a mechanism for magmatic accretion under spreading centres the most active volcanic zone on earth occurs along the global mid ocean ridge system where the lithosphere is pulled apart and new oceanic crust is created at rates between 10 and 200 km myr 1 this volcanism is segmented and is concentrated along the axial valleys and highs of slow and fast spreading ridges respectively with transform fault zones separating and generally offsetting each active ridge segment volcanic activity may be nearly absent at the ridge transform intersection where a slow spreading ridge is offset and greatly reduced where a fast spreading ridge is offset implying thinner crust in these regions1 the source of magmas erupted along ocean ridges is the underlying mantle which undergoes decompression melting when rising to fill the gap between the spreading plates the resulting magma aggregates in the upper mantle and ascends to the crust due to its low density compared with the parent mantle rock the melt is believed to pool in crustal magma chambers whence it periodically erupts to the surface typically the formation ascent and aggregation of magmas along the mid ocean ridges is regarded two dimensionally and modelled in a section through the crust and mantle across the strike of the ridges see ref 2 here however we consider the problem with a three dimensional model for which we provide supporting geological evidence in which the magmas rise as a result of a gravitational instability modified rayleigh taylor in the underlying partial melt zone

frequency magnitude distribution of microearthquakes beneath the 9 50 n region of the east pacific rise october 2003 through april 2004 1 relocated hypocentral data from a 7 month deployment october 2003 to april 2004 of ocean bottom seismometers provide an opportunity to map microearthquake frequency magnitude distributions fmds along the 9 49 52 n region on the east pacific rise these analyses which incorporate more than 9000 earthquakes represent the first investigation of the 3 d spatial and temporal patterns of fmds along any mid ocean ridge spreading center the data are described well by a gutenberg richter model indicating a power law or fractal relationship between earthquake size and frequency the scaling exponent or b value shows significant spatial variability exceeding a value of 2 0 at the shallowest depths on axis and dropping below 1 0 away from the axial trough this spatial pattern is consistent with an inverse relationship between b value and ambient stress conditions with the lowest stress levels at shallow depths and relatively high stress levels or low pore pressures observed away from the axial zone intermediate b values are observed on axis above the ridge system s melt lens however within this region there also exists significant spatial variability this indicates that stress conditions and or structural heterogeneity may vary at subkilometer scales within the hydrothermal circulation cell although the observational period is characterized by increasing seismicity rates building toward an eruptive episode in january 2006 the first order spatial pattern of b values is sustained with no overall temporal trend as a byproduct of this b value analysis the detection capabilities of the array are assessed empirically

extrusive thickness variability at the east pacific rise 9 10 n constraints from seismic techniques we calculate synthetic shot gathers and their corresponding common depth point cdp profiles over plausible east pacific rise epr shallow velocity structures based on the structures obtained from high resolution on bottom seismic refraction experiments we then use these results to analyze the variability in layer 2a thickness at the epr 9 10 n region as measured by cdp wide aperture profile wap on bottom seismic refraction experiments and conventional air gun refraction data the synthetics indicate that the accuracy of correlating the prominent shallow reflector observed in cdp and wide angle data with the layer 2a 2b boundary is strongly dependent on the structure within layer 2a if layer 2a consists of a surficial low velocity layer overlying a steep velocity gradient our gradient model then there is an excellent correspondence between the two way travel times to the shallow reflector and the base of layer 2a however the shallow reflector may originate from a gradient within layer 2a if the upper crust contains more than one high gradient region our step model this implies that independent estimates of layer 2a velocity structure are needed to properly interpret cdp and wide angle data we also determine that the travel time to the layer 2a reflector for identical velocity structure can vary by as much as 50 ms about 125 m for differing experimental geometries this can explain the discrepancy in two way travel time to the layer 2a reflector imaged on zero age cdp and wap lines the depths to a shallow reflector calculated from cdp and wide angle data in the 9 10 n region of the epr generally correlate with estimated layer 2a thicknesses from on bottom refraction profiles and conventional air gun refraction lines which suggests that the upper crustal structure in this area is similar to the gradient model wap and conventional air gun refraction data indicate that there is a 100 200 m decrease in off axis layer 2a thickness at 9 35 n on the epr the present day location of a deviation in axial linearity deval there is no bathymetric expression of the 50 decrease in layer 2a thickness layer 2a can be interpreted to consist of the extrusive section and transition zone with the layer 2a 2b boundary corresponding to the top of the sheeted dikes we suggest that buoyancy forces associated with the axial magma chamber amc are supporting the extrusive layer and sheeted dikes at the neovolcanic zone with distance from the rise axis the amc solidifies the crust cools the buoyancy forces are reduced and the sheeted dike complex subsides concurrently the extrusive layer thickens resulting in significantly less subsidence of the seafloor we speculate that the 50 decrease in dike subsidence and extrusive thickness at the 9 35 n deval is due to a local reduction in magma supply within the axial magma chamber the off axis pattern of layer 2a thickness suggests that the 9 35 n deval has persisted for 175 000 275 000 years

deformation pattern in a massive ponded lava flow at odp iodp site 1256 a core and log approach 1 a complete in situ section of upper oceanic crust from extrusive lavas through dikes into gabbros has been recently drilled for the first time in 15 ma old crust created at the superfast spreading east pacific rise epr the upper igneous basement cored at ocean drilling program odp integrated ocean drilling program iodp holes 1256c and 1256d consists of sheet flows and massive flows including a ponded lava flow unit lava pond interpreted as a thick lava flow delivered off axis and accumulated in a topographic depression fine scale structural analysis shows that the lava pond is much less fractured than the deeper lavas probably as the effect of structure spacing that is larger than in the underlying lava flows in hole 1256d structures are mainly subhorizontal in the lava pond and become steeper downhole toward the sheeted dike complex this reflects the distance of the lava pond from the stress field produced by the intrusion of dikes at depth inducing mostly subvertical eruptive fractures and fracture network and the distance of the site from active rifting at the epr contrasting structural patterns in the lava pond and in the deeper parts of the drilled section are reflected in contrasting physical properties patterns as obtained by shipboard and downhole logging data electrical resistivity compressional velocity and bulk density are generally higher whereas natural radioactivity and neutron porosity are lower in the lava pond than in the deeper hole the occurrence of a thick massive lava flow at the top part of the volcanic section affects the deformation pattern of the entire drilled crust and consequently its permeability regime which in turn controls the geometry and distribution of hydrothermal circulation and basalt alteration

axial summit trough of the east pacific rice 9 10 n geological characteristics and evolution of the axial zone on fast spreading mid ocean ridge the nature and morphological characteristics of axial summit troughs on fast 90 130 mm yr 1 full spreading rate and superfast spreading 130 mm yr 1 mid ocean ridge crests reflect the time integrated effects of long term magmatic cycles short term volcanic episodicity and the tensional stress regime imposed on young ocean crust two principal types of axial trough morphology have been identified and associated with distinct volcanic and tectonic processes occurring at fast and superfast spreading mid ocean ridge crests 1 narrow axial troughs 300 2000 m wide and 30 100 m deep on the east pacific rise crest are classified as axial summit graben the dimensions of axial summit graben as well as the morphological and structural character of their walls and floors suggest a primary tectonic origin an axial summit graben may contain a nested axial summit collapse trough implying that processes responsible for these endemic features may be linked near bottom side looking sonar and observational data collected using the towed vehicle argo i and submersible alvin have been used to characterize the axial summit trough of the fast spreading east pacific rise between 9 and 10 n a four stage model is presented for the evolution of this axial summit collapse trough as well as for other well studied portions of the east pacific rise crest from 21 n to 20 s we propose that the transition from a narrow surface collapse dominated axial trough to a broader fault bounded graben is controlled by the relative importance of diking volcanism hydrothermal cooling and tectonism along a ridge segment over time periods 104 years

volcanic episodicity and a non steady state rift valley along northeast pacific spreading centers evidence from sea marc i sea marc i side looking sonar images and sea beam bathymetry along a 400 km stretch of the juan de fuca ridge crest provide evidence that excessive extrusive volcanism periodically builds a crestal ridge along the axis of seafloor spreading an elongate summit depression esd or rift valley is commonly observed in the spine of this crestal ridge the crestal ridge volcanic landform has a distinctive shape that is recognized in bathymetric contours both along the spreading axis and at least up to 30 km away from the axis the landform has a plan form shape that resembles a side view of an archer s bow with the long dimension of the bow form parallel to the strike of the ridge in cross section the bow form is flat on top and has steep flanks these bow form shapes can be explained by magma that rises into the crust at a discrete center and flows laterally into belts of ridge parallel dikes similar to icelandic fissure eruptions both the variable dimensions of the esd along axis of the juan de fuca ridge and the relationship among volcanic flow morphologies within and beyond the esd suggest the four different segments of the juan de fuca ridge presented in detail here display different stages in a cycle of oceanic crust accretion this cycle includes episodes in which there is 1 extrusive volcanic construction which widen the crestal ridge prior to the collapse of the summit depression 2 collapse within the summit region of the crestal ridge to form an esd during a phase of volcanic inactivity and 3 renewed magmatism in the esd as its floor widens by extension and brittle fracture of the upper crust this episodic model implies that the width of the young seafloor affected by volcanic extrusion or dominated by tectonic stretching varies through time

volcanics and structure of the famous narrowgate rift evidence for cyclic evolution amar 1 a near bottom photographic survey on the mid atlantic ridge from the famous region south to transform b reveals structural and volcanologic evidence for an alternating widening and narrowing rift valley extension wedges appear to be propagating south from transform a and north from transform b these merge at mt mars where the rift valley is narrowest and shallowest narrowgate giving the valley a symmetrical hourglass shape three major volcanic en echelon lineaments trend n10 e 10 oblique to the strike of the inner walls faulting and fissuring are antisymmetrical across the rift valley in contrast to the major extension this contrasting antisymmetry reflects the surficial distribution of stress across crust of varying strengths whereas the large scale wedge phenomenon determines the periodicity of transition from a narrow valley to a wide valley using vector analysis the extension wedges are propagating at about 9 cm yr toward each other at this rate a narrow rift valley will be fully transformed into a wide rift in 0 64 m y

multi channel seismic imaging of a crustal magma chamber along the east pacific rise a reflection observed on multi channel seismic profiles along and across the east pacific rise between 8 50 n and 13 30 n is interpreted to arise from the top of a crustal magma chamber located 1 2 2 4 km below the sea floor the magma chamber is quite narrow 4 6 km wide but can be traced as a nearly continuous feature for tens of kilometres along the rise axis

