Grain Size Variations Record Segregation of Residual Melts in Slow‐Spreading Oceanic Crust (Atlantis Bank, 57°E Southwest Indian Ridge)

Strain Localization Along the Atlantis Bank Oceanic Detachment Fault System, Southwest Indian Ridge

Jurassic zircons from the Southwest Indian Ridge

The existence of ancient rocks in present mid-ocean ridges have long been observed but received less attention. Here we report the discovery of zircons with both reasonably young ages of about 5 Ma and abnormally old ages of approximate 180 Ma from two evolved gabbroic rocks that were dredged from the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) in the Gallieni fracture zone. U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotope analyses o...

Glacial cycles drive variations in the production of oceanic crust.

Glacial cycles redistribute water between oceans and continents, causing pressure changes in the upper mantle, with consequences for the melting of Earth's interior. Using Plio-Pleistocene sea-level variations as a forcing function, theoretical models of mid-ocean ridge dynamics that include melt transport predict temporal variations in crustal thickness of hundreds of meters. New bathymetry fr...

Crustal magnetization and accretion at the Southwest Indian Ridge near the Atlantis II fracture zone, 0–25 Ma

[1] We analyze geophysical data that extend from 0 to 25-Myr-old seafloor on both flanks of the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). Lineated marine magnetic anomalies are consistent and identifiable within the study area, even over seafloor lacking a basaltic upper crust. The full spreading rate of 14 km/Myr has remained nearly constant since at least 20 Ma, but crustal accretion has been highly asy...

When the Continental Crust Melts

The continental crust is 41.4 km thick on average and covers 39% of the Earth’s surface. Information from the isotopic and trace element composition of >4-billion-yearold (Ga) zircon grains and the evolution of mantle isotopic reservoirs indicates that 75%, and possibly more, of the continental crust was created before 2.5 Ga (Harrison 2009; Belousova et al. 2010). Thus, the continental crust i...