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SUMMARY The Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 13°N is regarded as a type locality for oceanic core complexes (OCCs), as it contains, within ∼70 km along the spreading axis, four that are at different stages of their life cycle. The wealth of existing seabed observations and sampling makes this an ideal target to resolve contradictions between the existing models of OCC development. Here we describe the results of P-wave seismic tomographic modelling within a 60 × 60 km footprint, containing several OCCs, the ridge axis and both flanks, which determines OCC crustal structure, detachment geometry and OCC interconnectivity along axis. A grid of wide-angle seismic refraction data was acquired along a series of 17 transects within which a network of 46 ocean-bottom seismographs was deployed. Approximately 130 000 first arrival traveltimes, together with sparse Moho reflections, have been modelled, constraining the crust and uppermost mantle to a depth of ∼10 km below sea level. Depth slices through this 3-D model reveal several independent structures each with a higher P-wave velocity (Vp) than its surrounds. At the seafloor, these features correspond to the OCCs adjacent to the axial valley walls at 13°20′N and 13°30′N, and off axis at 13°25′N. These high-Vp features display dipping trends into the deeper crust, consistent with the surface expression of each OCC's detachment, implying that rocks of the mid-to-lower crust and uppermost mantle within the footwall are juxtaposed against lower Vp material in the hangingwall. The neovolcanic zone of the ridge axis has systematically lower Vp than the surrounding crust at all depths, and is wider between OCCs. On average, throughout the 13°N region, the crust is ∼6 km-thick. However, beneath a deep lava-floored basin between axial OCCs the crust is thinner and is more characteristically oceanic in layering and velocity–depth structure. Thicker crust at the ridge axis suggests a more magmatic phase of current crustal formation, while modelling of the sparse Moho reflections suggests the crust–mantle boundary is a transition zone throughout most of the 13°N segment. Our results support a model in which OCCs are bounded by independent detachment faults whose dip increases with depth and is variable with azimuth around each OCC, suggesting a geometry and mechanism of faulting that is more complicated than previously thought. The steepness of the northern flank of the 13°20′N detachment suggests that it represents a transfer zone between different faulting regimes to the south and north. We propose that individual detachments may not be linked along-axis, and that OCCs act as transfer zones linking areas of normal spreading and detachment faulting. Along ridge variation in magma supply influences the nature of this detachment faulting. Consequently, not only does magma supply control how detachments rotate and migrate off axis before finally becoming inactive, but also how, when and where new OCCs are created.

At slow-spreading ridges, plate separation is commonly partly accommodated by slip on long-lived detachment faults, exposing upper mantle and lower crustal rocks on the seafloor. However, the mechanics of this process, the subsurface structure, and the interaction of these faults remain largely unknown. We report the results of a network of 56 ocean-bottom seismographs (OBSs), deployed in 2016 at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 13°N, that provided dense spatial coverage of two adjacent detachment faults and the intervening ridge axis. Although both detachments exhibited high levels of seismicity, they are separated by an ∼8-km-wide aseismic zone, indicating that they are mechanically decoupled. A linear band of seismic activity, possibly indicating magmatism, crosscuts the 13°30′N domed detachment surface, confirming previous evidence for fault abandonment. Farther south, where the 2016 OBS network spatially overlapped with a similar survey done in 2014, significant changes in the patterns of seismicity between these surveys are observed. These changes suggest that oceanic detachments undergo previously unobserved cycles of stress accumulation and release as plate spreading is accommodated.

Microtextural and chemical evidence from gabbros indicates that melts may react with the crystal framework as they migrate through crystal mushes beneath mid-ocean ridges; however, the importance of this process for the compositional evolution of minerals and melts remains a matter of debate. Here we provide new insights into the extent by which melt-rock reaction process can occur in oceanic gabbros by conducting a detailed study of cryptic reactive melt migration as preserved in an apparently unremarkable, homogeneous olivine gabbro from deep within a section of the plutonic footwall of the Atlantis Bank core complex on the Southwest Indian Ridge (International ocean discovery program Hole U1473A). High-resolution chemical maps reveal that mineral zoning increases toward and becomes extreme within a cm-wide band that is characterized by elevated incompatible trace element concentrations and generates extreme more/less incompatible element ratios. We demonstrate that neither crystallization of trapped melt nor diffusion can account for these observations. Instead, taking the novel approach of correcting mineral-melt partition coefficients for both temperature and composition, we show that these chemical variations can be generated by intergranular reactive porous flow of a melt as it migrated through the mush framework, and whose composition evolved by melt-rock reaction as it progressively localized into a cm-scale reactive channel. We propose that the case reported here may represent, in microcosm, a preserved snapshot of a generic mechanism by which melt can percolate through primitive mafic (olivine gabbro) crystal mushes, and be modified toward more evolved compositions via near-pervasive reactive transport.

SUMMARY A region of oceanic core complexes (OCCs) exists at 13°N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that is regarded as a type site. This site includes two OCCs at 13°20′N and 13°30′N, thought to be in the active and dying stages of evolution, and two together called the Ashadze Complex (centred at 13°05′N) that are considered to be relict. Here we describe the results of S-wave seismic modelling along an ∼200-km-long 2-D transect traversing, south-to-north, through both the Mercurius and Marathon fracture zones, the southern outside corner of the 13°N segment, the OCCs, the ridge axis deviation in trend centred at 13°35′N, and the youngest oceanic crust of the eastern ridge flank to the north. Our inversion model, and the corresponding Vp/Vs ratio, show that the majority of the crust beneath the 13°30′N OCC comprises metamorphosed lithologies that have been exhumed to the shallowest subseabed level, while basaltic lithologies underlie the 13°20′N OCC. The transition between these contrasting crustal structures occurs over a distance of 1.9 (and equivalent Poisson's ratio of >0.3) indicates exhumed and/or metamorphosed lithologies beneath the bathymetric depression between them and within the crust beneath the southern OCC. Between the northern and southern flanks of the Marathon fracture zone and northern flank of Mercurius fracture zone, the lower crust has a relatively low Vp/Vs ratio suggesting that the deformation associated with Marathon fracture zone, which facilitates fluid ingress, extends laterally within the lower crust. Marathon fracture zone itself is underlain by a broad zone of low S-wave velocity (∼2.0 km s−1) up to ∼20 km wide from the seabed to at least the mid-crust, that is mirrored in a high Vp/Vs ratio and lower density, particularly deeper than ∼1 km below seabed within its bathymetric footprint. Volcanic domains are highlighted by a low Vp/Vs ratio of

The mechanical interaction of propagating normal faults is known to influence the linkage geometry of first-order faults, and the development of second-order faults and fractures, which transfer displacement within relay zones. Here we use natural examples of growth faults from two active volcanic rift zones (Koa`e, island of Hawai`i, and Krafla, northern Iceland) to illustrate the importance of horizontal-plane extension (heave) gradients, and associated vertical axis rotations, in evolving continental rift systems. Second-order extension and extensional-shear faults within the relay zones variably resolve components of regional extension, and components of extension and/or shortening parallel to the rift zone, to accommodate the inherently three-dimensional (3-D) strains associated with relay zone development and rotation. Such a configuration involves volume increase, which is accommodated at the surface by open fractures; in the subsurface this may be accommodated by veins or dikes oriented obliquely and normal to the rift axis. To consider the scalability of the effects of relay zone rotations, we compare the geometry and kinematics of fault and fracture sets in the Koa`e and Krafla rift zones with data from exhumed contemporaneous fault and dike systems developed within a > 5×104 km2 relay system that developed during formation of the NE Atlantic margins. Based on the findings presented here we propose a new conceptual model for the evolution of segmented continental rift basins on the NE Atlantic margins.