constructing the upper crust of the mid atlantic ridge a reinterpretation based on the puna ridge kilauea volcano the volcanic morphology of a number of segments of the slow spreading mid atlantic ridge mar have been reinterpreted based on our understanding of dike emplacement dike propagation and eruption at the east rift zone of kilauea volcano hawaii and its submarine extension the puna ridge the styles of volcanic eruption at the submarine puna ridge are remarkably similar to those of the axial volcanic ridges avrs constructed on the median valley floor of the mar we use this observation to relate volcanic processes occurring at kilauea volcano to the mar we now consider that volcanic features e g seamounts and lava terraces built on the flanks of the avrs are secondary features that are fed from lava tubes or channels not primary features fed directly from an underlying dike we examine simple models of pipe flow and conclude that lava tubes can transport lava down the flanks of submarine rifts to build all of the volcanic features observed there in addition deep water lava tubes are strong enough to withstand the pressures of a few megapascals that the building of a volcanic structure 150 m high at the end of the tube would generate the volumes of individual volcanic terraces and seamounts on the puna ridge and at the mar are large 0 1 1 km3 and similar to the volumes of lava flows that are broadly distributed at the subaerial east rift zone of kilauea this striking difference in the volcanic morphology on a scale of 1 2 km producing terraces and seamounts underwater and low relief flows on land must be related to the enhanced cooling and to the greater mechanical stability of tubes in the submarine environment we suggest that at the mar a crustal magma reservoir most likely located beneath shallow flat sections of the segment provides magma to the rift axis through dikes that propagate laterally tens of kilometers the zone of dike intrusion at least in the neighborhood of the magma body is likely narrower than the width resurfaced by flows yielding a crustal structure that has a rapid vertical transition from lavas to sheeted dikes at segment ends the zone of dike intrusion is likely to be wider giving a resulting structure with a more gradual transition from lavas to dikes

photogeologic study of a segment of the east pacific rise axis near 21 n latitude geologic and structural interpretations based primarily on photographic data collected by the marine physical laboratory deep tow instrument the woods hole oceanographic institution angus and the french manned submersible cyana show that extensional tectonic activity modifies and locally replaces extrusive volcanic processes along a 6 km segment of the east pacific rise axial zone near lat 21 n relatively young pillow flows dominate the spreading axis however fissures are present throughout the axial zone and there is a light dusting of pelagic sediment on even the youngest flows in contrast the axial zone immediately southwest in the rise project study area is free of fissures and sediment photographic evidence for the existence of undiscovered active hydrothermal vents or narrow zones of diffuse hydrothermal emissions includes anomalously high concentrations of common deep sea organisms not the exotic hydrothermal vent communities some of these are coincident with high 3 he values and positive temperature anomalies discovered in deep tow water samples lupton and others 1980 estimation of the absolute age of pillow flows based on the sedimentation rate and the volume of interpillow sediment ponds suggests that the average pillow flow with a sediment cover of 70 is approximately 1 000 yr old and that a pillow flow will be completely covered with sediment in about 40 000 yr this relation indicates that the extrusive terrane of the inner axial zone in the study area although undergoing extensional modification is considerably less than 1 000 yr old visual geologic data collected by the several deep sea photographic systems are complementary in nature and the best geologic interpretations are made through use of more than one system to provide various photographic perspectives and scales of observation

deep tow and sea beam studies of dueling propagating ridges on the east pacific rise near 20 40 s nontransform ridge axis discontinuities such as propagating rifts overlapping spreading centers oscs and saddle points occur frequently along the mid ocean ridge system we used sea beam and deep tow to study an example of a relatively large nontransform offset near 20 40 s on the east pacific rise epr the two spreading center tips are 15 km apart and separated by a diffuse shear zone a broad v shaped wake of disturbed topography and magnetics occurs on the flanks of the epr near the offset on a fine scale the offset is tectonically much more complex than either the typical osc or propagating rift structures for two reasons first it is a dueling propagator in which structures produced by successive short term episodes of northward and southward propagation have overprinted each other with migration toward the south prevailing over the long term second its offset distance is such that its tectonic behavior may be transitional from that of a propagating rift to that of an osc system the offset s rate of migration to the south has been 20 mm yr over the last 2 m y far less than total opening rate of 162 mm yr distinct propagation events may have been much more rapid however surging north and south at rates of 160 230 mm yr in the process several fossil spreading ridges 30 50 km long have been abandoned and rafted to the side we propose a fine scale tectonic evolution in which a propagating spreading center either curves inside or runs outside of a soon to be abandoned propagating rift tip we call this process self decapitation dueling propagation at 20 40 s may be caused by competing magmatic sources at shallow points along the epr one to the north near 20 s and one to the south near 21 30 s the 20 40 s dueling propagator occurs at a long wavelength low in the axial depth profile between these competing sources in general the division of spreading centers into segments separated by ridge axis discontinuities occurs at low points along the axis and may be caused by the pattern of upper mantle convection and the factors governing flow of magma along the strike of the ridge

east pacific rise from siqueiros to orozco fracture zones along strike continuity of axial neovolcanic zone and structure and evolution of overlapping spreading centers we have used the sea beam multibeam echo sounding system to survey the east pacific rise epr from 8 20 n to 18 30 n obtaining complete coverage of the epr axial neovolcanic zone and all intervening transform faults here we focus on the epr neovolcanic zone and the definition of overlapping spreading centers ocs s between the orozco and siqueiros transform faults the neovolcanic zone is narrow 0 5 2 0 km and continuous along strike and occurs within and near a strike continuous axial summit graben the neovolcanic zone and summit graben reside along the crest of a volcanic axial high which is 2 10 km wide and which continues uninterrupted along strike for 40 140 km within 20 50 km of an intersection with a transform fault the axial neovolcanic zone narrows and deepens and within only 3 6 km of the intersection the neovolcanic zone turns sharply into the transform valley at seven locations between the siqueiros and orozco transform faults the axial neovolcanic zone is discontinuous and is laterally offset a short distance 1 15 km in contrast with a classic ridge transform ridge plate boundary however offset rise terminations overlap each other by a distance approximately 3 times greater than their offset they curve toward each other and often one merges into the other along strike separating the osc s is an elliptical overlap basin up to 600 m deep whose long axis is subparallel to the adjacent spreading centers the overlap basin is characterized by volcanic constructional edifices a key difference between these offsets and small transform faults in the atlantic is that there are no transform fault structures in the overlap basin which link the offset rise axes a continuous axial depth profile reveals a long wavelength 20 60 km undulation of the rise axis which may be associated with variations in the magmatic budget along strike the lowest points in the axial depth profile occur near transform faults and at osc s suggesting that these features are associated with along strike minima in the magmatic budget we suggest that major phases of volcanic activity propagate episodically along the axis away from centers of magmatic inflation and that osc s develop where magmatic pulses fail to meet due to misalignment of fracture systems sinuous bends in the rise axis or other heterogeneities transform faults fail to develop on fast spreading centers where the lateral offsets are small 15 km because the lithosphere is too thin and weak to maintain a classic rigid plate ridge transform fault pattern the osc geometry is unstable and evolves rapidly and the overlapping rises may propagate at rates faster than the local spreading rate one of the two osc s prevails while the other is abandoned while the locations of osc s may not be fixed relative to the rise axis they may tend to recur near the same place creating scars in older lithosphere which resemble fracture zones but whose fine scale structure is quite different there is excellent agreement between the observed structure of osc s and laboratory studies of osc s using wax models photoelastic studies of overlapping cracks and boundary element modeling of overlapping cracks seismic refraction and reflection near two osc s suggests that large offset osc s have separate magma chambers beneath the offset rise axes while small offset osc s may share a single axial magma chamber three dimensional inversion of magnetic anomalies suggests that significant petrologic anomalies may occur near some osc tips waxing and waning of overlapping magma chambers may give rise to the eruption of highly fractionated feti basalts and associated magnetic anomalies

the spacing of rift axis highs dependence upon diapiric processes in the underlying asthenosphere abstract detailed bathymetric mapping has revealed a near harmonic distribution of intermediate wavelength morphologic highs on slow to fast spreading centers one model suggests that the highs may result from the thermal instabilities generated by the interaction of cold fracture zone walls with the axial asthenosphere this may force a deepening of the isotherms near the fracture zone and an uplift of the isotherms midway between the fracture zones a preferred model based on newly accumulated data suggests that the highs may be a result of upwelling within the asthenosphere underlying the ridge axis where a linear region of instability develops at the base of a partial melting zone less dense material at depths of 40 80 km may penetrate the overlying material at discrete and ideally evenly spaced points harmonically spaced upwellings should generate excess magma at discrete points on the ridge axis creating volcanic highs the spacing between highs may depend upon the continuity and thickness of the deep axial instability layer the temperature and viscosity ratios within the magma and the distance between major transform faults instability of the diapirs may stimulate the migration of the highs through time

crustal fissuring and its relationship to magmatic and hydrothermal processes on the east pacific rise crest 9 12 to 54 n the deep towed argo i optical acoustical vehicle and a geographic information system gis have been used to establish the abundance widths and spatial distribution of fissures as well as the relative age distribution of lavas along the narrow 500 m wide axial zone of the east pacific rise epr from 9o12 to 9o54 n on a second order scale 78 km long wider but less numerous fissures are found in the northern portion of the survey area this changes to narrower more abundant fissures in the south a profile of the cumulative width added by fissures to the axial zone exhibits minima in three areas along strike near 9o49 9o35 and 9o15 n where the most recent eruptions have occurred above sites of magmatic injection from the upper mantle filling and covering older fissures on a fourth order scale 5 15 km long the mean density of fissuring on a given segment is greater where relative axial lava age is greater fissure density also correlates with hydrothermal vent abundance and type increased cracking toward segment tips is observed at the second order scale whereas fourth order segments tend to be more cracked in the middle cracking on a fourth order scale may be driven by the propagation of dikes rather than by the far field plate stresses the above relations constrain the model of haymon et al 1991 in which individual fourth order segments are in different phases of a volcanic hydrothermal tectonic cycle

an examination of along axis variation of magma chamber width and crustal structure on the east pacific rise between 13 30 n and 12 20 n we investigate the along axis variations of magma chamber width and crustal structure along the east pacific rise epr from 13 30 n to 12 20 n through reprocessed common depth point cdp reflection profiles the magma lens is predominantly a continuous feature in the study area with an average width of 500 m as determined from migrated cross axis cdp profiles this value is similar to widths estimated elsewhere along the epr suggesting that the axial magma chamber amc width is not spreading rate dependent once the threshold for a steady state magma chamber is reached the axial morphology of the 13 n area is generally not a good predictor of magma lens width or continuity a fairly continuous melt lens is imaged where the triangular axial topography might suggest waning magma supply in fact between 13 05 n and 13 01 n a shallow melt lens has been imaged which may be indicative of recent or impending eruptive activity this shoaling is similar to that observed near the 17 26 s region of the epr where the rise axis summit is domed and highly inflated generally the thickness of seismic layer 2a beneath the ridge crest is uniform and comparable to that estimated for 9 n 14 s and 17 s on the epr suggesting that the axial extrusive layer is invariant along fast spreading ridges uniformity of layer 2a thickness along axis implies that variations in magma chamber depth are directly attributed to changes in thickness of the sheeted dike complex seismic layer 2b contrary to expectations of decreasing melt sill depth with increasing spreading rate the average thickness of seismic layer 2b is slightly less 165 m at 13 n than at the faster spreading more robust 9 n area finally geochemical petrologic boundaries which may delineate separate melt supply regions occurring at the 13 20 n and 12 46 n devals deviation in axial linearity are observed to coincide with subtle changes in amc and layer 2a reflection characteristics

a multichannel seismic investigation of upper crustal structure at 9 n on the east pacific rise implications for crustal accretion reprocessed multichannel seismic profiles from the 9 n segment of the east pacific rise reveal prominent shallow subbasement events these events are identified as wide angle reflections from the base of seismic layer 2a based upon modeling of expanding spread profile data and velocity functions the layer 2a reflections typically increase from 0 15 s after the seafloor reflection at the rise axis to 0 3 0 45 s within 1 2 km of the axis corresponding to an increase in layer thickness of 200 600 m no further systematic increase in layer thickness is observed although lateral variability of the order of a few hundred meters in thickness is observed at greater offsets from the rise axis however the intermittent character of the imaged layer 2a reflection is attributed to focusing and defocusing of energy by the seafloor bathymetry rather than necessarily to intrinsic lateral variability at the base of the layer the base of layer 2a is interpreted as corresponding to the transition between the extrusive section pillow basalts and sheet flows and a sheeted dike complex the rapid thickening of the layer near the rise axis is attributed to successive lava flows burying the initially shallow top of the sheeted dike complex as the layer passes through the neovolcanic zone lateral variability of layer 2a can significantly affect the imaging of the underlying axial magma chambers as average velocities within layer 2a are approximately half that of layer 2b for an along axis profile apparent along axis variability in the depth of the axial magma chamber is traced to variability in the thickness of layer 2a caused by wandering of the profile relative to axis within the resolution of the data the time delay of the magma chamber reflection relative to the base of layer 2a is constant

structural and petrophysical characterization of the upper basement crustal section at odp iodp site 1256 east pacific ocean 1 new ocean crust is constantly being formed from mid ocean ridge axis voluminous flows of lava are emplaced also away from the ridge axis adding off axis crustal layers to the crustal pile research on deep sea is of great importance to better understand the mechanisms and the nature of the crust forming and evolution in this work we decipher the first stages of the postmagmatic evolution of an intact volcanic section from the upper oceanic crust at ocean drilling program integrated ocean drilling program odp iodp site 1256 eastern pacific ocean using for the first time an innovative core log integration technique to match direct core related and indirect borehole related data by depth shifting and reorienting individual core pieces recovered by drilling we are able to identify the clusterization of structures and physical properties within distinct downdeep strong and weak lava zones reflecting the cooling and tectonic evolution of lavas rather than lithological variations we define the evolution of the structural zones that typically affect lava flows colonnades and entablature zones studying an off axis lava flow encountered in present day upper ocean crust for the same off axis flow we are also able to suggest the lava flow direction nw se and its relationships with the paleoridge axis despite the environmental difficulties in the study of the subseafloor under deep water and using only one dimensional data deriving from ocean drilling this work shows how an array of diverse data can be integrated into a coherent interpretation of lava flow history obtaining detailed information on the mechanism of submarine lava emplacement and flow

geology of the northern cleft segment juan de fuca ridge recent lava flows sea floor spreading and the formation of megaplumes geologic mapping and lava sampling were carried out after the discovery of large bursts of hydrothermal fluids megaplumes over the southern juan de fuca ridge in 1986 and 1987 our investigations of the northernmost section of the cleft segment have discovered 1 semicontinuous low temperature venting and one major high temperature vent site along 17 km of the neovolcanic zone and 2 very glassy lightly sedimented sheet flows and pillow mounds superimposed on older terrain over about 24 km along the northern most part the pillow mounds are documented to have erupted between 1981 and 1987 the occurrence of the megaplumes during this same time period strengthens the hypothesis that megaplumes are caused by sea floor extension events although the basalts from the entire length of the neovolcanic zone of the cleft segment appear to have been derived from the same mantle source a systematic northward increase in mg number along the segment within the neovolcanic zone indicates less shallow level differentiation to the north possibly related to the development of new magma chambers during the recent phase of sea floor spreading that has occurred there

breaking new ground estimates of crack depth along the axial zone of the east pacific rise 9 12 54 n using simple fracture mechanics models the depths of fissures that were observed along the axial zone of the east pacific rise epr from 9 12 to 54 n with the deep towed argo z vehicle are estimated the widest cracks 4 8 m along this fast spreading portion of the epr are the deepest and are spatially correlated with the broadest youngest and most hydrothermally active portions of the ridge crest if the widest deepest cracks are not primarily eruptive they should be most abundant in areas of older lava flows having increased in width with time this is not observed some of the widest cracks are located where the 1991 eruption of the ridge crest occurred at 9 45 52 n and may be deep enough to reach the sheeted dikes of layer 2b these cracks may have tapped melt during the eruption and facilitated the flux of vapor rich hydrothermal fluids through overlying lava flows the narrowest presumably shallowest cracks correspond to the narrowest oldest and least hydrothermally active portions of the ridge crest we interpret the wide deep cracks as primarily eruptive in origin and suggest that they may be associated with the inflation of an axial magma chamber whereas the narrow shallow cracks are interpreted as primarily tectonic and are thought to be associated more with far field plate stresses

transient electromagnetic responses in seafloor with triaxial anisotropy summary electrical anisotropy of young oceanic crust at mid ocean ridges is detectable by observation of the rate and geometry of the diffusion of electromagnetic fields the anisotropy in electrical properties arises from the presence of conductive seawater in an interconnected network of mostly ridge parallel cracks in this paper we first justify the choice of a triaxial model to represent young oceanic crust with three distinct electrical conductivities in the vertical strike and spreading directions we then present an algorithm to calculate the transient electromagnetic responses generated by an electric dipole source over such a triaxially anisotropic seafloor we show that if the transient passages are measured with three distinct electric dipole dipole configurations it is possible to discern all three unknown conductivities independently of each other

210po 210pb dating of recent volcanic eruptions on the sea floor the globe encircling mid ocean ridge system accounts for most of the earth s volcanism and influences its heat budget morphology and the composition of the oceans it is therefore important to constrain the size frequency and compositional variability of ridge eruptions but this is made difficult by the remoteness of much of the sea floor and the paucity of applicable radioactive chronometers remote monitoring has provided indirect evidence for active ridge volcanism1 3 which in some cases has been strengthened by submersible observations4 5 but it has not been possible to date these eruptions directly here we present a new chronometer based on 210po 210pb radioactive disequilibrium which allows us to date glassy eruption products within a few years of their eruption our first results on lavas from 9 50 n on the east pacific rise confirm that the ridge erupted only months before sample collection and indicate that the eruptions extended over at least one year the chronometer begins with po volatilization during eruption all glasses analysed were 75 100 degassed a crystalline pillow interior was 20 degassed however implying that the flow surface may control po degassing during deep submarine eruptions although the 210po 210pb chronometer is useful for only a short time frame it should prove valuable for dating recent but unobserved submarine eruptions and determining details of eruptive sequences

deformation processes at fast to ultra fast oceanic spreading axes mechanical approach abstract the morphology of fast to ultra fast oceanic spreading ridges such as the east pacific rise epr is characterized by an axial dome 5 10 km wide culminating at 300 500 m above the surrounding seafloor this dome is bounded by lateral grabens that develop systematically 2 to 6 km apart from the spreading axis a large summit trough 200 m to 2 km wide locally notches the axial high only where the dome is inflated indicative of a time average robust magma supply this summit trough is thought to represent an elongated axial summit caldera asc created as a result of the subsidence of the top of the axial magma chamber amc such subsidence is likely caused by a temporary decrease in melt supply into the shallow magma reservoir suffering continuous regional extension analog experiments using small scale modeling have been performed in order to better constrain the tectonic evolution of the axial region the experimental apparatus includes an elongated balloon filled with water as an analog of the magma reservoir set in a central groove in a table it is capped with a silicone layer representing hot rocks below the brittle ductile transition and is covered by a sand layer representing the brittle crust the experiments integrate withdrawal of the balloon and extension at the boundary of the model by the mean of two mobile walls three experimental setups allowed us to study independently the mechanical parameters controlling the axial tectonic evolution extension without withdrawal withdrawal without extension withdrawal and synchronous extension we show that the morphology of the epr axis can be considered as the result of both horizontal and vertical movements two symmetrical lateral grabens develop on both sides of a non deformed axial dome when single extension is applied to a model with a thin silicone layer normal faults of the lateral grabens are rooted on two divergent velocity zones dvzs located on the edges of the groove this situation is regarded as an analog of the natural case where the top of the amc acts as a stress free boundary that fails to transmit the extensional stresses to the upper brittle layer an important deflation of the balloon without extension results in the creation of a central collapse trough limited by reverse faults during synchronous extension and withdrawal the initiation of the lateral grabens is favored by a balloon deflation even if such deflation is unable to generate a superficial collapse this last case is considered as representative of the evolution of epr segments showing little variations in melt supply into the amc higher deflation rates under continuous extension correspond to epr segments undergoing strong variations in melt supply in such experiments the lateral grabens are created together with a central collapse trough developing in a way similar to that of experiments involving only balloon deflation finally we show that dvzs located at the brittle ductile boundary are the key mechanical elements which may explain the structural evolution of the axial region of fast to ultra fast spreading ridges the distance from axis and the width of the dvzs directly control the location and the distribution of the lateral grabens

lava deposition history in odp hole 1256d insights from log based volcanostratigraphy a log based volcanic stratigraphy of ocean drilling program hole 1256d provides a vertical cross section view of in situ upper crust formed at the east pacific rise epr with unprecedented resolution this stratigraphy model comprises ten electrofacies principally identified from formation microscanner images in this study we build a lava flow stratigraphy model for the extrusive section in hole 1256d by correlating these electrofacies with observations of flow types from the modern epr such as sheet flows and breccias and pillow lavas and their distribution the resulting flow stratigraphy model for the hole 1256d extrusive section represents the first realization of detailed in situ epr upper oceanic crust construction processes that have been detected only indirectly from remote geophysical data we correlated the flow stratigraphy model with surface geology observed from the southern epr 14 s by shinkai 6500 dives in order to obtain the relationship between lava flow types and ridge axis ridge slope morphology this dive information was also used to give a spatial time reference frame for modeling lava deposition history in hole 1256d in reconstructing the lava deposition history we interpreted that the origins of the 100 m thick intervals with abundant pillow lavas in hole 1256d are within the axial slope where pillow lavas were observed during the shinkai 6500 dives and previous epr surveys this correlation could constrain the lava deposition history in hole 1256d crust using the lateral scale of ridge axis ridge slope topography from the shinkai 6500 observations and assuming the paleospreading rate was constant 50 of the extrusive rocks in hole 1256d crust were formed within 2000 m of the ridge axis whereas nearly all of the remaining extrusive section was formed within 3000 m of the ridge axis these results are consistent with the upper crustal construction model previously suggested by seismic studies

