Magmatic channelization by reactive and shear-driven instabilities at mid-ocean ridges: a combined analysis

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 ...

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 ...

Magmatic filtering of mantle compositions at mid-ocean-ridge volcanoes

Earth’s dominant form of magmatism occurs at mid-ocean ridges (MORs), producing the igneous crust for two-thirds of the planet’s surface and conveying significant heat and material fluxes from the mantle to the world’s oceans. Mid-ocean-ridge basalt (MORB) magmas form from upwelling compositionally heterogeneous mantle1 by aggregation of near-fractional melts beneath spreading centres2. Multipl...

Dynamical instability produces transform faults at mid-ocean ridges.

Transform faults at mid-ocean ridges--one of the most striking, yet enigmatic features of terrestrial plate tectonics--are considered to be the inherited product of preexisting fault structures. Ridge offsets along these faults therefore should remain constant with time. Here, numerical models suggest that transform faults are actively developing and result from dynamical instability of constru...