Microbathymetry data, in situ observations, and sampling along the 13°20′N and 13°20′N oceanic core complexes (OCCs) reveal mechanisms of detachment fault denudation at the seafloor, links between tectonic extension and mass wasting, and expose the nature of corrugations, ubiquitous at OCCs. In the initial stages of detachment faulting and high-angle fault, scarps show extensive mass wasting that reduces their slope. Flexural rotation further lowers scarp slope, hinders mass wasting, resulting in morphologically complex chaotic terrain between the breakaway and the denuded corrugated surface. Extension and drag along the fault plane uplifts a wedge of hangingwall material (apron). The detachment surface emerges along a continuous moat that sheds rocks and covers it with unconsolidated rubble, while local slumping emplaces rubble ridges overlying corrugations. The detachment fault zone is a set of anostomosed slip planes, elongated in the along-extension direction. Slip planes bind fault rock bodies defining the corrugations observed in microbathymetry and sonar. Fault planes with extension-parallel stria are exposed along corrugation flanks, where the rubble cover is shed. Detachment fault rocks are primarily basalt fault breccia at 13°20′N OCC, and gabbro and peridotite at 13°30′N, demonstrating that brittle strain localization in shallow lithosphere form corrugations, regardless of lithologies in the detachment zone. Finally, faulting and volcanism dismember the 13°30′N OCC, with widespread present and past hydrothermal activity (Semenov fields), while the Irinovskoe hydrothermal field at the 13°20′N core complex suggests a magmatic source within the footwall. These results confirm the ubiquitous relationship between hydrothermal activity and oceanic detachment formation and evolution.

This paper presents the first detailed geologic map of in situ lower ocean crust; the product of six surveys of Atlantis Bank on the SW Indian Ridge. This combined with major and trace element compositions of primary magmatic phases in 99 seafloor gabbros shows there are both significant vertical and ridge-parallel variations in crustal composition and thickness, but a continuity of the basic stratigraphy parallel to spreading. This stratigraphy is not that of magmatic sedimentation in a large crustal magma chamber. Instead, it is the product of dynamic accretion where the lower crust formed by episodic intrusion, large-scale upward migration of interstitial melt due to crystal mush compaction, and continuous tectonic extension accompanied by hyper- and sub-solidus, crystal-plastic deformation.Five crossings of the gabbro-peridotite contact along the transform wall show that massive mantle peridotite is intruded by cumulate residues of moderately to highly evolved magmas, few of which could be even close to equilibrium with a primary mantle magma. This contact then does not represent the crust-mantle boundary as envisaged in the ophiolite analog for ocean crust. The residues of the magmas parental to the shallow crust must also lie beneath the center of the complex. This, and the nearly complete absence of dunites in peridotites from the transform wall, shows that melt transport through the shallow lithosphere was largely restricted to the central region of the paleo-ridge segment.There is almost no evidence for a melt lens or high-level storage of primitive melt in the upper 1500 m of Atlantis Bank. Thus, the composition of associated mid-ocean ridge basalt appears largely controlled by fractional crystallization of primitive cumulates at depth, near or at the base of the crust, modified somewhat by melt-rock reaction during transport through the overlying cumulate pile to the seafloor.Inliers of the dike-gabbro transition show that the uppermost gabbros crystallized at depth and were then emplaced upward, as they cooled, into the zone of diking. ODP and IODP drilling along the center of the gabbro massif also found few primitive gabbros that could have been in equilibrium with the original overlying lavas. Evidence of large-scale upward, permeable transport of interstitial melt through the gabbros is ubiquitous. Thus, post-cumulus processes, including extensive reaction, dissolution, and re-precipitation within the cumulate pile have obscured nearly all evidence of earlier primitive origins. We suggest that many of the gabbros may have started as primitive cumulates but were hybridized and transformed by later, migrating melts to evolved compositions, even as they ascended to higher levels, while new primitive cumulates were emplaced near the base of the crust. Mass balance for a likely parental melt intruded from the mantle to form the crust, however, requires that such primitive cumulates must exist at depth beneath Atlantis Bank at the center of the magmatic complex.The Atlantis Bank Gabbro Massif accreted by direct magma intrusion into the lower crust, followed by upward diapiric flow, first as a crystal mush, then by solid-state, crystal-plastic deformation, and finally by detachment faulting to the sea floor. The strongly asymmetric spreading to the south, parallel to the transform, was due to fault capture, with the bounding faults on the northern rift valley wall cut off by the detachment fault, which extended across the zone of intrusion causing rapid migration of the plate boundary to the north.

Crystal mush is rapidly emerging as a new paradigm for the evolution of igneous systems. Mid-ocean ridges provide a unique opportunity to study mush processes: geophysical data indicate that, even at the most magmatically robust fast-spreading ridges, the magma plumbing system typically comprises crystal mush. In this paper, we describe some of the consequences of crystal mush for the evolution of the mid-ocean ridge magmatic system. One of these is that melt migration by porous flow plays an important role, in addition to rapid, channelized flow. Facilitated by both buoyancy and (deformation-enhanced) compaction, porous flow leads to reactions between the mush and migrating melts. Reactions between melt and the surrounding crystal framework are also likely to occur upon emplacement of primitive melts into the mush. Furthermore, replenishment facilitates mixing between the replenishing melt and interstitial melts of the mush. Hence, crystal mushes facilitate reaction and mixing, which leads to significant homogenization, and which may account for the geochemical systematics of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB). A second consequence is cryptic fractionation. At mid-ocean ridges, a plagioclase framework may already have formed when clinopyroxene saturates. As a result, clinopyroxene phenocrysts are rare, despite the fact that the vast majority of MORB records clinopyroxene fractionation. Hence, melts extracted from crystal mush may show a cryptic fractionation signature. Another consequence of a mush-dominated plumbing system is that channelized flow of melts through the crystal mush leads to the occurrence of vertical magmatic fabrics in oceanic gabbros, as well as the entrainment of diverse populations of phenocrysts. Overall, we conclude that the occurrence of crystal mush has a number of fundamental implications for the behaviour and evolution of magmatic systems, and that mid-ocean ridges can serve as a useful template for trans-crustal mush columns elsewhere. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Magma reservoir architecture and dynamics'.

We describe detailed magnetic and bathymetric studies around 13 degrees N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a site of extensive detachment faulting. Inversion of closely spaced sea surface magnetic anomalies reveals a disorganized pattern of magnetization, with anomalies younger than anomaly 2 being poorly delineated. The Brunhes anomaly width is highly variable but averages similar to 60% of that predicted for the regional spreading rate. It is often split, both along and across axis, by apparently reversely magnetized crust. Gaps in the Brunhes anomaly match gaps in the neovolcanic zone inferred from acoustic backscatter. A strong negative magnetization is associated with the oceanic core complex (OCC) at 13 degrees 2'N (OCC1320) and is inferred to arise from exhumed old, reversely magnetized lithosphere. The inferred position of the magmatic axis implies similar to 30% asymmetry of crustal accretion post-anomaly-2. Higher spatial resolution magnetic anomalies near the seafloor, measured by autonomous underwater vehicle, are qualitatively similar to earlier deep-towed data but differ somewhat from the sea surface magnetics. We interpret this mismatch as reflecting the differing sensitivities of the two observing geometries and the existence of a highly heterogeneous topography and magnetization. This suggests that a strongly three-dimensional structure exists, more compatible with a geodynamic model where neighboring OCCs are not connected but evolve independently. A modeled near-seafloor profile through OCC1320 shows low positive magnetization below the smooth dome. A second profile, running E-W between two OCCs, shows high magnetization coinciding with a large seamount, reflecting recent off-axis volcanism. Measured microbathymetry reveals extensive small volcanic cones on this seamount and confirms previous interpretations of OCC morphology.

