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Comparison of Geologic and Seismic Structure of Uppermost Fast-Spreading Oceanic Crust: Insights From a Crustal Cross-Section at the Hess Deep Rift

  • Chapter
Heterogeneity in the Crust and Upper Mantle

Abstract

Based on studies of ophiolites (Moores and Vine, 1971; Casey and Karson, 1981; Lippard et al., 1986; Nicolas, 1989) and limited deep drilling (Becker et al., 1988; Alt et al., 1993), the uppermost 2 km of oceanic crust created at fast-to intermediate-rate (>50 mm/yr, full spreading rate) mid-ocean ridge spreading centers is generally considered to consist of a series of laterally continuous geologic units. The upper unit includes basaltic lavas mostly with pillow and lobate morphologies with lesser tabular sheet flows. The lavas are underlain by a “sheeted dike complex” composed of side-byside, vertical, tabular, basaltic intrusions. Dikes are ~1 m wide and represent incremental spreading events accommodated by the injection of basaltic magma from an underlying magma body (Delaney et al., 1998). Slowly crystallizing magma beneath the sheeted dike complex forms coarse-grained gabbroic rocks that constitute the bulk of oceanic crust (Sinton and Detrick, 1992). Thus, the basaltic lavas and sheeted dikes represent a relatively fine-grained, intrusive/extrusive carapace that overlies an axial magma chamber or its products. These rock units form the basis for the interpretation of the geology and geophysics of oceanic crust and, by inference, processes beneath mid-ocean ridge spreading centers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708-0230, USA

    Jeffrey A. Karson

  2. Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78759-8500, USA

    Gail L. Christeson

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  1. Jeffrey A. Karson
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  2. Gail L. Christeson
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  1. Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA

    John A. Goff

  2. Institute of Geophysics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

    Klaus Holliger

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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Karson, J.A., Christeson, G.L. (2003). Comparison of Geologic and Seismic Structure of Uppermost Fast-Spreading Oceanic Crust: Insights From a Crustal Cross-Section at the Hess Deep Rift. In: Goff, J.A., Holliger, K. (eds) Heterogeneity in the Crust and Upper Mantle. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0103-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0103-9_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-4924-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0103-9

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