Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ at Duke University on February 9, 2015 Tectonic and magmatic segmentation of the Global Ocean Ridge System: a synthesis of observations SUZANNE M. CARBOTTE1*, DEBORAH K. SMITH2, MATHILDE CANNAT3 & EMILY M. KLEIN4 1Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA 2Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole Massachusetts 02543, USA 3Equipe de Ge´osciences Marines, CNRS-UMR 7154, Institut de Physique du Globe, 1 rue Jussieu, 75238 Paris cedex 05, France 4Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA *Corresponding author (e-mail: [email protected]) Abstract: Mid-ocean ridges display tectonic segmentation defined by discontinuities of the axial zone, and geophysical and geochemical observations suggest segmentation of the underlying mag- matic plumbing system. Here, observations of tectonic and magmatic segmentation at ridges spreading from fast to ultraslow rates are reviewed in light of influential concepts of ridge segmen- tation, including the notion of hierarchical segmentation, spreading cells and centralized v. multiple supply of mantle melts. The observations support the concept of quasi-regularly spaced principal magmatic segments, which are 30–50 km long on average at fast- to slow-spreading ridges and fed by melt accumulations in the shallow asthenosphere. Changes in ridge properties approaching or crossing transform faults are often comparable with those observed at smaller offsets, and even very small discontinuities can be major boundaries in ridge properties. Thus, hierarchical segmen- tation models that suggest large-scale transform fault-bounded segmentation arises from deeper level processes in the asthenosphere than the finer-scale segmentation are not generally supported. The boundaries between some but not all principal magmatic segments defined by ridge axis geo- physical properties coincide with geochemical boundaries reflecting changes in source composition or melting processes. Where geochemical boundaries occur, they can coincide with discontinuities of a wide range of scales. Discovery and interpretations of An important type of non-transform offset mid-ocean ridge (MOR) segmentation: (NTO), first recognized at intermediate-spreading ridges, is called a propagating rift (PR) because, at historical review these discontinuities, one ridge segment, the ‘PR’, Early maps of the global mid-ocean ridge (MOR) advances into older crust adjacent to the ‘dying rift’, system showed that spreading centres are segmen- which retreats (Hey 1977; Hey et al. 1980). PRs ted at scales of up to hundreds of kilometres by leave a distinctive V-shaped wake of magnetic and large-offset transform faults (TFs), some of which bathymetric anomalies on the ridge flanks. Along are inherited from continental breakup. As more the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise (EPR), an detailed maps of the ocean floor became available NTO, similar in many ways to a PR, was later discov- in the 1970s and 1980s, ubiquitous smaller offset ered, called an overlapping spreading centre (OSC), discontinuities were discovered that segment the where two en echelon ridge segments overlap (e.g. ridge axis at shorter intervals (e.g. Hey 1977; Hey Macdonald & Fox 1983; Lonsdale 1983; Macdonald et al. 1980; Schouten & Klitgord 1982; Lonsdale et al. 1984, 1988). Like PRs, OSCs can persist for 1983, 1985; Francheteau & Ballard 1983; Macdo- millions of years and, in most cases, migrate along nald et al. 1984; Schouten et al. 1985; Langmuir the ridge axis, leaving V-shaped wakes of disrupted et al. 1986; Sempe´re´ et al. 1990). These discontinu- seafloor. On an even finer scale, high-resolution ities were found to be distinct from TFs because they mapping of the EPR (e.g. Macdonald et al. 1984) typically lack the narrow zone of spreading-parallel led to the identification of yet smaller, shorter-lived lineaments indicative of localized strike-slip fault- ridge offsets, referred to as ‘devals’ for deviations ing. Together, TFs and these non-transform discon- from axial linearity (Langmuir et al. 1986). tinuities define the tectonic segmentation of the At slow-spreading ridges, ‘zero-offset transform global MOR system. faults (ZOTs)’ were identified from small offsets in From:Wright, T. J., Ayele, A., Ferguson, D. J., Kidane,T.&Vye-Brown, C. (eds) Magmatic Rifting and Active Volcanism. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 420, http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/SP420.5 # 2015 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London. All rights reserved. For permissions: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/permissions. Publishing disclaimer: www.geolsoc.org.uk/pub_ethics Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ at Duke University on February 9, 2015 S. M. CARBOTTE ET AL. magnetic anomalies in old North Atlantic crust, hydrothermal gradients, which may result from which were inferred to persist for tens of million central supply of melt to segment centres and redis- years while also changing in length and sense of tribution of melt toward segment ends. In this offset (e.g. Schouten & White 1980; Schouten & model, the deeper seafloor typically found at NTOs, Klitgord 1982). Subsequent mapping investigations which are too small in offset to produce significant of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) axis revealed cold edge effects, reflects diminished magma supply small jogs or oblique-trending portions of the rift at the distal ends of the upwelling centres (Macdo- valley spaced at similar intervals as the ZOTs nald et al. 1984). These and subsequent studies led inferred in old crust (e.g. Schouten et al. 1985; to the view that each spreading cell has its own Sempe´re´ et al. 1990). In some places these NTOs physically distinct melt supply system in the asthe- remain stationary and in other places they migrate nosphere; and, further, that the relatively regular along the ridge axis (e.g. Schouten et al. 1987). spacing of these melt supply systems results from Another early discovery was that regular vari- diapiric ascent of Rayleigh–Taylor-type gravita- ations in the depth of the ridge axis and other tional instabilities that develop in partially molten along-strike ridge properties accompany the tec- mantle (Schouten & Klitgord 1982; Francheteau & tonic segmentation (e.g. Le Douaran & Francheteau Ballard 1983; Whitehead et al. 1984; Crane 1985; 1981; Francheteau & Ballard 1983; Macdonald Schouten et al. 1985; Rabinowicz et al. 1987). et al. 1984; Schouten et al. 1985). TFs and the newly With increasing recognition that the MOR recognized smaller offset NTOs were found to system exhibits segmentation at a range of spatial coincide with local deep points along the ridge axis, scales, the model of melt supply centres evolved with the ridge shoaling away from these disconti- to include the possibility of a hierarchy of nested nuities, forming arched-shaped along-axis topo- magmatic segmentation with a branching, along- graphic profiles. These variations in seafloor depth axis melt redistribution system arising from vari- were attributed to changes in the density structure ations in the depth and spatial scales of mantle of the crust and mantle below, with the deep ridge upwelling, melting, melt segregation and delivery regions interpreted as sites of higher densities (Fig. 1; Langmuir et al. 1986; Macdonald et al. resulting from thinner crust and/or cooler crust and 1988). Geochemical studies of along-axis variations upper mantle temperatures (e.g. Francheteau & in melt composition played a key role in exploring Ballard 1983; Macdonald et al. 1984). While initial this model, based on the assumption that geochem- studies attributed the deepening of the ridge axis ical segmentation (lengths of ridge with common near TFs to a decrease in aesthenospheric melting geochemical characteristics) is representative of due to the juxtaposition of older and hence colder magmatic segmentation (lengths of ridge fed by a lithosphere across the discontinuity (e.g. Fox & common magma plumbing system). Within the Gallo 1984), further work showed that the predicted larger-scale segments identified as spreading cells, conductive cooling effects were insufficient to gen- geochemical studies identified along-axis variations erate the increase in seafloor depth (e.g. Forsyth & in magma composition reflecting differences in Wilson 1984). Furthermore at OSCs and smaller dis- mantle source composition and extents and press- continuities along the EPR, thermal edge effects due ures of melting at shorter spatial scales, suggesting to the contrast in lithospheric age across these multiple melt injection sites beneath these segments offsets (,0.25 Ma) are expected to be negligible. (e.g. Langmuir & Bender 1984; Langmuir et al. An alternate explanation for the apparent decrease 1986; Niu & Batiza 1994; Reynolds & Langmuir in melt volume near these discontinuities was there- 1997). Detailed sampling of the fast-spreading fore needed. EPR revealed that even the smallest tectonic bound- The concept of a ‘spreading cell’ was introduced aries (devals) can coincide with changes in magma in the early 1980s to explain axial variations asso- compositions (Langmuir et al. 1986). ciated with tectonic segmentation. Based on the Other models have been proposed for the origin apparent long-lived coherence of oceanic litho- of ridge segmentation and can be grouped broadly sphere accreted between fracture zones in the North into those that invoke tectonic processes associated Atlantic and what were later recognized as