IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-35459-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Seismic evidence for uniform crustal accretion along slow-spreading ridges in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean

Author

Listed:
  • Zhikai Wang

    (Université Paris Cité, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS)

  • Satish C. Singh

    (Université Paris Cité, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS)

Abstract

The crustal accretion along mid-ocean ridges is known to be spreading-rate dependent. Along fast-spreading ridges, two-dimensional sheet-like mantle upwelling creates relatively uniform crust. In contrast, the crust formed along slow-spreading ridges shows large along-axis thickness variations with thicker crust at segment centres, which is hypothesised to be due a three-dimensional plume-like mantle upwelling or due to focused melt migration to segment centres. Using wide-angle seismic data acquired from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, here we show that the crustal thickness is nearly uniform (~5.5 km) across five crustal segments for crust formed at the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge with age varying from 8 to 70 Ma. The crustal velocities indicate that this crust is predominantly of magmatic origin. We suggest that this uniform magmatic crustal accretion is due to a two-dimensional sheet-like mantle upwelling facilitated by the long-offset transform faults in the equatorial Atlantic region and the presence of a high concentration of volatiles in the primitive melt in the mantle.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhikai Wang & Satish C. Singh, 2022. "Seismic evidence for uniform crustal accretion along slow-spreading ridges in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35459-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35459-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35459-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-35459-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ingo Grevemeyer & Lars H. Rüpke & Jason P. Morgan & Karthik Iyer & Colin W. Devey, 2021. "Extensional tectonics and two-stage crustal accretion at oceanic transform faults," Nature, Nature, vol. 591(7850), pages 402-407, March.
    2. J. R. Cann & D. K. Blackman & D. K. Smith & E. McAllister & B. Janssen & S. Mello & E. Avgerinos & A. R. Pascoe & J. Escartin, 1997. "Corrugated slip surfaces formed at ridge–transform intersections on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge," Nature, Nature, vol. 385(6614), pages 329-332, January.
    3. Henry J. B. Dick & Jian Lin & Hans Schouten, 2003. "An ultraslow-spreading class of ocean ridge," Nature, Nature, vol. 426(6965), pages 405-412, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. H. H. Stubseid & A. Bjerga & H. Haflidason & L. E. R. Pedersen & R. B. Pedersen, 2023. "Volcanic evolution of an ultraslow-spreading ridge," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Jie Chen & Wayne C. Crawford & Mathilde Cannat, 2023. "Microseismicity and lithosphere thickness at a nearly-amagmatic oceanic detachment fault system," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. John M. O’Connor & Wilfried Jokat & Peter J. Michael & Mechita C. Schmidt-Aursch & Daniel P. Miggins & Anthony A. P. Koppers, 2021. "Thermochemical anomalies in the upper mantle control Gakkel Ridge accretion," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Xiaochuan Tian & Mark D. Behn & Garrett Ito & Jana C. Schierjott & Boris J. P. Kaus & Anton A. Popov, 2024. "Magmatism controls global oceanic transform fault topography," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Christopher R. German & Eoghan P. Reeves & Andreas Türke & Alexander Diehl & Elmar Albers & Wolfgang Bach & Autun Purser & Sofia P. Ramalho & Stefano Suman & Christian Mertens & Maren Walter & Eva Ram, 2022. "Volcanically hosted venting with indications of ultramafic influence at Aurora hydrothermal field on Gakkel Ridge," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Konstantinos Leptokaropoulos & Catherine A. Rychert & Nicholas Harmon & David Schlaphorst & Ingo Grevemeyer & John-Michael Kendall & Satish C. Singh, 2023. "Broad fault zones enable deep fluid transport and limit earthquake magnitudes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Qing Xiong & Hong-Kun Dai & Jian-Ping Zheng & William L. Griffin & Hong-Da Zheng & Li Wang & Suzanne Y. O’ Reilly, 2022. "Vertical depletion of ophiolitic mantle reflects melt focusing and interaction in sub-spreading-center asthenosphere," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35459-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.