the axial summit graben and cross sectional shape of the east pacific rise as indicators of axial magma chambers and recent volcanic eruptions abstract the axis of the east pacific rise epr undulates up and down hundreds of meters over distances of 30 200 km along strike the deep areas occurring at transform faults and other ridge axis discontinuities such as overlapping spreading centers oscs we have suggested that systematic variations in depth and cross sectional shape of the rise are indicators of the changes in the local axial magmatic budget along a given ridge segment 1 a comparison of recently collected multichannel seismic mcs data 2 with our sea beam and seamarc ii data have allowed us to test and advance this hypothesis along the epr from 9 to 13 n there is an excellent correlation between three parameters that are all directly related to the phase of a magmatic cycle along a given ridge segment the cross sectional shape of the rise the presence or absence of an axial summit graben and the presence or absence of a shallow axial magma chamber as interpreted from mcs data where the axial magma chamber is present the cross sectional shape of the ridge is broad and an axial summit graben is recognized along the axis in contrast where the cross sectional shape of the rise is narrow and triangular an axial magma chamber is not detected and an axial summit graben is absent these ridge axis characteristics tend to occur along deeper portions of a given ridge segment often near ridge axis discontinuities we suggest that these systematic variations in ridge axis morphology cross sectional shape and structure presence or absence of an axial graben reflect spatial and temporal variations in the magmatic budget of the ridge axis where the magmatic budget is waxing shallow level magma reservoirs in the crust and underlying upper mantle swell creating a broad axial bulge with a summit graben where the magmatic budget is diminished the crustal magma chamber is small this proposed correlation of shape structure and magmatic parameters fails along only two short portions of the ridge in these areas there is evidence for an axial magma chamber and the rise has a broad cross sectional shape but there is no summit graben bottom photographs and submersible results however show that in these areas the rise crest is covered with very fresh lavas undisrupted by faulting suggesting that the summit graben has been recently filled in by lava flows and the development of a summit graben or a linear caldera by volcano tectonic collapse has not yet occurred

effects of tectonism and magmatism on crack structure in oceanic crust a seismic anisotropy study we analyzed 25 675 traveltime residuals from a three dimensional seismic tomographic inversion to investigate crack induced seismic anisotropy in the upper oceanic crust the study covered two regions with contrasting levels of magmatic activity on the western limb of the 9 n overlapping spreading center on the east pacific rise the level of anisotropy gradually decreases with depth in the magmatically and hydrothermally active ridge region in contrast we observed a highly variable anisotropic structure in the magmatically and hydrothermally less active tip region at the end of the dying ridge segment a weakly anisotropic layer beneath strongly anisotropic extrusive volcanic rocks is likely to be the result of relatively shallow cracks closed by hydrothermal precipitation strongly anisotropic dikes with inferred narrow and water saturated cracks provide important along axis pathways for the circulation of hydrothermal fluids beneath the shallow cracks in the less magmatically active regions furthermore a significant clockwise rotation 20 30 of fast directions occurs in both regions with increasing depth such a rotation provides evidence that the geometry of the underlying crack structure of the western limb is significantly different from that defined by the bathymetric ridge crest

dike induced faulting in rift zones of iceland and afar geodetic data and field observations demonstrate that the emplacement of dikes in volcanic rift zones frequently generates normal faulting and graben subsidence at the earth9s surface elastic modeling of the vertical ground surface displacements above dikes and faults indicates that the extent of graben subsidence can be achieved only if fault slip extends virtually to or beyond the dike plane at depth a mechanical model that includes dikes and frictional faults shows that dike opening tends to compress and lock faults located to either side of the dike therefore slip extending into or beyond the dike cavity must occur either 1 on faults that intersect the dike near its top above the zone of dike induced compression or 2 on faults that slip ahead of the dike as it propagates laterally data from iceland indicate that slip occurred on deep faults that presumably slipped in advance of the laterally propagating dike

segmentation of mid ocean ridges studies of mid ocean ridges in the pacific and atlantic oceans show that the volcanism that forms the oceanic crust along the spreading plate boundaries is concentrated at regular intervals related to spreading rate this observation and a new calculation for a rayleigh taylor type of gravitational instability of a partially molten mantle region growing under spreading centres yield reasonable estimates of upper mantle viscosities

the three dimensional seismic velocity structure of the east pacific rise near latitude 9 30 n three dimensional images of crustal seismic structure beneath the east pacific rise show pronounced axial heterogeneity over distances of a few kilometres a linear high velocity anomaly approximately 1 2 km in width and restricted to the uppermost 1 km of the crust is centred on the rise axis an axial low velocity anomaly at depths of 1 3 km varies in amplitude along the axis consistent with a zone of higher crustal temperatures midway between two discontinuities in the morphology of the rise axis this apparent thermal segmentation along axis is consistent with injection of mantle derived melt midway along a locally linear 12 km long segment of the rise

east pacific rise at 21 n the volcanic tectonic and hydrothermal processes of the central axis abstract photographs obtained by the angus survey system at 21 n reveal many similarities to the geological processes delineated at other spreading centers and in particular those observed in the galapagos rift at 86 w the region of recent volcanism is restricted to a narrow zone zone 1 approximately 1 km wide this suggests that the width of the magma chamber feeding these flows is also narrow at the top variations in sediment cover are used to subdivide the flows within zone 1 into three sheet flow pillow flow pairs the youngest pair appears to have erupted form a linear fissure 8 km long running parallel to the valley axis this fissure is part of a larger en echelon pattern of eruptive fissures active hydrothermal vents associated with the youngest flows are situated directly above the apparent eruptive fissure the high 350 c temperature for some of the fluids exiting from the vents suggests a highly restricted circulation system involving at times little to no mixing with cold seawater the lava terrain in the remainder of zone 1 and bordering regions is characterized by extensive fracturing further suggesting a narrow upper dimension to the magma chamber and also that subsurface hydrothermal deposition of massive sulfides may lead to a reduction in the mixing processes

linear volcanoes along the pacific cocos plate boundary 9 n to the galapagos triple junction abstract a seabeam based reconnaissance of the 500 km of the east pacific rise crest between 7 n and 2 40 n shows that the axial ridge is segmented by four 4 13 km non transform offsets into an en echelon string of distinctively different linear volcanoes these axial volcanoes are oriented orthogonal to relative plate motion except where their overlapping ends veer 15 toward each other and where small intra volcano offsets of their crestal rift zones create abrupt kinks longitudinal gradients of the crestlines are less than 5 m km except where they plunge at rift zones overlapped ends and where they rise locally to small axial peaks transverse profiles vary from trapezoidal to triangular with a steep shield shaped cross section being most common conventional sounding data indicate that this pattern continues to the 140 km offset siqueiros transform fault system at 8 2 n within this fault system is a short spreadingcenter volcano contained in a rift valley that links two strike slip fault zones immediately to the north is the shallow 9 0 8 3 n axial volcano with unusual relief mapped by a deeply towed instrument package at the southern end of the plate boundary as the rise crest enters the region of the pacific cocos nazca triple junction the axial ridge narrows deepens and acquires a more irregular long profile south of 2 30 n the rise crest has a 15 km wide rift valley that contains multiple volcanic ridges with north south strikes structural hypotheses suggested or supported by these morphologic observations include a point source magma supply to the spreading center from mantle diapirs the along strike continuity of axial magma chambers on fast spreading rises even across small rift zone offsets and the importance of magma intrusion as well as eruption for building the axial ridge hypotheses inconsistent with the new data include magma supply and long distance dispersal from a few widely spaced plumes primary control of the topographic volcanic and tectonic characteristics of the rise crest by distance from transform faults and localization of triple junctions over major mantle upwellings

northern east pacific rise magnetic anomaly and bathymetric framework the oceanic crust in the eastern pacific between 7on and 30on and east of 127ow contains a fairly complete history of the spreading centers associated with the east pacific rise since 25 m y b p late oligocene in this paper we have summarized the seafloor spreading magnetic anomaly data and the bathymetric data that reflect the record of this tectonic history the well defined magnetic lineations north of the clarion fracture zone in the mouth of the gulf of california and on the east flank of the east pacific rise epr are carefully examined and used to provide a guide for interpreting the spreading pattern between the clarion and clipperton fracture zones southward of the rivera fracture zone over the mathematician ridge and over the entire epr east of the mathematician ridge between the rivera and siqueiros fracture zones the bathymetric data provide a trace of the fracture zone pattern in each of the above mentioned areas the fracture zone bathymetry and the seafloor spreading magnetic lineations on the epr south of the rivera fracture zone have a distinctive fanning pattern caused by close poles of rotation and plate boundary reorganizations all these data provide a good record of the plate reorganizations in the middle miocene at magnetic anomaly 5a time 12 5 to 11 m y b p in the late miocene at magnetic anomaly 3 4 time 6 5 m y b p and in the pliocene at magnetic anomaly 2 3 time 3 5 m y b p several abandoned spreading centers including the mathematician ridge were left behind as a result of these reorganizations the mathematician ridge is shown to be a set of ridges and trough whose origin is related to the tectonic activity associated with each of the above mentioned reorganizations since anomaly 5a

segmentation and eruptive activity along the east pacific rise at 16 n in relation with the nearby mathematician hotspot the 16 n segment of the east pacific rise is the most overinflated and shallowest of this fast spreading ridge in relation with an important magma flux due to the proximity of the mathematician hot spot here we analyze the detailed morphology of the axial dome and of the axial summit trough ast the lava morphology and the geometry of fissures and faults in regard to the attributes of the magma chamber beneath and of the nearby hotspot the data used are 1 m resolution bathymetry combined with seafloor photos and videos at the dome summit the ast is highly segmented by 10 third order and fourth order discontinuities over a distance of 30 km often two contiguous and synchronous asts coexist such a configuration implies a wide 1100 m minimum zone of diking the existence of contiguous asts their mobility their general en echelon arrangement accommodating the bow shape of the axial dome toward the hotspot plus the existence of a second magma lens under the western half of the summit pla teau clearly reflect the influence of the hotspot on the organization of the spreading system the different asts exhibit contrasted widths and depths we suggest that narrow asts reflect an intense volcanic activity that produces eruptions covering the tectonic features and partially filling the asts ast widening and deepening would indicate a decrease in volcanic activity but with continued dike intrusions at the origin of abundant sets of fissures and faults that are not masked by volcanic deposits

