Highly variable magmatic accretion at the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel Ridge.

ABSTRACT: Crustal accretion at mid-ocean ridges governs the creation and evolution of the oceanic lithosphere. Generally accepted models^1-4 of passive mantle upwelling and melting predict notably decreased crustal thickness at a spreading rate of less than 20 mm year^-1. We conducted the first, to our knowledge, high-resolution ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) experiment at the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean and imaged the crustal structure of the slowest-spreading ridge on the Earth. Unexpectedly, we find that crustal thickness ranges between 3.3 km and 8.9 km along the ridge axis and it increased from about 4.5 km to about 7.5 km over the past 5 Myr in an across-axis profile. The highly variable crustal thickness and relatively large average value does not align with the predi

SUBMITTER: Zhang T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11374676 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature