Magma Dynamics with the Enthalpy Method: Benchmark Solutions and Magmatic Focusing at Mid-ocean Ridges

Magma Flow at Mid-Ocean Ridges

Liquid water is not stable under current martian surface conditions, but the presence of small gullies on the polewardfacing slopes of midto highlatitude martian surfaces suggests that erosion by liquid water might have occurred. Costard et al. (p. 110) developed a global climate model for Mars when it had a higher obliquity (about 300,000 years ago). Their model shows that more melting of the ...

Tectonic, Magmatic, Hydrothermal and Biological Segmentation of Mid-Ocean Ridges

The Case for Reactive Crystallization at Mid-Ocean Ridges

Evidence from abyssal peridotites suggests that significant chemical reaction with peridotite can occur during the early stages of cooling and crystallization of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) magmas. We evaluate the hypothesis that reactive crystallization (crystallization influenced by such melt^rock reaction) could cause magma compositions to evolve along a different chemical trajectory than ...

A Self-Consistent Model of Melting, Magma Migration and Buoyancy-Driven Circulation Beneath Mid-Ocean Ridges

Numerical modeling and anMysis are used to investigate the processes leading to the eruption of mantle-derived magma at mid-ocean ridges. Our model includes the following effects: melting due to decompression, magma migration by percolation, and circulation of the mantle driven by both the oceanic plates and the distribution of buoyancy beneath the ridge. The distribution of buoyancy is due to ...

The Structure of Mid-Ocean Ridges

Mid-ocean ridges provide an important window into the processes of mantle convection and magmatism. The formation, cooling, and eventual subduction of oceanic lithosphere dominate both the large-scale dynamics of the upper mantle and the Earth’s global heat loss. The melt generated during pressure-release melting of the upwelling mantle beneath mid-ocean ridges contributes most of the annual ma...