© 2018 Geochemical Perspectives Letters.All right reserved. The scale and magnitude of compositional heterogeneity in the mantle has important implications for the understanding of the evolution of Earth. Heterogeneity of the upper mantle is often evaluated based on mid-ocean ridge basalt compositions, despite their homogenisation prior to eruption. In this study we present Nd and Sr isotope data obtained by micro-drilling single plagioclase and clinopyroxene crystals in gabbroic cumulates of the Semail Ophiolite (Oman) and show that mantle source variability is better preserved in the lower crust than in the extrusive suite. Analysis of sub-nanogram quantities of Nd in plagioclase revealed a range in 143Nd/144Ndi in the Wadi Abyad crustal section that is three times greater than recorded in the extrusive suite. The isotopic variability is preserved in plagioclase, whereas clinopyroxene is isotopically homogeneous. These data imply that the mantle is heterogeneous on the scale of melt extraction, and that a significant proportion of homogenisation of erupted melts occurs in the oceanic crust, not the mantle.

Conceptual models for the evolution of dilatant faults in volcanic rift settings involve a step-wise growth pattern, involving upward propagation of subsurface faults, surface monocline formation, which are breached by subvertical, open faults. Immature, discontinuous normal faults are considered representative of the early stages of mature, linked faults that accommodate extensional strains. We consider the evolution of surface-breaching normal faults using a comparison of the distribution and geometry of normal faults from two volcanic rift zones: the Koaʻe fault system, Hawaiʻi, and the Krafla fissure swarm, NE Iceland. Field mapping highlights similarities to current predicted geometries, but also prominent differences that are not reconciled by current models. Variable deformation styles record magma supply changes within the rift zones, which drive local strain rate gradients. Building on existing studies, we present a conceptual model of fault growth that accounts for spatial and temporal changes in strain rate within the deforming regions. We propose that faults in separate rift systems may not advance through the same stages of evolution and that faults within individual rift systems can show differing growth patterns. Variations in surface strains may be indicative of subsurface magmatic system changes, with important implications for our understanding of volcano-tectonic coupling.

The mechanical interaction of propagating normal faults is known to influence the linkage geometry of first-order faults, and the development of second-order faults and fractures, which transfer displacement within relay zones. Natural examples of growth faults from two active volcanic rift zones (Koa’e, Big Island, Hawaii and Krafla, northern Iceland) illustrate the importance of relay zone heave gradients and associated vertical axis rotations in evolving continental rift systems. Detailed field mapping of deformation within two relay zones, located at the tips of en echelon rift faults, reveals pronounced heave displacement deficits that are accommodated by: (1) extensional-shear faults that strike at a low angle ( 45°) and accommodate a significant component of rift zone-parallel extension. Such extension parallel to the rift axis may oppose any shear-induced shortening that is typically required for vertical axis rotations (e.g. bookshelf faulting models). At the surface, this volume increase is accommodated by open fractures, but may be accommodated in the subsurface by veins or dikes oriented oblique- and normal to the rift axis. This proposal is consistent with data from exhumed contemporaneous fault and dike systems seen on the Faroe Islands and in Kangerlussuaq (East Greenland). Based on the findings presented here we propose a new conceptual model for the evolution of segmented continental rift basins on the NE Atlantic margins.

The Oman–UAE ophiolite is the largest piece of oceanic crust exposed on land, yet debate continues about its origin. It has been variously considered as an ideal analogue for a fast-spreading mid-ocean ridge and as a typical suprasubduction zone ophiolite. A resolution to this conundrum comes from the recognition of at least two different phases of magmatism, with the second phase being most voluminous in the northern blocks of the ophiolite. The first phase was formed at an oceanic spreading centre; petrological and geochemical evidence clearly shows that the second phase was formed above a subduction zone.

The Oman ophiolite has an axial volcanic suite and associated sheeted dike complex similar in composition to modern mid-oceanic ridge basalt (MORB). Its internal structure is regarded by many as being directly comparable to ocean lithosphere from the East Pacific Rise. However, there has long been controversy over the geodynamic setting in which the ophiolite formed, and the extent to which the analogy can be drawn, because the MORB-like axial volcanics are overlain by lavas that include depleted arc tholeiites and boninites. To some, this implies that the entire ophiolite formed above a subduction zone; others maintain that it formed at a true open-ocean MOR, and that the water required to generate the arc-like magmas derived from descending near-axis hydrothermal fluids or from ancient subduction. A popular compromise posits that the axial suite formed at a true MOR and the later magmatism documents the initiation of obduction. We test these models by reexamining the “MORB-like” character of the early axial lavas and dikes. We show that fractionation trends require the presence of water at concentrations significantly higher than any open-ocean MORB; instead, trends are identical to those of backarc basin and intraoceanic forearc volcanics. By showing that the entire ophiolite formed in a hydrous system, we rule out all models in which the Oman ophiolite was generated at an open-ocean MOR; instead, it formed at a submarine spreading center above a (probably newly initiated) subduction zone.

International audience; Mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) is the most abundant magma on Earth, and provides a geochemical window into the mantle. Deriving mantle composition and melting processes from the erupted lavas requires correction to be made for their evolution as they pass through and generate the oceanic crust. This is typically done by assuming that modification of melts in crustal magma chambers occurs exclusively by fractional crystallisation. However, extensive mineral major- and trace element data from a full section of fast-spread lower crustal rocks exposed in Hess Deep (equatorial Pacific Ocean) demonstrate that their evolution is instead controlled by reactive porous flow. These reactions lead to a strong enrichment in, and fractionation of, incompatible trace elements in the melt (as recorded by clinopyroxene compositions), leading to melt compositions far outside of the compositional realm of MORB both in terms of trace element abundances and ratios. The reactive signature increases in strength up section, peaking in varitextured gabbros interpreted to represent the fossilised axial melt lens, indicating that reactive porous flow occurred on the scale of the entire lower crust. The enrichment of the melt is coupled with a strong trace element depletion of plagioclase, olivine, and, to a lesser extent, clinopyroxene cores, suggesting that these phases represent the residues of the reactions from which trace elements have been removed. The dominant role of reactive porous flow, and the resulting deviations from fractional crystallisation predictions, suggest that the lower oceanic crust plays a much more complex and significant role in modifying the compositions of MORB than previously expected, with consequent implications for models of mantle processes.

The Oman ophiolite provides a natural laboratory for understanding oceanic lithospheric processes. Previous paleomagnetic and structural investigations have been used to support a model involving rotation of the ophiolite during formation at a mid-oceanic microplate. However, recent geochemical evidence indicates the ophiolite instead formed in a nascent forearc environment, opening the potential for alternative rotation mechanisms. Central to the conundrum is the contrast between ESE to SE magnetizations and NNW magnetizations from the northern and southern ophiolitic massifs respectively, attributed previously to either differential tectonic rotations during spreading or complete emplacement-related remagnetization of the southern massifs. Here we report new paleomagnetic data from lower crustal rocks of the southern massifs that resolve this problem. Sampling of a continuous section in Wadi Abyad reveals ENE magnetizations in the dike rooting zone at the top of the lower crust that change systematically downwards to NNW directions in underlying foliated and layered gabbros. This is only consistent with remagnetization from the base upwards, replacing early remanences in layered and foliated gabbros completely but preserving original ENE magnetizations at higher levels. Comparison with new data from Wadi Khafifah provides a positive fold test that shows this event occurred before late Campanian structural disruption of the regional orientation of the petrologic Moho. These data show that the entire ophiolite experienced large intraoceanic clockwise rotation prior to partial remagnetization, leading to a new tectonic model in which formation, rotation and emplacement of the ophiolite are all linked to Late Cretaceous motion of Arabia and roll-back of the Oman subduction zone.