deep tow studies of the overlapping spreading centers at 9 03 n on the east pacific rise the deeply towed instrument package of the scripps institution of oceanography was used to study for the first time the fine scale structure of an overlapping spreading center osc system the 9 03 n osc on the east pacific rise epr the eastern and western limbs of this osc system which are 8 km apart and overlap by 27 km show marked differences away from the tips the spreading centers are highly tectonized and differ greatly from the ridge tips the western ridge tip exhibits a few fissures but no sign of recent volcanic activity whereas the eastern ridge tip is highly fissured and has experienced more recent volcanic episodes which are confined to a narrow zone within this highly fissured area in both cases the ridge tip fissures are 10 15 oblique to the strike of the faults that occur on the flanks of the adjacent portion of the opposite spreading axis indicating a recent change in the direction of deviatoric tension and suggesting that the eastern and western spreading centers have been propagating southward and northward respectively the eastern ridge tip fissures are transecting the flank of the western spreading axis suggesting that the eastern spreading center is about to become the through going trace of the east pacific rise in contrast the western spreading center disappears into abyssal hill terrain that was presumably created at the eastern ridge axis some of the very few tectonic features observed in the overlap basin may reflect the existence of a short lived shear couple due to the interaction of the two overlapping spreading centers sediment cover over the whole area and especially in the overlap basin is relatively thick supporting the idea of a time averaged deficit in the magmatic budget at this osc we suggest that the 9 03 n osc developed where two magmatic pulses independent in space and time and propagating along the strike of the east pacific rise away from the loci of melt emplacement failed to meet misalignment of the magmatic conduits resulted in the propagation of the two spreading centers past each other and the development of the ensuing osc geometry independent lines of evidence derived from the three dimensional inversion of the magnetic field at the 9 03 n osc sempere et al 1984 from numerical modelling of the growth of two en echelon elastic cracks in a tensile stress field sempere and macdonald 1986 and from geochemical data langmuir et al 1986 support our interpretation of the deep tow data we suggest that deviations from axial linearity of the spreading centers devals langmuir et al 1986 and small nonoverlapping offsets snoos batiza and margolis 1986 are simply local lows or saddle points along the axial depth profile that arise when two magmatic pulses propagating toward one another meet head on oscs and some saddle points i e devals snoos are all small rapidly evolving ridge axis discontinuities which may represent the surficial expression of the distal ends of small scale longitudinal convection cells beneath the east pacific rise

231pa and230th chronology of mid ocean ridge basalts mass spectrometric measurements of235u231pa and238u230th disequilibria are used to further constrain processes producing u series disequilibria in young mid ocean ridge basalts morb and to determine eruption ages for samples from 9 10 n east pacific rise and juan de fuca gorda ridges 231pa 235u activity ratios for axial basalts are large and relatively uniform within ridge segments the systematically large231pa 235u 230th 238u and226ra 230th activity ratios in morb are inconsistent with simple equilibrium melting models and crustal contamination or seawater alteration processes more complicated melting processes involving disequilibrium or heterogeneous melting of mantle sources and disequilibrium transport of melts to the crust could produce the large u series disequilibria in morb 231pa and230th model ages were determined by estimating initial231pa 235u and230th 232th ratios from axial samples and by assuming constancy of these ratios over time all231pa and230th ages agree to 0 7 ka for samples with ages of 0 130 ka these concordant ages validate the model assumptions of the two dating methods and suggest that mantle sources and melt generation processes have been uniform for these areas during the past 130 ka consequently 231pa and230th age dates can be used to quantify the temporal and spatial dependence of volcanism at oceanic spreading centers during the past 375 ka

tectonic volcanic segmentation and controls on hydrothermal venting along earth s fastest seafloor spreading system epr 27 32 s 1 we have collected 12 khz seabeam bathymetry and 120 khz dsl 120 side scan sonar and bathymetry data to determine the tectonic and volcanic segmentation along the fastest spreading 150 km myr part of the global mid ocean ridge system the southern east pacific rise between the easter and juan fernandez microplates this area is presently reorganizing by large scale dueling rift propagation and possible protomicroplate tectonics fracture patterns observed in the side scan data define structural segmentation scales along these ridge segments these sometimes but not always correlate with linear volcanic systems defining segmentation in the seabeam data some of the subsegments behave cohesively with in phase tectonic activity while fundamental discontinuities occur between other subsegments we also collected hydrothermal plume data using sensors mounted on the dsl 120 instrument package as well as ctdo tow yos to determine detailed structural and volcanic controls on the hydrothermal vent pattern observed along 600 km of the pacific nazca axis here we report the first rigorous correlation between coregistered hydrothermal plume and high resolution marine geophysical data on similar scales and over multisegment distances major plume concentrations were usually found where axial inflation was relatively high and fracture density was relatively low these correlations suggest that hydrothermal venting is most active where the apparent magmatic budget is greatest resulting in recent eruptions that have paved over the neovolcanic zone areas of voluminous acoustically dark young lava flows produced from recent fissure eruptions correlate with many of the major hydrothermal vent areas increased crustal permeability as gauged by increased fracture density does not enhance hydrothermal venting in this area axial summit troughs and graben are rare probably because of frequent volcanic resurfacing in this superfast spreading environment and are not good predictors of hydrothermal activity here many of the hydrothermal areas are found in inflated areas near the ends of segments suggesting that abundant magma is being supplied to these areas

why meter wide dikes at oceanic spreading centers abstract numerical models show that maximum dike width at oceanic spreading centers should scale with axial lithospheric thickness if the pre diking horizontal stress is close to the andersonian normal faulting stress and the stress is fully released in one dike intrusion dikes at slow spreading ridges could be over 5 m wide and maximum dike width should decrease with increasing plate spreading rate however data from ophiolites and tectonic windows into recently active spreading ridges show that mean dike width ranges from 0 5 m to 1 5 m and does not clearly correlate with plate spreading rate dike width is reduced if either the pre diking horizontal stress difference is lower than the faulting stress or the stress is not fully released by a dike partial stress release during a dike intrusion is the more plausible explanation and is also consistent with the fact that dikes intrude in episodes at iceland and afar partial stress release can result from limited magma supply when a crustal magma chamber acts as a closed source during dike intrusions limited magma supply sets the upper limit on the width of dikes and multiple dike intrusions in an episode may be required to fully release the axial lithospheric tectonic stress the observation of dikes that are wider than a few meters such as the recent event in afar indicates that large tectonic stress and large magma supply sometimes exist

evidence for volcanic eruption on the southern juan de fuca ridge between 1981 and 1987 the formation of new ocean crust at mid ocean ridges is known to be a discontinuous process in both space and time but little is known about the frequency and duration of eruptions along an active ridge segment here we present evidence from sea beam surveys and underwater photography for the eruption of lavas along a segment of the juan de fuca ridge between 1981 and 1987 although previous studies have inferred volcanic activity on ridges in areas where recent seismicity or young lava flows have been observed1 4 none has yet had direct evidence to date such a recent submarine eruption the temporal coincidence between this eruptive episode and the megaplumes huge sudden emissions of hot mineral laden water observed over this part of the ridge5 6 in 1986 and 1987 supports previous suggestions5 10 that megaplumes are caused by sea floor spreading events

rapid emplacement of a mid ocean ridge lava flow on the east pacific rise at 9 46 51 n in april 1991 during a submersible diving expedition to the east pacific rise epr crest at 9 46 51 n a new volcanic eruption on the sea floor was discovered here we report results from numerical modeling of that eruption which indicate that 4 106 6 106 m3 of lava was emplaced in 1 2 h with an average eruption rate of 103 106 m3 s 1 comparable to rates observed in hawaii at kilauea s east rift zone if the rapid emplacement of the 1991 epr lava and its short eruption duration are typical of volcanic events at fast spreading mid ocean ridge crests these characteristics have broad implications for our ability to detect monitor and understand the evolution of magmatic and volcanic processes within the axial zone

interplay between faults and lava flows in construction of the upper oceanic crust the east pacific rise crest 9 25 9 58 n the distribution of faults and fault characteristics along the east pacific rise epr crest between 9 25 n and 9 58 n were studied using high resolution side scan sonar data and near bottom bathymetric profiles the resulting analysis shows important variations in the density of deformational features and tectonic strain estimates at young seafloor relative to older sediment covered seafloor of the same spreading age we estimate that the expression of tectonic deformation and associated strain on old seafloor is 5 times greater than that on young seafloor owing to the frequent fault burial by recent lava flows thus the unseen volcanically overprinted tectonic deformation may contribute from 30 to 100 of the 300 m of subsidence required to fully build up the extrusive pile layer 2a many longer lava flows greater than 1 km dam against inward facing fault scarps this limits their length at distances of 1 2 km which are coincident with where the extrusive layer acquires its full thickness more than 2 of plate separation at the epr is accommodated by brittle deformation which consists mainly of inward facing faults 70 faulting at the epr crest occurs within the narrow 4 km wide upper crust that behaves as a brittle lid overlying the axial magma chamber deformation at greater distances off axis up to 40 km is accommodated by flexure of the lithosphere due to thermal subsidence resulting in 50 inward facing faults accommodating 50 of the strain on the basis of observed burial of faults by lava flows and damming of flows by fault scarps we find that the development of layer 2a is strongly controlled by low relief growth faults that form at the ridge crest and its upper flanks in turn those faults have a profound impact on how lava flows are distributed along and across the ridge crest

crustal fissuring on the crest of the southern east pacific rise at 17 15 40 s s with the near bottom dsl 120 andargo ii imaging systems we observe that the youngest lava flows on a relative age scale aresparsely fissured and that there is a cumulative increase in fissure abundance with time thatproduces a strong positive correlation between fissure density and relative age of lava flows average fissure widths were used to estimate fissure depths in the 17 15

seismic imaging of oceanic layer 2a between 9 30 n and 10 n on the east pacific rise from two ship wide aperture profiles we analyze two ship multichannel seismic wide aperture profiles wap acquired on the east pacific rise epr between 9 30 c and 10 n in may and june 1985 for offsets between 2 and 5 km most of the wap common depth point cdp gathers exhibit a strong retrograde reflection like seismic arrival that corresponds to rays turned within a very strong velocity gradient zone underlying the uppermost crustal layer 2a stacking of this postcritical arrival for hundreds of cdp gathers along the wap lines yields remarkably clear and virtually continuous images of the bottom of layer 2a for several tens of kilometers along and across the epr an innovative combination of this image with others of the seafloor sf and of the axial magma chamber amc provides an unusually clear composite picture of young upper crust we combine these images with detailed seismic velocity information also obtained from the cdp gathers to achieve an accurate determination of the layer 2a thickness in the area along the epr axis between 9 30 n and 10 n layer 2a shows a relatively constant thickness between 100 and 150 m 80 120 ms two way travel time across the axis however a line near 9 30 n indicates that layer 2a thickness rapidly increases by approximately a factor of 2 within 2 4 km of the axis and remains nearly constant afterwards thus the final thickness of layer 2a is attained before the development of large scale tectonic faulting strongly suggesting that the thickening of layer 2a away from the axis is due to successive episodes of volcanic activity increasing the thickness of the uppermost crustal section from the top rather than tectonic fracturing lowering the uppermost crustal seismic velocities and pushing the bottom of layer 2a downwards as the crust moves away from the axis

