusions that penetrate the Connemara Dalradian. Thus, movement along the Mannin Thrust brought mid-crustal plutons and Dalradian country rocks tectonically above the extrusive volcanic sequence. The Mannin Thrust is identified as a major imbricating structure within a continental arc, but not a terrane boundary.
  • Thesis
    Fine-grained sedimentation on the Chenier Plain Coast and inner continental shelf, northern Gulf of Mexico
    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2003-06) Draut, Amy E.
    This thesis examines the evolution of a mud-dominated coastal sedimentary system on multiple time scales. Fine-grained systems exhibit different properties and behavior from sandy coasts, and have received relatively little research attention to date. Evidence is presented for shoreline accretion under energetic conditions associated with storms and winter cold fronts. The identification of energetic events as agents of coastal accretion stands in contrast to the traditional assumption that low-energy conditions are required for deposition of fine-grained sediment. Mudflat accretion is proposed to depend upon the presence of an unconsolidated mud sea floor immediately offshore, proximity to a fluvial sediment source, onshore winds, which generate waves that resuspend sediment and advect it shoreward, and a low tidal range. This study constrains the present influence of the Atchafalaya River on stratigraphic evolution of the inner continental shelf in western Louisiana. Sedimentary and acoustic data are used to identify the western limit of the distal Atchafalaya prodelta and to estimate the proportion of Atchafalaya River sediment that accumulates on the inner shelf seaward of Louisiana's chenier plain coast. The results demonstrate a link between sedimentary facies distribution on the inner shelf and patterns of accretion and shoreline retreat on the chenier plain coast.
  • Article
    Laurentian crustal recycling in the Ordovician Grampian Orogeny : Nd isotopic evidence from western Ireland
    (Cambridge University Press, 2004-04-21) Draut, Amy E. ; Clift, Peter D. ; Chew, David M. ; Cooper, Matthew J. ; Taylor, Rex N. ; Hannigan, Robyn E.
    Because magmatism associated with subduction is thought to be the principal source for continental crust generation, assessing the relative contribution of pre-existing (subducted and assimilated) continental material to arc magmatism in accreted arcs is important to understanding the origin of continental crust. We present a detailed Nd isotopic stratigraphy for volcanic and volcaniclastic formations from the South Mayo Trough, an accreted oceanic arc exposed in the western Irish Caledonides. These units span an arc–continent collision event, the Grampian (Taconic) Orogeny, in which an intra-oceanic island arc was accreted onto the passive continental margin of Laurentia starting at [similar] 475 Ma (Arenig). The stratigraphy corresponding to pre-, syn- and post-collisional volcanism reveals a progression of [varepsilon]Nd(t) from strongly positive values, consistent with melt derivation almost exclusively from oceanic mantle beneath the arc, to strongly negative values, indicating incorporation of continental material into the melt. Using [varepsilon]Nd(t) values of meta-sediments that represent the Laurentian passive margin and accretionary prism, we are able to quantify the relative proportions of continent-derived melt at various stages of arc formation and accretion. Mass balance calculations show that mantle-derived magmatism contributes substantially to melt production during all stages of arc–continent collision, never accounting for less than 21% of the total. This implies that a significant addition of new, rather than recycled, continental crust can accompany arc–continent collision and continental arc magmatism.
  • Article
    Sedimentation processes in a coral reef embayment : Hanalei Bay, Kauai
    (Elsevier B.V., 2009-06-08) Storlazzi, Curt D. ; Field, Michael E. ; Bothner, Michael H. ; Presto, M. K. ; Draut, Amy E.