International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 360 was the first leg of Phase I of the SloMo (shorthand for "The nature of the lower crust and Moho at slower spreading ridges") Project, a multiphase drilling program that proposes to drill through the outermost of the global seismic velocity discontinuities, the Mohorovicic seismic discontinuity (Moho). The Moho corresponds to a compressional wave velocity increase, typically at ∼7 km beneath the oceans, and has generally been regarded as the boundary between crust and mantle. An alternative model, that the Moho is a hydration front in the mantle, has recently gained credence upon the discovery of abundant partially serpentinized peridotite on the seafloor and on the walls of fracture zones, such as at Atlantis Bank, an 11-13 My old elevated oceanic core complex massif adjacent to the Atlantis II Transform on the Southwest Indian Ridge. Hole U1473A was drilled on the summit of Atlantis Bank during IODP Expedition 360, 1-2 km away from two previous Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) holes: Hole 735B (drilled during ODP Leg 118 in 1987 and ODP Leg 176 in 1997) and Hole 1105A (drilled during ODP Leg 179 in 1998). A mantle peridotite/gabbro contact has been traced by dredging and diving along the transform wall for 40 km. The contact is located at ∼4200 m depth at the drill sites but shoals considerably 20 km to the south, where it was observed in outcrop at 2563 m depth. Moho reflections have, however, been found at ∼5-6 km beneath Atlantis Bank and

The formation of oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges is a fundamental component of plate tectonics. A large fraction of the new crust is created when magmas in the lower crust cool to form gabbroic rocks. The duration of magmatism during formation of the new gabbroic crust is expected to vary with plate-spreading rate and has been constrained by dating gabbroic rocks at the slow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge and Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Here we present high-precision U–Pb dating of zircon minerals from gabbroic rocks formed at the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise and exposed at Hess Deep. We find that the zircons formed between 1.420 and 1.271 (±0.006–0.081) million years ago. Within individual samples, the zircon minerals exhibit a range in formation dates of up to 0.124 Myr, consistent with either protracted crystallization from a magma or assimilation into the magma of older zircons from adjacent rocks. The variability of zircon dates is comparable to that measured at the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge. We conclude that the timescales of magmatic processes in the lower crust may be similar at slow- and fast-spreading ridges, implying that the duration of crust formation at mid-ocean ridges is not only controlled by spreading rate., National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-0727914)

Oceanic core complexes are the uplifted footwalls of very-large-offset low-angle normal faults that exhume lower crust and mantle rocks onto the seafloor at slow-spreading ridges. Although it is suggested on the basis of numerical modelling that they form during periods of relatively reduced magma supply, little is known about how they initiate and become inactive, nor why only certain normal fault systems develop into core complexes. In this paper we present results from a near-bottom sidescan sonar/bathymetric profiler survey and sampling study of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 13°N that identify the critical controls on oceanic core complex development and evolution. We show that core complex detachment faults initiate as high-angle (65° ± 10°) normal faults no different from surrounding valley-wall faults and, like them, rapidly flatten to dips of ∼ 30° in response to flexural unloading; however, on certain structures slip continues rather than being relayed inward onto a new normal fault. Runaway displacement appears to be triggered primarily by local waning of magma supply below a critical threshold, then aided by strain localisation resulting from seawater penetration and talc formation along the fault zones. Spreading becomes markedly asymmetric when the core complexes are active, and volcanism is suppressed or absent. When the asymmetry is such that the detachments accommodate more than half the total plate separation the active faults migrate across the axial valley. As a consequence magma is emplaced into and captured by the footwall of the detachment fault rather than being injected into the hanging wall, explaining the frequent presence of gabbro bodies and other melt relicts at oceanic core complexes. Core complexes are ultimately terminated when sufficient magma is emplaced to overwhelm the detachment fault; in the 13°N area by neovolcanic ridges propagating laterally across them from magmatically robust segments along strike.

Oceanic core complexes expose lower crustal and upper mantle rocks on the seafloor by tectonic unroofing in the footwalls of large-slip detachment faults. The common occurrence of these structures in slow and ultra-slow spread oceanic crust suggests that they accommodate a significant component of plate divergence. However, the subsurface geometry of detachment faults in oceanic core complexes remains unclear. Competing models involve either: (a) displacement on planar, low-angle faults with little tectonic rotation; or (b) progressive shallowing by rotation of initially steeply dipping faults as a result of flexural unloading (the “rolling-hinge” model). We address this debate using palaeomagnetic remanences as markers for tectonic rotation within a unique 1.4 km long footwall section of gabbroic rocks recovered by Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) sampling at Atlantis Massif oceanic core complex on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). These rocks contain a complex record of multipolarity magnetizations that are unrelated to alteration and igneous stratigraphy in the sampled section and are inferred to result from progressive cooling of the footwall section over geomagnetic polarity chrons C1r.2r, C1r.1n (Jaramillo) and C1r.1r. For the first time we have independently reoriented drill-core samples of lower crustal gabbros, that were initially azimuthally unconstrained, to a true geographic reference frame by correlating structures in individual core pieces with those identified from oriented imagery of the borehole wall. This allows reorientation of the palaeomagnetic data, placing far more rigorous constraints on the tectonic history than those possible using only palaeomagnetic inclination data. Analysis of the reoriented high temperature reversed component of magnetization indicates a 46° ± 6° anticlockwise rotation of the footwall around a MAR-parallel horizontal axis trending 011° ± 6°. Reoriented lower temperature components of normal and reversed polarity suggest that much of this rotation occurred after the end of the Jaramillo chron (0.99 Ma). The data provide unequivocal confirmation of the key prediction of flexural, rolling-hinge models for oceanic core complexes, whereby oceanic detachment faults initiate at higher dips and rotate to their present day low-angle geometries as displacement increases.

We describe the first three-dimensional imaging of the termination of a continent-ocean fracture zone (COFZ), the Chain Fracture Zone, located offshore of the Niger Delta. The COFZ marks the abrupt transition between extended continental crust, comprising multiple half-graben, and oceanic crust that has a pervasive seafloor-spreading fabric. It preserves a history of continent-continent shearing followed by oceanic crust accretion and continent-ocean shearing during the inception of Atlantic rifting. The termination is marked by steeply dipping faults with sigmoidal planform and thrusts that probably formed as a result of continent-continent or continent-ocean shearing. These are crosscut by the seafloor-spreading fabric that formed during the subsequent phase of oceanic crust accretion. The accreted oceanic crust is cut by listric and planar faults that curve in the direction of the COFZ, where they terminate. The transition from continental to oceanic crust across the COFZ is sharp and resolvable to ∼100–200 m. Complexes of lava flows emanate from volcanoes along the COFZ, bifurcating and trifurcating down the volcano flanks. The volcanoes are 2–5.5 km wide and 1.4 km in height relative to adjacent oceanic crust and were injected at the COFZ, probably as the spreading center migrated along it.