distribution of magma beneath the east pacific rise between the clipperton transform and the 9 17 n deval from forward modeling of common depth point data we have reprocessed seven cross axis common depth point cdp profiles between the clipperton transform and the 9 17 n deval deviation in axial linearity on the east pacific rise epr to understand the relationship between axial magma chamber amc width and seafloor morphology forward modeling of cross axis cdp profiles suggests a segmented amc in which significant variations in width occur across minor rise axis discontinuities e g devals the modeled rise segment widths bounded by the 9 53 n 9 35 n devals the 9 35 n 9 17 n devals and south of the 9 17 n deval were 0 7 km 1 0 1 2 km and 4 15 km respectively transition in amc width across these discontinuities is unclear due to the sparseness of cross axis line spacing however a simple association of devals with decreased magma supply is doubtful the minimum 250 m and maximum 4150 m amc widths are found near the 9 35 n and 9 17 n devals respectively the reprocessing of cdp profiles included repicking stacking velocities to ensure a proper stack of the amc reflector and its associated diffractions imaging postcritical reflections from the base of layer 2a finite difference time migration ray theoretical depth migration and travel time modeling of amc diffraction patterns constraints on amc width were derived from forward modeling techniques based on analytic raytracing velocity models were constructed from seabeam bathymetry and modified expanding spread profile esp velocity depth functions esp velocity models were altered to compensate for off axis thickening of layer 2a as imaged in the cdp reflection data continuous two dimensional velocity models constructed from modified esp velocity depth functions and seabeam bathymetry should account for ray bending at the seafloor basalt interface and any lateral velocity gradients induced by a thickening layer 2a stacked data were time migrated using a finite difference algorithm and extrapolated to depth using ray theoretical depth migration reflector positions were input into our forward modeling scheme to produce a zero offset travel time response of our migrated solution the travel time response was then overlain on the stacked section to ensure an adequate match especially to diffractions generated at the amc edge forward modeling of amc diffraction patterns reveals that original amc width estimates were too large the under migration of the amc reflector resulted from the conversion of stacking to interval velocities without accounting for topographic effects on individual cmp gathers thus resulting in improperly collapsed diffraction hyperbolae ship wandering relative to the amc edge can account for variations in amc reflector amplitude and dropout on the along axis cdp line the continuity of the amc appears unbroken across several ridge axis discontinuities between the clipperton transform and the 9 17 n deval which suggests an amc whose along axis dimension exceeds 75 km reflectivity modeling of cmp gathers suggests that the available data are consistent with a magma chamber comprising only a thin layer of melt overlying a zone of partially solidified crystal mush such a thin layer of melt might inhibit along axis mixing of magmas and thereby account for variations in magma composition along the rise crest this melt lens model for the amc would also produce strong diffraction patterns as imaged in the cdp data

central anomaly magnetization high documentation of crustal accretion along the east pacific rise 9 55 9 25 n near bottom magnetic data collected along the crest of the east pacific rise between 9 55 and 9 25 n identify the central anomaly magnetization high camh a geomagnetic anomaly modulated by crustal accretionary processes over timescales of 104 years a significant decrease in camh amplitude is observed along axis from north to south with the steepest gradient between 9 42 and 9 36 n the source of this variation is neither a systematic change in geochemistry nor varying paleointensity at the time of lava eruption instead magnetic moment models show that it can be accounted for by an observed 50 decrease in seismic layer 2a thickness along axis layer 2a is assumed to be the extrusive volcanic layer and we propose that this composes most of the magnetic source layer along the ridge axis the 9 37 n overlapping spreading center osc is located at the southern end of the steep camh gradient and the 9 42 9 36 n ridge segment is interpreted to be a transition zone in crustal accretion processes with robust magmatism north of 9 42 n and relatively low magmatism at present south of 9 36 n the 9 37 n osc is also the only bathymetric discontinuity associated with a shift in the camh peak which deviates 0 7 km to the west of the axial summit trough indicating southward migration of the osc camh boundaries defined from the maximum gradients lie within or overlie the neovolcanic zone nvz boundaries throughout our survey area implying a systematic relationship between recent volcanic activity and camh source maximum flow distances and minimum lava dip angles are inferred on the basis of the lateral distance between the nvz and camh boundaries lava dip angles average 14 toward the ridge axis which agrees well with previous observations and offers a new method for estimating lava dip angles along fast spreading ridges where volcanic sequences are not exposed

characterization of reservoir lithologies within subunconformity pools pekisko formation medicine river field alberta canada the pekisko formation in western canada is a third order sequence comprised of an open marine grainstone through restricted carbonate mudstone succession truncation of the pekisko along an unconformity edge prior to the jurassic and several periods of incision from early jurassic early cretaceous have formed an intricately sculptured subcrop belt in the medicine river field oil is trapped in discrete pools close to the unconformity edge reservoir facies comprise three lithologies medium crystalline dolostone with intercrystalline and vuggy porosity forms the reservoir in an elongate dolostone body that has replaced grainstone fine crystalline dolostone is facies selective within a lime mudstone unit in which the common reservoir rock is bioturbated dolomudstone with intercrystalline porosity grainstones have secondary porosity formed though leaching of microcrystalline calcite allochems and intergranular cements reservoir quality is assessed from consideration of orthogonal permeability values kmax maximum horizontal permeability k90 horizontal permeability at 90 to the maximum and kv vertical permeability obtained from conventional whole core analyses sedimentary lamination primarily affects the kv and the presence of fine grained lamination dictates that kv 3k90 and kv k90 from this relationship the fracture density in all three lithologies appears to be similar low and variable porosity and permeability values in grainstones indicate that the fracture system is poorly connected to the matrix despite leaching and fracturing at the unconformity edge reservoir distribution closely follows patterns of facies that were susceptible to dolomitization future exploration potential lies in fine crystalline dolostone bodies that may form stratigraphic traps downdip from the unconformity edge

the regional tectonic fabric of the east pacific rise from 12 50 n to 15 10 n seamarc ii backscatter data for the east pacific rise are used to create structural maps of ridge parallel fabric on the crest and flanks of the rise from 12 50 n to 15 10 n the structural data are statistically analyzed to describe the spacing density azimuth facing direction and length of faults results of the statistical studies are compared with predictions for the width of the zone of active fault formation models for the generation of abyssal hills plate kinematic predictions models of along strike segmentation and observations of the asymmetric subsidence of oceanic crust on the cocos and pacific plates comparisons of the number of faults with distance from the rise crest and examination of the stratigraphic relationship between seamounts and the ridge parallel tectonic fabric illustrate that the zone where new faults are created is located within a few kilometers of the ridge crest fault density data reveal that fault distributions do not resemble periodic processes examination of fault density and spacing data along strike indicates that there is a high probability that the mean number of faults per crustal block differs significantly from north to south changes in along strike statistics correlate well with the occurrence of three overlapping spreading centers located within the survey area additionally fault spacing s determined from seamarc i and seamarc ii backscatter imagery demonstrate that quantitative analyses of seafloor fabric are dependent upon the instrument used to collect the data analysis of inward and outward facing faults indicates that especially in the northern portion of the survey area half graben models are better predictors of abyssal hill morphology than full graben models within the survey area inward facing faults are more abundant and affect more of the oceanic crust than outward facing faults although the cocos and pacific plates subside at different rates this asymmetry is not reflected in the tectonic component of morphology fault azimuth is observed to vary as a function of crustal age although the overall trend of the change in azimuthal values agrees with the trend predicted by relative poles of opening for the pacific and cocos plates the variability in azimuthal data suggests that other processes contribute to the orientation of lineations formed near the axis of the east pacific rise finally the statistical analyses demonstrate that all fault parameters are better correlated about the ridge axis than along strike of the axis the differences between the northern and southern portions of the survey area are reflected in the seamarc ii bathymetric data which depict a continuous narrow ridge crest in the southern region and an irregularly shaped ridge crest in the northern region that shoals and deepens every 30 to 40 km this along strike variability observed over distances of less than 100 km suggests that large scale plate stresses are not the only processes responsible for generating the tectonic fabric observed on the flanks of the east pacific rise

geochemical and structural studies of the lamont seamounts seamounts as indicators of mantle processes abstract a chain of seamounts located just west of the east pacific rise epr axis at 09 55 n herein called the lamont seamounts have been investigated using sea marc i and sea beam sonar surveys alvin submersible dives deep sea camera tows and dredging the most recently active volcanic vents on the summits of these volcanoes are located at the periphery of each caldera or crater rim or at the margins of caldera floors the distribution of recent volcanic vents and the morphology of the summit plateaus suggest the possible existence of ring fractures on these seamounts ring fractures could be important in focusing post caldera collapse eruptions around summit craters and building summit plateaus structural and morphological data and the petrology of recovered lavas suggest that calderas in the lamont seamounts probably formed by collapse associated with magma withdrawal into large primary vertical magma conduit systems rather than by repeated inflation deflation cycles associated with steady state shallow level magma chambers calderas in the lamont seamounts have evolved through coalescence of adjoining craters and the plan view shape and morphology of each caldera suggest that primary magma conduits have migrated beneath the summit of each seamount through time compared to lavas from the adjacent epr the majority of lamont seamount and cone lavas are more primitive depleted in incompatible elements and compositionally heterogeneous variations in light rare earth elements relative to major elements e g tio 2 na 2 o na 2 o cao and radiogenic isotopes cannot be ascribed to differences in the amount of partial melting of a single n type morb source rather it appears that lamont seamount lavas were derived from heterogeneous mantle sources variably depleted in highly incompatible elements comparison with lavas from the adjacent ridge crest suggests that magma plumbing and ascent mechanisms beneath the lamont seamounts are separate from those along the epr in particular seamount magmas appear to reflect near primary melting events in the mantle whereas epr lavas are the products of shallow level crystallization and mixing in crustal magma chambers absence of long lived magma chambers within the lamont seamounts may account for the low level of hydrothermal activity observed throughout the chain furthermore because of the tight control on sample location and the recovery of lavas having distinct parents from individual volcanoes as well as the lamont chain as a whole we propose that the scale of mantle chemical heterogeneities is less than 5 km

estimation of single phase permeability from parameters of particle size distribution the single phase permeability of a permeable medium is determined by both the bulk physical properties of the interconnected pore system e g porosity and tortuosity and the statistics of its particle size distribution psd an expression of the relation between permeability and pore level properties is the carman kozeny ck equation this equation has historically been used to explain the fundamental causes of permeability because it provides a link between media attributes and flow resistance because the ck equation has not been applied to media consisting of mixed particle sizes we modify the ck equation to express the single phase permeability of unconsolidated media in terms of both the psd statistics and the bulk physical properties we find that we can relate permeability to the parameters of a psd for unconsolidated media this relationship matches published data it generally fails for permeabilities less than 1 m2 1 darcy probably because not all of the pore space is supporting flow in this region with the model partially verified by experimental data we use it to investigate the nature of permeability porosity relationships and of the origin of variability in permeability the latter capability will explain many of the permeability differences observed in outcrop studies

automated display and statistical analysis of interpreted deep sea bottom photographs abstract an automated system for interpreting and displaying deep sea bottom photographs has been developed which allows rapid compilation and analysis of geological information initially collected photographs are classified using a scheme similar to those applied to deep sea volcanic and hydrothermal terrains by other workers towed camera positions from a transponder navigation system are smoothed using a cubic spline technique to obtain a more accurate model of the tow vehicle track line scan recorded data of the camera s height above the seafloor and camera lens characteristics are used to calculate the field of view for each photograph these data sources are integrated to produce a graphic output which combines the location orientation field of view geological and biological information for all photographs in a single color display an illustration of the technique is presented for a photographic data set collected within the caldera of axial seamount 45 57 n 130 03 w a site of active high and low temperature hydrothermal venting on the central juan de fuca ridge results confirm the existence and pinpoint the locations of several areas of known hydrothermal activity within the caldera quantitative analyses of the data base indicate statistical associations between various geological and hydrothermal parameters in particular rigorous statistical testing indicates that hydrothermal activity is associated with regions dominated by sheet flow lavas and fracturing

continuous near bottom gravity measurements made with a bgm 3 gravimeter in dsv alvin on the east pacific rise crest near 9 31 n and 9 50 n a bell bgm 3 gravimeter has been used to collect continuous underway near bottom 3 to 10 m altitude gravity measurements from the deep diving submersible dsv alvin during surveys on the east pacific rise epr crest near 9 31 n and 9 50 n closely spaced 20 to 30 m gravity measurements were made along transects up to 8 km long in both regions repeatability of measurements made at the same location on different dives is 0 3 mgal along track spatial resolution of anomalies is 130 160 m with the limiting factors being precision and sampling rate of the pressure gauge depth data used to calculate vertical accelerations of the submersible the average upper crustal density of the ridge crest determined from the relationship between depth and free water gravity anomalies varies greatly between 9 31 n and 9 50 n average upper crustal densities of 2410 kg m 3 for the 9 50 n area and 2690 kg m 3 for the 9 31 n area were calculated the different densities are not due to differing geometry of the layer 2a 2b boundary or a regional cross axis gravity gradient differences in porosity of the shallow crustal rocks or a difference in the proportion of low density extrusives to higher density dikes and sills within layer 2a in these two areas are the likely causes of the different upper crustal densities bouguer gravity anomalies near the epr axis are primarily small amplitude 0 5 2 mgal are a few hundred meters across and appear to be lineated parallel to the axis larger amplitude bouguer anomalies of up to 4 mgal were found at a few locations across the crestal plateau and are associated with pillow ridges composed of lavas which are clearly younger than the surrounding seafloor these ridges have distinct chemical compositions compared to lavas from the axial summit collapse trough asct at the same latitude probable sources of the 0 5 to 2 mgal anomalies observed on the summit plateau include areas of collapsed and fissured terrain and dike swarms feeding melt through layer 2a to the surface a grid survey of the ridge axis near 9 50 n shows bouguer anomalies lineated along the axis suggesting that dike swarms do contribute to the observed bouguer anomalies the along axis continuity of the gravity anomalies is disrupted at a 75 m offset of the asct suggesting that shallow feeders of lava to the surface may be segmented on a finer scale than the deeper crustal magmatic system this initial study confirms the ability to conduct high resolution near bottom continuous gravity measurements from alvin it also provides important information on how the shallow crustal structure of a fast spreading mid ocean ridge develops and how it varies with the surface morphology

detailed analysis of near tectonic features along the east pacific rise at 16 n near the mathematician hot spot spreading processes at the axes of fast spreading ridges are mainly controlled by magmatic activity whereas tectonic activity dominates further away from the axis high resolution near bottom bathymetry data photographs videos and human observations from submersible surveys are used to develop a detailed tectonic analysis of the 16 n segment of the east pacific rise epr these data are used to evaluate how a highly magmatic segment close to a hot spot affects the nucleation and evolution of faulting patterns and impacts the evaluation of tectonic strain within 2 km of the spreading axis our study shows that 1 the growth of tectonic features differs in response to dike intrusion and tectonic extension 2 the initiation of brittle extension is strongly controlled by the location of the axial magma lens and the development of layer 2a and 3 the high magmatic budget and the off axis magma lens in the west part of the plateau do not significantly impact the initiation of brittle extension along the central portion of the 16 n segment within the axial summit region more than 2 of plate separation at 16 n on the epr is accommodated by brittle extension as is observed at other epr segments the interaction of the mathematician hot spot with this epr segment has no significant influence on the initiation of the tectonic deformation but it does reduce the development of the brittle deformation

paving the seafloor volcanic emplacement processes during the 2005 2006 eruptions at the fast spreading east pacific rise 9 50 n 1 the 2005 2006 eruptions near 9 50 n at the east pacific rise epr marked the first observed repeat eruption at a mid ocean ridge and provided a unique opportunity to deduce the emplacement dynamics of submarine lava flows since these new flows were documented in april 2006 a total of 40 deep towed imaging surveys have been conducted with the woods hole oceanographic institution s whoi towcam system more than 60 000 digital color images and high resolution bathymetric profiles of the 2005 2006 flows from the towcam surveys were analyzed for lava flow morphology and for the presence of kipukas collapse features faults and fissures we use these data to quantify the spatial distributions of lava flow surface morphologies and to investigate how they relate to the physical characteristics of the ridge crest such as seafloor slope and inferred dynamics of flow emplacement we conclude that lava effusion rate was the dominant factor controlling the observed morphological variations in the 2005 2006 flows we also show that effusion rates were higher than in previously studied eruptions at this site and varied systematically along the length of the eruptive fissure this is the first well documented study in which variations in seafloor lava morphology can be directly related to a well documented ridge crest eruption where effusion rate varied significantly

seismic structure and indicators of magma budget along the southern east pacific rise in this paper we re examine the relationship between seismically constrained variations in crustal structure along the southern east pacific rise sepr and the segment scale variations in axial depth morphology basalt geochemistry and hydrothermal activity that have often been attributed to along axis differences in the supply of magma to the mid ocean ridge along 800 km of the fast spreading sepr good correlations exist between axial depth ridge cross sectional area mantle bouguer anomaly and the mgo weight percent of basalts recovered from the rise axis these correlations indicate along axis changes in crustal thickness and temperature consistent with variations in magma supply on time scales of 100 000 years in contrast we show that the depth and width of the midcrustal magma sill the thickness of seismic layer 2a and the intensity of hydrothermal venting are poorly correlated with regional variations in ridge depth and cross sectional area we suggest that the emplacement geometry width of the intrusion zone and flow lengths not magma supply controls extrusive layer seismic layer 2a thickness we hypothesize that magma lens properties and hydrothermal activity are closely linked to spreading events dike intrusion eruptions faulting which occur on much shorter timescales 10 100 years than the longer term variations in magma supply reflected in along axis changes in the shape and depth of the ridge axis

a record of eruption and intrusion at a fast spreading ridge axis axial summit trough of the east pacific rise at 9 10 n 1 high resolution side scan sonar near bottom multibeam bathymetry and deep sea photo and bathymetry traverses are used to map the axial summit trough ast at the east pacific rise between 9 and 10 n we define three ridge axis morphologic types no ast narrow ast and wide ast which characterize distinct ridge crest domains spanning tens of kilometers along strike near bottom observations modeling of deformation above intruding dikes and comparisons to the geologic and geophysical structure of the ridge crest are used to develop a revised model of ast genesis and evolution this model helps constrain the record of intrusive and extrusive magmatism and styles of lava deposition along the ridge crest at time scales from hundreds to tens of thousands of years the grabens in the narrow ast domain 9 43 53 n are consistent with deformation above the most recent 10 diking events beneath the ridge crest frequent high effusion rate extrusive volcanism in this domain several eruptions every 100 years overprints near axis deformation and maintains a consistent ast width the most recent eruption at the ridge crest occurred in this area and did not significantly modify the physical characteristics of the ast the grabens in the wide ast domain 9 23 43 n originated with similar dimensions to the narrow ast spreading driven primarily by the intrusion of shallow dikes within a narrow axial zone causes the initial graben bounding faults to migrate away from the axis infrequent extrusive volcanism several eruptions every 1000 years fills a portion of the subsidence that accumulates over time but does not significantly modify the width of the ast outside of these domains lower effusion rate constructional volcanism without efficient drain back fills and erases the signature of the ast the relative frequency of intrusive versus extrusive magmatic events controls the morphology of the ridge crest and appears to remain constant over millennial time scales within the domains we have identified however over longer time scales 10 25 ka domain specific intrusive to extrusive ratios do not appear to be fixed in space resulting in a fairly consistent volcanic accretion over the length scale of the second order ridge segment between 9 n and 10 n

volcanic eruption of the mid ocean ridge along the east pacific rise crest at 9 45 52 n direct submersible observations of seafloor phenomena associated with an eruption event in april 1991 in april 1991 we witnessed from the submersible alvin a suite of previously undocumented seafloor phenomena accompanying an in progress eruption of the mid ocean ridge on the east pacific rise crest at 9 45 n 52 n the volume of the eruption could not be precisely determined although comparison of pre and post eruption seabeam bathymetry indicate that any changes in ridge crest morphology resulting from the eruption were 10 m high effects of the eruption included 1 increased abundance and redistribution of hydrothermal vents disappearance of numerous vent communities and changes in characteristics of vent fauna and mineral deposits within the eruption area since december 1989 2 murkiness of bottom waters up to tens of meters above the seafloor due to high densities of suspended mineral and biogenic particulates 3 destruction of a vent community by lava flows mass wasting and possible hydrovolcanic explosion at a site known as tubeworm barbecue in the axial summit caldera asc at 9 50 6 n 4 near critical temperatures of hydrothermal vent fluids ranging up to 403 c 5 temporal variations over a 2 week interval in both temperatures and chemical isotopic compositions of hydrothermal fluids 6 unusual compositions of end member vent fluids with ph values ranging to a record low of 2 5 salinities ranging as low as 0 3 wt nacl one twelfth that of seawater and dissolved gases reaching high concentrations 65 mmol l for both co2 and h2s 7 venting at temperatures above 380 c of visually detectable white vapor that transformed to plumes of gray smoke a few centimeters above vent orifices 8 disorganized venting of both high temperature fluids black and gray smoke and large volumes of cooler diffuse hydrothermal fluids directly from the basaltic seafloor rather than from hydrothermal mineral constructions 9 rapid and extensive growth of flocculent white bacterial mats species unknown on and under the seafloor in areas experiencing widespread venting of diffuse hydrothermal fluid and 10 subseafloor downslope migration of magma normal to the ridge axis in a network of small scale 1 5 m diameter lava tubes and channels to distances at least 100 200 m outside the asc we suggest that in april 1991 intrusion of dikes in the eruption area to 200 m beneath the asc floor resulted in phase separation of fluids near the tops of the dikes and a large flux of vapor rich hydrothermal fluids through the overlying rubbly cavernous lavas low salinities and gas rich compositions of hydrothermal fluids sampled in the eruption area are appropriate for a vapor phase in a seawater system undergoing subcritical liquid vapor phase separation boiling and phase segregation hydrothermal fluids streamed directly from fissures and pits that may have been loci of lava drainback and or hydrovolcanic explosions these fissures and pits were lined with white mats of a unique fast growing bacteria that was the only life associated with the brand new vents the prolific bacteria which covered thousands of square meters on the ridge crest and were also abundant in subseafloor voids may thrive on high levels of gases in the vapor rich hydrothermal fluids initially escaping the hydrothermal system white bacterial particulates swept from the seafloor by hydrothermal vents swirled in an unprecedented biogenic blizzard up to 50 m above the bottom the bacterial proliferation of april 1991 is likely to be a transient bloom that will be checked quickly either by decline of dissolved gas concentrations in the fluids as rapid heat loss brings about cessation of boiling and or by grazing as other organisms are re established in the biologically devastated area

geological indexes of hydrothermal venting hydrothermal venting occurs on mid ocean ridge axes with a diverse array of morphological structural and petrological characteristics consequently it is not clear if certain geological environments are more conducive than others to hydrothermal activity this paper uses complementary data sets recently collected on multiple tectonic segment scales along intermediate to superfast spreading ridge sections to systematically examine this issue the spatial density of venting is gauged by plume incidence the fraction of linear ridge crest overlain by hydrothermal plumes five geological indexes are compared with plume incidence ridge axis elevation ridge axis cross sectional area the percentage of ridge axis underlain by an axial magma chamber amc reflector mgo wt in basaltic glass and spreading rate a mean value for plume incidence and each index where available is calculated for each of 14 second to fourth order tectonic segments from the juan de fuca ridge 44 30 to 48 45 n and the northern 9 to 11 50 n and southern 13 50 to 18 40 s east pacific rise plumes are most common on segments with a cross sectional area 3 5 km2 a net elevation 0 35 km amc coverage 60 and mgo 7 wt spreading rate is not deterministic on the segment scale the data suggest two classes of ridge segments segments with relatively low geological index values have a uniformly low plume incidence indicative of a presently feeble magmatic budget those with high index values have a plume incidence ranging from low to complete coverage apparently a consequence of a magma supply rate sufficient to produce frequent dike intrusions and highly variable hydrothermal activity the best individual predictors of hydrothermal activity are cross sectional area and net elevation applying these indexes to the east pacific rise between 18 n and 33 s suggests that the unexplored segments with the highest probability of activity are those at 15 30 16 n 6 9 n 5 6 s 27 28 s and 30 30 33 s

off axis volcanism at the east pacific rise detected by uranium series dating of basalts recent detailed surveys of the east pacific rise have revealed the complexity of the volcanic and magmatic processes occurring along and across fast spreading ocean ridge crests1 7 in parallel with geological and geochemical investigations it is now possible to investigate the temporal and spatial pattern of volcanism at ocean ridges by dating young basalts using mass spectrometric uranium series disequilibria methods8 11 here we use 238u 230th and235u 231pa ages for basalts to quantify the spatial extent of young volcanism and crustal accretion at 9 31 n on the east pacific rise most of the ages are younger than would be expected based on off axis distance and spreading rate we infer from these anomalously young ages that most of the dated basalts on the crestal plateau were erupted 0 5 2 km outside the axial summit caldera with some volcanism occurring as far as 4 km off axis melts erupted outside the axial summit caldera can have crustal residence times and magmatic supply systems that differ from those of axial lavas

structural evolution of the east pacific rise axis from 13 10 n to 10 35 n interpretations from seamarc i data in 1983 the seamarc i and the sea beam systems imaged the east pacific rise epr and the clipperton transform fault from 13 10 n to 9 50 n revealing both magmatic and tectonic segmentation along the rise axis tectonic segments are defined by an undulating axial zone of extension which widens and narrows at an average wavelength of 45 km in addition axial fissure fault density and length curves reveal wavelengths of 30 and 56 km the narrowest axial zones 0 5 km in width correspond to regions of hydrothermal activity and are located atop regional morphologic highs quasi harmonically spaced at 155 km these highs define the major magma centers on the rise axis about which seamounts cluster superimposed on the intermediate wavelength highs are smaller highs from 10 to 50 km in length which are truncated by overlapping spreading centers osc s at their distal edges the rise axis widens near osc s while it narrows and disappears near the clipperton transform fault suggesting that transforms and osc s have different origins imagery on and adjacent to a few osc s reveals that in some cases osc s migrate along the axis forming relict off axial structural traces at oblique angles 285 330 to the axis off axial fault density and length curves have wavelengths similar to the axial curves however fault densities to the west of the axis are somewhat antisymmetric to fissure fault densities on the axis in contrast faults to the east of the axis nearly mimic fissure fault density and length curves on the axis suggesting that the fracture pattern is controlled by the state of deviatoric stress in the adjacent cocos plate to the east the data suggest that large deep seated magma diapirs may dominate the magmatic segmentation of the epr generating dynamically supported 155 km wavelength highs smaller shallower magma cupulas may rise as fingers to the seafloor above the large diapirs where the magma erupts may be a factor of the thin skin tectonic segmentation of the rise axis formed in response to the state of deviatoric stress in the upper crust small ocs s may form at crustal weak points and may migrate in response to magma body movement along the axis the instability of both the magmatic and tectonic segmentation is apparent from the oblique alignment of both seamount chains and relict osc s with their present day counterparts

surface deformation in volcanic rift zones abstract the principal conduits for magma transport within rift zones of basaltic volcanoes are steeply dipping dikes some of which feed fissure eruptions elastic displacements accompanying a single dike emplacement elevate the flanks of the rift relative to a central depression concomitant normal faulting may transform the depression into a graben thus accentuating the topographic features of the rift if eruption occurs the characteristic ridge trough ridge displacement profile changes to a single ridge centered at the fissure and the erupted lava alters the local topography a well developed rift zone owes its structure and topography to the integrated effects of many magmatic rifting events to investigate this process we compute the elastic displacements and stresses in a homogeneous two dimensional half space driven by a pressurized crack that may breach the surface a derivative graphical method permits one to estimate the three geometric parameters of the dike height inclination and depth to center and the mechanical parameter driving pressure rock stiffness from a smoothly varying displacement profile direct comparison of measured and theoretical profiles may be used to estimate these parameters even if inelastic deformation notably normal faulting creates discontinuities in the profile geological structures open cracks normal faults buckles and thrust faults form because of stresses induced by dike emplacement and fissure eruption theoretical stress states associated with dilation of a pressurized crack are used to interpret the distribution and orientation of these structures and their role in rift formation

time and space constraints on the evolution of medium rate spreading centers geologic field relationships observed in the axial valley of the southern juan de fuca ridge suggest that high effusion rate sheet flow volcanism has been active for a maximum of about 16 000 yr similar observations in the axial region of the east pacific rise near lat 21 n suggest that the duration of the pillow flow dominant phase may be 5 10 4 yr geochemical evidence from axial and off axis basalt samples from both the juan de fuca ridge and east pacific rise 21 n indicates that surficial geologic cycles of volcanism tectonism and hydrothermal activity are an expression of changes in the locus of replenishment within the magma chamber that take place with a periodicity of 10 4 10 5 yr anomalously high rates of spreading due to magmatic replenishment and inflation during the first phases of a volcanic cycle may cause the southern juan de fuca ridge to display a morphology more commonly associated with fast rate spreading centers

fine scale crustal magnetization variations and segmentation of the east pacific rise 9 10 9 50 n sea surface scalar magnetic field measurements collected over the east pacific rise near 9 30 n and within the brunhes chron have been inverted for magnetization of the upper crust a close track spacing 1 3 km and careful corrections for sources of background noise make this data set particularly suitable for investigating fine scale crustal magnetization a well defined axial magnetization high can be traced throughout the survey area but varies considerably along axis marked changes in the amplitude of axial magnetization are often accompanied by offsets in its along axis linearity e g at 9 25 9 37 and 9 46 n on the basis of comparisons with seismic reflection data and geochemical measurements on basalts dredged from this rise area we argue that the along axis variation in the axial magnetic high is the combined result of variations in the thickness of the magnetic source layer and in the magnetization of the layer caused by variations in the iron and titanium abundances in the extrusive upper crust these two explanations are probably coupled in that a thicker source layer arises from a deeper axial magma chamber which is more prone to the production of evolved magmas rich in iron and titanium because crustal magnetization represents a time integrated signal averaged over a substantial volume of rock the observation of offsets in the linearity of the axial magnetization high implies that such features which we suggest mark boundaries between distinct magmatic systems within the axial crust are stable on timescales of at least several tens of thousands of years a distinct pattern of short wavelength 5 km magnetization anomalies parallel to the rise axis to the north of 9 25 n correlates well with short reversed subchrons within the brunhes chron although independent observations are needed to confirm this explanation the correlation offers the potential that the determination of fine scale magnetization anomalies may prove useful for investigating temporal details of crustal evolution at fast spreading ridges

locating hydrothermal vents by detecting buoyant advected plumes an improved method of detecting buoyant hydrothermal plumes and locating their source vents is introduced plumes are detected by computing fluid stability from conductivity temperature and depth measurements acquired during navigated towed vertically oscillating casts over the endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge for each instability detected the maximum range to its hydrothermal source is estimated by multiplying a theoretical plume equilibration time by a measured current velocity using an estimate of current direction the method reliably locates plume sources where they are known to exist in all of the focused vent fields mapped by submersible and in several isolated diffuse flow sites the method generates a distribution of hydrothermal sources that is more consistent with variations in surface permeability than with circulation cells spaced evenly along a uniformly permeable axis axial instabilities are nearly continuous along the heavily fissured and fractured western wall of the axial valley beyond the axial valley instabilities evidence that hydrothermal upflow penetrates the outer slopes of the ridge crest probably along a boundary between sheet and pillow flows