    Oceanographic measurements and sediment samples were collected during the summer of 2006 as part of a multi-year study of coastal circulation and the fate of terrigenous sediment on coral reefs in Hanalei Bay, Kauai. The goal of this study was to better understand sediment dynamics in a coral reef-lined embayment where winds, ocean surface waves, and river floods are important processes. During a summer period that was marked by two wave events and one river flood, we documented significant differences in sediment trap collection rates and the composition, grain size, and magnitude of sediment transported in the bay. Sediment trap collection rates were well correlated with combined wave-current near-bed shear stresses during the non-flood periods but were not correlated during the flood. The flood's delivery of fine-grained sediment to the bay initially caused high turbidity and sediment collection rates off the river mouth but the plume dispersed relatively quickly. Over the next month, the flood deposit was reworked by mild waves and currents and the fine-grained terrestrial sediment was advected around the bay and collected in sediment traps away from the river mouth, long after the turbid surface plume was gone. The reworked flood deposits, due to their longer duration of influence and proximity to the seabed, appear to pose a greater long-term impact to benthic coral reef communities than the flood plumes themselves. The results presented here display how spatial and temporal differences in hydrodynamic processes, which result from variations in reef morphology and orientation, cause substantial variations in the deposition, residence time, resuspension, and advection of both reef-derived and fluvial sediment over relatively short spatial scales in a coral reef embayment.
  • Preprint
    Detrital U–Pb zircon dating of lower Ordovician syn-arc-continent collision conglomerates in the Irish Caledonides
    ( 2008-04-15) Clift, Peter D. ; Carter, Andrew ; Draut, Amy E. ; Long, Hoang Van ; Chew, David M. ; Schouten, Hans A.
    The Early Ordovician Grampian Orogeny in the British Isles represents a classic example of collision between an oceanic island arc and a passive continental margin, starting around 480 Ma. The South Mayo Trough in western Ireland preserves a complete and well-dated sedimentary record of arc collision. We sampled sandstones and conglomerates from the Rosroe, Maumtrasna and Derryveeny Formations in order to assess erosion rates and patterns during and after arc collision. U-Pb dating of zircons reveals a provenance dominated by erosion from the upper levels of the Dalradian Supergroup (Southern Highland and Argyll Groups), with up to 20% influx from the colliding arc into the Rosroe Formation, but only 6% in the Maumtrasna Formation (~465 Ma). The 24 dominant source regions lay to the northeast (e.g. in the vicinity of the Ox Mountains, 50 km distant, along strike). The older portions of the North Mayo Dalradian and its depositional basement (the Annagh Gneiss Complex) do not appear to have been important sources, while the Connemara Dalradian only plays a part after 460 Ma, when it supplies the Derryveeny Formation. By this time all erosion from the arc had effectively ceased and exhumation rates had slowed greatly. The Irish Grampian Orogeny parallels the modern Taiwan collision in showing little role for the colliding arc in the production of sediment. Negligible volumes of arc crust are lost because of erosion during accretion to the continental margin.
  • Preprint
    Arc–continent collision and the formation of continental crust : a new geochemical and isotopic record from the Ordovician Tyrone Igneous Complex, Ireland
    ( 2008-06-23) Draut, Amy E. ; Clift, Peter D. ; Amato, Jeffrey M. ; Blusztajn, Jerzy S. ; Schouten, Hans A.
    Collisions between oceanic island-arc terranes and passive continental margins are thought to have been important in the formation of continental crust throughout much of Earth’s history. Magmatic evolution during this stage of the plate-tectonic cycle is evident in several areas of the Ordovician Grampian-Taconic Orogen, as we demonstrate in the first detailed geochemical study of the Tyrone Igneous Complex, Ireland. New U–Pb zircon dating yields ages of 493 ± 2 Ma from a primitive mafic intrusion, indicating intra-oceanic subduction in Tremadoc time, and 475 ± 10 Ma from a light-rare-earth-element (LREE)-enriched tonalite intrusion that incorporated Laurentian continental material by early Arenig time (Early Ordovician, Stage 2) during arc-continent collision. Notably, LREE enrichment in volcanism and silicic intrusions of the Tyrone Igneous Complex exceeds that of average Dalradian (Laurentian) continental material which would have been thrust under the colliding forearc and potentially recycled into arc magmatism. This implies that crystal fractionation, in addition to magmatic mixing and assimilation, was important to the formation of new crust in the Grampian-Taconic Orogeny. Because similar super-enrichment of orogenic melts occurred elsewhere in the Caledonides in the British Isles and Newfoundland, the addition of new, highly enriched melt to this accreted arc terrane was apparently widespread spatially and temporally. Such super-enrichment of magmatism, especially if accompanied by loss of corresponding lower crustal residues, supports the theory that arc-continent collision plays an important role in altering bulk crustal composition toward typical values for ancient continental crust.