| Summary: | The submarine Azores Plateau in the Central Northern Atlantic has generally been considered to represent a large igneous plateau formed some 10 Ma by widespread volcanism, however a lack of age progression amongst the younger submarine and subaerial volcanism, an irregular distribution of platform-related magmas east and west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a strong tectonic stress regime, and a lack of abundant tholeiitic compositions that reflect initial, high degrees of melting is not easily explainable in the framework of a classic, long-lived mantle plume model. Here, we present new bathymetric and seismic data from the submarine Azores Plateau obtained during cruises M113/1 and M128 with the German R/V Meteor. Our new data combined with prior geochemical and petrological studies indicate that the majority of the western Azores Plateau may indeed have formed during the arrival of a short-lived mantle melting anomaly at 10 Ma. However, our new data also indicate that volcanism Peer reviewed
|
|---|