Little is known about temporal variations in melt generation and extraction at midocean ridges largely due to the paucity of sampling along flow lines. Here we present new whole-rock major and trace element data, and mineral and glass major element data, for 71 basaltic samples (lavas and dykes) and 23 peridotites from the same ridge segment (the Atlantis Bank segment of the Southwest Indian Ridge). These samples span an age range of almost 14 My and, in combination with the large amount of published data from this area, allow temporal variations in melting processes to be investigated. Basalts show systematic changes in incompatible trace element ratios with the older samples (from ∼8–14 Ma) having more depleted incompatible trace element ratios than the younger ones. There is, however, no corresponding change in peridotite compositions. Peridotites come from the top of the melting column, where the extent of melting is highest, suggesting that the maximum degree of melting did not change over this interval of time. New and published Nd isotopic ratios of basalts, dykes and gabbros from this segment suggest that the average source composition has been approximately constant over this time interval. These data are most readily explained by a model in which the average source composition and temperature have not changed over the last 14 My, but the dynamics of mantle flow (active-to-passive) or melt extraction (less-to-more efficient extraction from the ‘wings’ of the melting column) has changed significantly. This hypothesised change in mantle dynamics occurs at roughly the same time as a change from a period of detachment faulting to ‘normal’ crustal accretion. We speculate that active mantle flow may impart sufficient shear stress on the base of the lithosphere to rotate the regional stress field and promote the formation of low angle normal faults.

The main plutonic complex of the Troodos ophiolite, north of the Arakapas Fault Zone, has been re-examined both from field and geochemical perspectives. Ion microprobe analyses of clinopyroxene crystal cores show that the range of melt compositions added to the lower crust far exceeds that of published lavas in the main Troodos massif. This suggests that the lower crust acted as a filter into which a large range of melt compositions were added and out of which a homogenised (and generally fractionated) derivative was extracted. This crustal-level aggregation homogenised diverse melt fractions from a broad range of degrees of melting. Depleted melts with U-shaped rare earth element (REE) patterns were a significant component of the melts added to the crust, but because of their low incompatible element abundances, mixing with less depleted melts prior to eruption masked their signature in the lavas. The discovery that highly depleted melts constituted a significant component of the melts added to the Troodos crust, but not of the lavas, demonstrates that the spatial distribution of lava-types is not necessarily a good indicator of where different parental melt compositions are generated within the mantle. Compared with normal mid-ocean ridge basalts, the Troodos parental melts were (1) generally depleted in immobile incompatible trace elements, (2) less depleted in light REE (LREE) than would be expected for the concomitant depletion in middle and heavy REE, (3) enriched in Sr with respect to the LREE and (4) more oxidised. Modelling of these characteristics suggests a mantle source that had previously lost a significant melt fraction under relatively reducing conditions. This was followed by remelting under more oxidising conditions in an environment in which Sr and LREE were added to the source consistent with previous models of a supra-subduction zone setting.

Geophysical studies at fast-spreading ridges have identified a magma sill at, or slightly below, the base of the sheeted dyke complex. The role of this sill, the so-called axial magma chamber (AMC), in mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) differentiation and lower crustal accretion at fast-spreading ridges is unclear. Using the Oman ophiolite as an analogue for crust formed at a fast-spreading ridge, we investigate the composition of magmas delivered to the AMC using the compositions and textures of samples from the uppermost plutonics immediately below the sheeted dyke complex. The cores of clinopyroxene crystals are commonly as primitive as those found in deeper parts of the crust. This is true for major (Mg#), compatible trace (Cr) and incompatible trace (REEs) elements. Plagioclase crystal size distributions are ln-linear at all but the smallest crystal sizes suggesting a single crystal population. This indicates that the primitive crystal compositions are not carried to the AMC as xenocrysts formed deeper in the crust. Instead, these data demonstrate that primitive magmas that have previously undergone little or no differentiation can be delivered to the AMC. This supports models in which crystal subsidence from this body plays an important role in the accretion of the lower crust.

International audience; Mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORBs) are the most abundant magmas produced on Earth. They are widely studied to infer mantle compositions and melting processes. However, MORB liquids are also the complex end-product of a variety of intra-crustal processes such as partial or fractional crystallization, melt–rock interaction, and contamination. Deciphering the relative contribution of these different processes is of first-order importance. Contamination at ocean crustal levels is likely, and may occur at magma chamber margins where fresh magmas can interact with previously hydrothermally altered rocks. Characterizing the composition of this crustal contaminant component is critical if we are to understand the relative importance of each component in the resulting MORB liquid.Here we present the results of experiments designed to reproduce the processes occurring at oceanic magma chamber roofs, where crustal contamination should be most extensive, by melting a representative sample of the sheeted dike complex. Anatectic melts thus produced are likely to represent the principal crustal contaminant in MORB. These melts were characterized for major and trace elements, showing B, Zr, Hf, and U enrichment, and Sr, Ti, and V depletion relative to original MORB liquids. In comparison to the starting material, relative element fractionations are observed in the anatectic melts, with enrichments of: U relative to Ba, Nb, and Th; LREE and MREE relative to Sr; and Zr–Hf relative to LREE. Bulk partition coefficients for element partitioning during magma chamber roof anatexis are derived and proposed as valuable tools for tracking MORB contamination.Comparison with natural samples from the East Pacific Rise and the Oman ophiolite shows that anatectic melts can crystallize in situ to form oceanic plagiogranite intrusions, and that residual assemblages associated with the hydrous partial melting stage are represented by hornfelsic dikes and enclaves (also named granoblastic basalts). We now recognize these as commonplace at the root of the sheeted dike complex both at present-day and fossil oceanic spreading centers.

From seismic evidence we know that a small body of magma is present at mid-crustal levels beneath most fast spreading ridges, and that this small sill or melt lens overlies a much broader area of hot but largely solid material (a ‘crystal mush’) that constitutes the lower ocean crust. Beyond this, however, we have little direct knowledge of the physical and chemical processes that operate in and below the melt lens, nor the role the melt lens plays in the storage and aggregation of mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB). We here offer constraints on the processes of melt transport, modification and residence beneath fast spreading ridges from a coupled structural and geochemical study through the crustal section of the Oman ophiolite, concentrating on the uppermost plutonic rocks and transition into sheeted dykes. We find that almost the entire Oman plutonic suite - the layered gabbro, and most of the ‘high-level gabbro’ - is dominated by cumulate rocks containing very low proportions of trapped interstitial melt. The exception to this is the very uppermost part of the section, within ∼150 metres of the base of the sheeted dyke complex, at which level the gabbros instead display a marked heterogeneity of structure, texture and composition, and plutonic rocks of generally basaltic composition occur for the first time. Associated pegmatitic ferrogabbros formed by in situ fractionation of these liquids. This horizon passes up into a more homogeneous microgabbroic facies, also of basaltic composition, within which isolated asymmetric doleritic chilled margins are found, and thence into doleritic sheeted dykes. We argue that the thin heterogeneous gabbro horizon is a fossilised melt lens, containing pooled liquids of net basaltic composition (Mg# of ∼65) expelled from the crystal mush beneath. Existing models have suggested that steep fabrics observed in homogeneous gabbros beneath this horizon formed by subsidence of originally horizontal cumulus layers formed at the base of the melt lens, but this is not supported by the field relationships. Instead we propose that the fabrics record the buoyant ascent of magma through the mush pile (probably in part by porous flow) and reflect crystallisation essentially in situ, without significant vertical transport of the mush. Low residual melt porosities in the sub-melt lens region imply efficient extraction of interstitial liquid and at least episodically high permeabilities in the upper part of the lower crust.

