Hydrothermal activity and ridge segmentation on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: a tale of two hot-spots
Abstract: In the past five years we have completed systematic seabed an water column surveys of two key sections of the Reykjanes Ridge and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, between 36 ~ and 38 ~ North, close to the Iceland and Azores hot-spots, respectively. These surveys have provided adata set which provid...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1996
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1030.8694 http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/118/1/169.full.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract: In the past five years we have completed systematic seabed an water column surveys of two key sections of the Reykjanes Ridge and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, between 36 ~ and 38 ~ North, close to the Iceland and Azores hot-spots, respectively. These surveys have provided adata set which provides aunique opportunity o address the relationship between the incidence and location of hydrothermal venting relative to volcanism/tectonism and ridge segmentation. Along the Reykjanes Ridge, running SW from Iceland, deep-tow (TOBI) sidescan sonar and swath bathymetry data have indicated a pattern dominated by volcanism in the form of axial volcanic ridges with only minor tectonic fracturing. A water column survey along this section of ridge crest, using conventional profiling techniques, indicated no evidence for high-temperature hydrothermal actvity except at 63 ~ where the Reykjanes Ridge intercepts the bathymetric platform (-<500m water depth) which surrounds Iceland. Along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between 36-38 ~ running SW from the Azores archipelago, TOBI and swath bathymetry data have imaged aridge with spreading rate and obliquity of spreading motion similar to the Reykjanes Ridge. But this ridge-section is dominated by tectonism rather than volcanism, the axis being partitioned |
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