Four new bathymetric maps of the Tonga Trench and forearc between 14 °S and 27 °S display the important morphologic and structural features of this dynamic convergent margin. The maps document a number of important geologic features of the margin. Major normal faults and fault lineaments on the Tonga platform can be traced along and across the upper trench slope. Numerous submarine canyons incised in the landward slope of the trench mark the pathways of sediment transport from the platform to mid- and lower-slope basins. Discontinuities in the trench axis and changes in the morphology of the landward slope can be clearly documented and may be associated with the passage and subduction of the Louisville Ridge and other structures on the subducting Pacific Plate. Changes in the morphology of the forearc as convergence changes from normal in the south to highly-oblique in the north are clearly documented. The bathymetric compilations, gridded at 500- and 200-m resolutions and extending along 500 km of the landward trench slope and axis, provide complete coverage of the outer forearc from the latitude of the Louisville Ridge-Tonga Trench collision to the northern terminus of the Tonga Ridge. These maps should serve as a valuable reference for other sea-going programs in the region, particularly the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and the National Science Foundation MARGINS initiative.

Sedimentation in the Tonga forearc is dominated by the redeposition of volcaniclastic sediment from the arc volcanic front by mass flows and turbidity currents onto the adjacent Tonga Platform, the shallowest, flattest part of the forearc region. The greatest sediment thicknesses accumulate in debris aprons close to the volcanic front. Collision of seamounts, notably the Capricorn Seamount and the Louisville Ridge, with the forearc radically shortens and steepens the adjacent modern trench slope, allowing sediment to be redeposited deep into the trench. Rotation, usually arcward, of existing basins on the midslope during collision generates angular unconformities, while synchronous uplift of the outer forearc high results in canyon development and downcutting along the eastern edge of the Tonga Platform. Collision also reactivated major across-strike fault zones on the forearc; the zones are subsequently exploited by canyons depositing sediment into the trench. Collapse and renewed extension of the forearc in the wake of collision result in the development of small perched basins, measuring approximately 5 km by 15 km in the midslope area. This morphology is especially developed at 18°30′S to 20°S, implying a 2–3 m.y. interval for their formation following Louisville Ridge collision. Trenchward of these depocenters sedimentation is slow, resulting in manganese crust formation and localized mass wasting along fault scarps. Over longer periods of time (>5 m.y.) tectonic erosion reestablishes a wide, gently sloping forearc into which canyons incise the shallow Tonga Platform by headwall erosion and collapse.

The global mid-ocean ridge system, where tectonic plates diverge, is traditionally thought of as the largest single volcanic feature on the Earth. Yet, wide expanses of smooth sea floor in the easternmost part of the Southwest Indian Ridge in the Indian Ocean lacks the hummocky morphology that is typical for submarine volcanism. At other slow-spreading ridges, the sea floor can extend by faulting the existing lithosphere, along only one side of the ridge axis. However, the smooth sea floor in the easternmost Southwest Indian Ridge also lacks the corrugated texture created by such faulting. Instead, the sea floor is smooth on both sides of the ridge axis and is thought to be composed of altered mantle-derived rocks. Here we use side-scan sonar to image the sea floor and dredge samples to analyse the composition of two sections of the Southwest Indian Ridge, between 62 degrees 05'E and 64 degrees 40'E, where the sea floor formed over the past 11 million years. We show that the smooth floor is almost entirely composed of seawater-altered mantle-derived rocks that were brought to the surface by large detachment faults on both sides of the ridge axis. Faulting accommodates almost 100% of plate divergence and the detachment faults have repeatedly flipped polarity. We suggest that this tectonic process could also explain the exhumation of mantle-derived rocks at the magma-poor margins of rifted continents.

Oceanic core complexes at slow-spreading ridges represent the uplifted footwalls of large-offset 'detachment' faults that initiate at steep dips, and rotate to flatten via a 'rolling hinge' mechanism in response to flexural unloading. A key question is whether oceanic core complex development is accommodated entirely by displacement on the detachment fault zone, or if significant internal deformation of the footwall occurs during flexure and rotation. We investigate this by constraining the internal architecture of the Atlantis Massif oceanic core complex (Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 30{degree sign}N) using Formation MicroScanner borehole wall images and cores from the 1416 m-deep Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Hole U1309D. Two distinct sets of structures are observed. N-S-striking, E-dipping structures dominating the upper 385 m are interpreted as a brittle to semi-brittle zone of fracturing in the footwall. Structures with this geometry occur down to 750 m below seafloor, suggesting that the detachment damage zone extends deep into the footwall. The nature of this deformation is, however, enigmatic: several cataclastic shear zones with reverse geometry in their current orientations may be rotated extensional faults or relate to shortening at the base of the flexing beam of a very weak footwall. By contrast, E-W-striking, N- and S-dipping structures dominate the lowermost kilometer of the borehole. They likely represent conjugate fractures formed in the hanging wall of a late, E-W normal fault zone, separating gabbroic rocks of the central dome of Atlantis Massif from serpentinized peridotite to the south, responsible for post-detachment uplift of the southern margin of the massif.

The subsurface geometry of detachment faults at slow spreading mid-ocean ridges is debated: are they planar features that form and slip at low angles, as often inferred for their continental equivalents, or do they initiate at steep angles and then flatten in response to flexural unloading as displacement proceeds, as predicted in “rolling hinge” conceptual models? An essential difference is that significant rotation of the footwall should occur in the rolling hinge but not the planar fault model. This can be tested using paleomagnetism. Previous attempts to address this question have relied upon data from azimuthally unoriented drill cores. Although results are consistent with large rotations having occurred, these interpretations are very nonunique, and other solutions that require minimal rotations are equally permissible. We here present a rigorous analysis of paleomagnetic and structural data from a unique set of azimuthally oriented cores, collected using a seabed rock drill, from the 15°45′N oceanic core complex on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. By considering the full paleomagnetic remanence vector in combination with kinematic data from the detachment fault shear zone we are able to quantitatively constrain the geometrically permissible axes and magnitudes of rotation of the detachment fault footwall, for the first time without having to make a priori assumptions about the orientation of the axis. We show that significant rotations (64° ± 16°) have indeed occurred, about a gently plunging, near-ridge-parallel axis, robustly supporting the rolling hinge models. We further discuss the geological implications of this result for oceanic detachment fault processes.

RECENT palaeomagnetic studies of sheeted dykes adjacent to the east-west trending Southern Troodos transform fault of Cyprus have demonstrated significant clockwise block rotations, which are most easily interpreted as being due to drag induced by dextral strike-slip faulting along the transform1–6. We show here that such rotations have not occurred along the entire length of the transform; instead, to the west of the areas previously studied the sheeted dykes have been subjected to simple tilting only, indicating normal faulting but no strike slip. The changeover between these two domains of differing structural styles, near the village of Mandria, is approximately in line with the centre of the Solea graben, a north–south trending structure within the Troodos massif which has previously been interpreted as a fossil ridge axis7. We suggest that the Mandria area represents a fossilized ridge–transform intersection, and present the results of a detailed field investigation of the area, together with preliminary palaeomagnetic data, to determine the relationship between tectonism and magmatism at such plate boundary zones. We use our findings to test a recent theoretical model8 of deformation processes at ridge-transform intersections, and show that distributed deformation due to block rotation is largely confined to the ridge–transform corner itself.

[1] Deformed rocks sampled from a corrugated detachment fault surface near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (15°45′N) constrain the conditions of deformation and strain localization. Samples recovered in situ record deformation restricted to the cold (shallow) lithosphere (greenschist facies), with no evidence for significant high-temperature deformation either at the fault zone or in the footwall near it. High-temperature deformation (∼720–750°C) is observed only at two sites, and cannot be directly linked to the detachment. Detachment faulting was coeval with dyke intrusions that cross cut it, as demonstrated by the presence of undeformed and highly deformed diabase found in shear zones, and by the presence of chill margins in diabase against fault rock. Basalts are very scarce and restricted to clasts in breccias, with no evidence of pillows or extrusive structures. Gabbros crop out along mass-wasted and fault scarps structurally below the detachment. Footwall rocks show little or no deformation, due to strain localization along a narrow shear zone (

The earliest fracturing of lower-crustal gabbros in the Oman ophiolite and the East Pacific Rise occurred in a distributed, microscopic, semibrittle crack network that formed primarily at grain boundaries. The newly created permeability provided conduits that first delivered fluid to the lower crust and drove fluid + rock reactions. The abundance of metamorphic amphibole and modified magmatic plagioclase so produced ranges from trace quantities to >50 modal percent. The initial crack network differs in many respects from previous models. Amphibole and plagioclase compositions show that temperatures of initial cracking are high, ranging from ∼700 °C near the dike-to-gabbro transition to ∼825 °C near the petrologic Moho. An increase in temperatures of initial cracking with depth implies that strain rate increased with depth or that mineralogic controls on rheology or hydrolytic-weakening behavior varied through the crust. Comparison with thermal models shows that the semibrittle cracking front moves away from the ridge axis as it penetrates downward in the oceanic crust. For example, models involving rapid lower crustal cooling imply that the cracking front penetrates the dike-gabbro transition within ∼1 km of the ridge and reaches the Moho within ∼6 km. We suggest that microcracking occurred episodically because continuous advance of a cracking front over these distances implies velocities that are slow compared to reaction rates. The microscopic fracturing scale and inferred low fluid flux suggest that associated heat flow was conductive. These observations provide new insights into the brittle-plastic transition and fluid-rock interaction in the lower oceanic crust formed at fast-spreading ridges.

High-resolution, deep-towed side-scan sonar data are used to characterize faulting and variations in tectonic strain along a segment of the slow spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 29°N. Sonar data allow us to identify individual fault scarps, to measure fault widths and spacing, and to calculate horizontal fault displacements (heave) and tectonic strain. We find that over long periods of time (>1 Myr on average), tectonic strain is ∼10% on average and does not vary significantly along axis. There is a marked asymmetry in tectonic strain that appears to be linked to asymmetric accretion along the whole segment, indicated by ∼50% lower tectonic strain on the east flank than on the west flank. These variations in tectonic strain do not correlate directly with changes in fault spacing and heave. Fault spacing and heave increase from the center of the segment toward the end (inside corner) on the west flank and from the outside to the inside corner across the axis. These parameters remain relatively constant along the segment on the east flank and across the axis at the segment center. Tectonic strain appears to be decoupled from magmatic accretion at timescales >1 Myr, as the decrease in magma supply from the segment center toward the end (inferred from variations in crustal thickness along the axis) is not correlated with a complementary increase in tectonic strain. Instead, tectonic strain remains relatively constant along the axis at ∼7% on the east flank and at ∼15% on the west flank. These results indicate that variations in fault development and geometry may reflect spatial differences in the rheology of the lithosphere and not changes in tectonic strain or magma supply along axis.

International audience; We present preliminary results of a detailed near-bottom study of the morphology and tectonics of the 298N ''Broken Spur'' segment on the slow spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge, using principally the TOBI deep-towed instrument. The survey covered two-thirds of the segment length, including all of its southern non-transform boundary, and extended off-axis of 40 Ž. km 3.3 Ma on either side. We obtained nearly complete near-bottom sidescan sonar coverage and deep-towed three-component magnetic observations along 2-km-spaced E-W tracks. Sidescan data reveal new details of fault structure and evolution. Faults grow by along-axis linkage. In the inside corner, they also link in the axis-normal direction by curving to Ž. meet the next outer older fault; this leads to wider-spaced faults compared to segment centre or outside corner. Outward facing faults exist but are rare. The non-transform offset is characterised by faults that are highly oblique, not parallel, to the spreading direction, and show cross-cutting relations with ridge-parallel faults to the north, suggesting along-axis migration of the offset. Almost all volcanic activity occurs within 5 km of the axis. Most fault growth is complete within 15 km of the Ž. axis 1.2 Ma , though large scarps continue to be degraded by mass-wasting beyond there. Crustal magnetisation is strongly three-dimensional. The current neovolcanic zone is slightly oblique to earlier reversal boundaries, and its magnetisation rises to a maximum of 30 A m y1 near its southern tip. The central magnetisation high tapers southwards and is asymmetric, with a sharp western but gradual eastern boundary. We infer a highly asymmetric accretion of layer 2 near the segment end. Older magnetic anomalies are kinked and sometimes missing. We interpret these observations as evidence of a rapid, 18 km southward migration of the segment boundary during the past 1.8 Ma, and present a series of reconstructions illustrating this tectonic history.

We present a synthesis of the tectonics of the Hess Deep rift valley, equatorial East Pacific Rise (EPR), as deduced from structural, paleomagnetic, petrological, geochemical, and borehole geophysical data acquired during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 147. These data show that the crustal section and underlying shallow mantle lithologies now exposed in Hess Deep were formed by seafloor spreading at the north-south-trending EPR, were then transported eastward away from the EPR ridge axis, and became influenced by extensional tectonism caused by amagmatic rifting in advance of the westward-propagating Cocos-Nazca spreading center. Seawater influx into layer 3, the plutonic portion of the oceanic crust, commenced soon after crystallization, with pervasive influx of water along randomly oriented microfracture networks and grain boundaries, mostly at temperatures of 600°-750°C. This permeability was probably created by tensile brittle failure upon subsolidus cooling and thermal contraction of the gabbro, and must have been established within several tens of thousands of years after axial magma emplacement and within a few kilometers of the ridge axis. When the upper plutonic section had cooled to a temperature of ~450°C, probably a few tens of kilometers from the EPR axis and tens to a couple of hundred thousand years after axial magmatism, it became influenced by the effects of Cocos-Nazca rifting, and a dense array of east-west tensile fractures developed. Widespread access of seawater to sub-Moho levels and consequent onset of serpentinization occurred at this time. The ODP drill sites are located on an intra-rift horst block in the north of Hess Deep, and previous workers had speculated that serpentinite diapirism was responsible for the differential uplift of this block. However, textural evidence from the drill cores suggests that serpentinization of the shallow mantle there was a predominantly static phenomenon; hence, exhumation of the lower crust and shallow mantle appears to have taken place by block faulting rather than incoherent diapirism. Uplift of the intra-rift ridge was accommodated on normal Cataclastic shear zones, which contain low-temperature mineral assemblages (150°-250°C), implying that uplift occurred at a relatively late stage. Paleomagnetic data from the drillsites, fully restored to geographical coordinates, show that the intra-rift ridge has suffered significant tectonic rotation, with both a northward component of tilt and a counter-clockwise vertical-axis component of rotation. We do not have sufficient evidence to constrain unequivocally the axis or axes of rotation, but argue that compound rotations are likely in such a complex tectonic setting. In conjunction with other geophysical evidence from the Hess Deep area, we tentatively conclude that a counter-clockwise vertical-axis tectonic rotation occurred at a very early stage, perhaps in the overlap basin of the duelling propagators at 2°N on the EPR. At a later stage, and associated with the opening of the Hess Deep rift, northward tilting appears to have occurred (about a subhorizontal axis), as a result of rotational normal faulting above a southdipping detachment surface. Later, post-detachment normal faulting was probably responsible for the isolation and differential uplift of the intra-rift ridge.

Rifting in Hess Deep has exposed complete sections of young oceanic lithosphere generated at the East Pacific Rise. At Ocean Drilling Program Site 894, a 150-m section of gabbroic rocks from the upper part of the plutonic section was drilled. The rocks are not compositionally layered but do have / or l-s fabrics defined by the shape-preferred orientation of idiomorphic plagioclase and other phases, including magnetite. We show here that the fabrics formed as a result of viscous magmatic flow and that, in contrast to previously drilled sections of ocean-floor gabbro, evidence for solid-state deformation is entirely absent. Restoration of the fabrics to geographical coordinates, and accounting for subsequent tectonic rotations, shows that the magmatic foliation was originally parallel to the East Pacific Rise axis, steeply dipping, and with a strong, near-vertical flow lineation. From compositional considerations the Site 894 section is thought to have crystallized at fairly high pseudostratigraphic levels within the plutonic portion of the crust, probably slightly below the level of the axial melt lens. This corresponds to a region of moderate seismic attenuation observed at the present-day East Pacific Rise axis, which is believed to represent a crystal mush zone but is otherwise poorly constrained. We discuss the possible implications of the observed fabrics for the mechanisms of melt transport through the mid-crust at fast-spreading ridges.

Gabbros recovered at Site 894 during Leg 147 provide the first constraints on fracture formation and metamorphism in the root zones of hydrothermal systems at the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise. Metamorphism in the gabbros was related to fracture formation, fracture filling to form veins, and spatially associated fluid-rock reactions. The earliest veins are microscopic amphibole veins responsible for pervasive (10% to >50%) alteration of the gabbros to amphibolite-facies mineral assemblages which record metamorphic temperatures of 600°-750°C. Metamorphism associated with these veins locally occurred to lower temperatures of the greenschist-amphibolite transition. Rare macroscopic amphibole veins everywhere crosscut the microscopic veins. They are filled by mineral assemblages consistent with formation in the amphibolite facies to the greenschistamphibolite transition (450°-600°C). Crosscutting the amphibole veins are chlorite-calc-silicate veins and chlorite-smectite veins. Together, these vein types define prominent, regular sets which are abundant at Site 894. Chlorite-calc-silicate vein assemblage imply formation in the greenschist facies (250°-450°C), whereas the chlorite-smectite vein assemblage probably reflects lower, sub-greenschist facies conditions (

Drilling at Site 895 in the Hess Deep provided 200-m sections of interlayered harzburgites, dunites (containing interstitial clinopyroxene and Plagioclase), and troctolites, similar in lithology and overall stratigraphic organization to Moho transition zones reported in ophiolite complexes such as Oman. Similar lithologies previously collected from the East Pacific Rise have been described as mantle rocks within which "impregnated" melt has become entrapped. Our textural studies of the Site 895 specimens confirm this interpretation, based upon the deformation and annealing of the peridotite framework contrasting with the lack of deformation in the interstitial phases. High dislocation densities in all the different lithologies emphasize the residual character of the olivine crystals. For the first time ever in an in situ section of oceanic mantle peridotites, the orientations of the deformation fabrics in the peridotites, and hence the geometry of mantle flow, have been restored to geographical coordinates (with reference to stable magnetic remanence directions). The oriented fabrics show that mantle shear plane is moderately to steeply dipping and that it strikes parallel to the East Pacific Rise axis. This relationship is particularly consistent in the harzburgites but less so in the massive dunites from Hole 895E, within which the dip of the foliation decreases systematically toward the top of the section and the lineation plunge directions become scattered. We interpret this geometry as representing the fossilized top of a diapir that ascended beneath the EPR and, it would appear, started to overturn in a melt-charged transition zone at the crust/mantle boundary. Although such a flow geometry might normally be expected to be destroyed by continued upwelling and lithospheric expansion, we speculate that the structures observed were frozen in by rapid cooling and uplift of the EPR lithosphere in the Hess Deep rift valley by the propagation of the Cocos-Nazca Spreading Center.

International audience; t is generally assumed that the seawater-derived fluids that feed black smoker vent fields on the seafloor are discharged vertically from depths of ∼1–3 km. We present new oxygen and strontium isotope data that show that fluids at black smoker temperatures of 300–400 °C were focused along a low-angle detachment fault at 15°45′N near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Isotopic alteration is the most extreme ever reported from oceanic rocks altered at similar temperatures, indicating intensely focused fluid flow both in recharge and discharge parts of the hydrothermal system. Rare earth element mobility in the fault rocks demonstrates isotopic alteration by evolved hydrothermal fluids, not conductively heated seawater. The fault zone protolith was predominantly ultramafic, but also included mafic rocks, with metasomatic alteration to talc-tremolite-chlorite schists resulting mainly from chemical exchange between these lithologies during fluid flow. Fluids in equilibrium with this assemblage would be similar to ultramafic-hosted black smoker fluids. We present a new model in which hydrothermal circulation around detachment faults evolves from basalt hosted (TAG type), to footwall ultramafic hosted (Rainbow type), to low-temperature ultramafic hosted (Lost City type). Key features of our model are the intrusion of gabbro bodies immediately below the detachment to provide a heat source for circulation, and focusing of fluid flow into the detachment fault to allow venting away from the neovolcanic axis.

From a detailed survey and sampling study of corrugated massifs north of the Fifteen-Twenty Fracture Zone on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, we demonstrate that their surfaces are low-angle detachment fault planes, as proposed but not previously verified. Spreading-direction–parallel striations on the massifs occur at wavelengths from kilometers to centimeters. Oriented drill-core samples from the striated surfaces are dominated by fault rocks with low-angle shear planes and highly deformed greenschist facies assemblages that include talc, chlorite, tremolite, and serpentine. Deformation was very localized and occurred in the brittle regime; no evidence is seen for ductile deformation of the footwall. Synkinematic emplacement of diabase dikes into the fault zone from an immediately subjacent gabbro pluton implies that the detachment must have been active as a low-angle fault surface at very shallow levels directly beneath the ridge axis. Strain localization occurred in response to the weakening of a range of hydrous secondary minerals at a very early stage and was highly efficient.

It is generally accepted that the 5–10-km-wide zone of wrench faulting preserved in the Arakapas valley and Limassol Forest areas of Cyprus, along the southern margin of the Troodos ophiolite, is part of a fossil oceanic transform fault system. However, despite detailed study of this, the “Southern Troodos transform fault zone,” and neighboring part of the main Troodos massif, no consensus has been reached as to its sense of motion. Some have postulated sinistral slip, some dextral, whereas others have suggested that it slipped both ways and reversed its sense of motion by ridge jumping. To resolve this issue and better determine the spreading history of the Troodos ophiolite we present new field observations from the transform tectonized area, and reexamine existing evidence for the sense of slip of the transform. Although we find evidence for both sinistral and dextral shear along the fault zone while in an oceanic environment, the overwhelming indications are for dextral slip. Genuine sinistral-slip indicators are restricted to a few mylonitic shear zones, of limited extent, which can be related to local geometrical complexities associated with intrusion of gabbroic plutons into the transform zone. There is no need to invoke wholesale reversals of slip along the transform fault, nor, therefore, the radical reorganizations of the Troodos spreading system that have previously been proposed.

We present deep-towed side-scan sonar mosaics of the inner valley floor of eight spreading segments at the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge between 25 ° and 29 °N. An analysis of these images, which well-resolve features a few tens of meters in size, confirms that the multitude of small seamounts, with diameters between 0.5 and 3 km identified on the inner valley floor from previously collected multibeam bathymetry data, are volcanically constructed. Moreover, these images reveal that these volcanoes have distinct surface morphologies not evident in the coarser resolution multibeam bathymetry maps: 83% of the seamounts have a hummocky (bulbous) morphology; the other 17% have a smooth morphology. In addition to near-circular seamounts, small (1–2 km long) volcanic ridges are abundant in our study regions, and are not, in general, seen in the bathymetry maps. We combine these new morphological data with existing models for the construction of the shallow oceanic crust to obtain a better understanding of the melt delivery system that builds the distinctive seafloor topography at the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge.