Variations in melt supply along an orthogonal supersegment of the Southwest Indian Ridge (16°–25°E)

Caicai Zha; Jian Lin; Zhiyuan Zhou; Xubo Zhang; Min Xu; Fan Zhang

doi:10.1007/s13131-021-1724-3

Volume 40 Issue 5

May 2021

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Caicai Zha, Jian Lin, Zhiyuan Zhou, Xubo Zhang, Min Xu, Fan Zhang. Variations in melt supply along an orthogonal supersegment of the Southwest Indian Ridge (16°–25°E)[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2021, 40(5): 94-104. doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1724-3

Citation:

Caicai Zha, Jian Lin, Zhiyuan Zhou, Xubo Zhang, Min Xu, Fan Zhang. Variations in melt supply along an orthogonal supersegment of the Southwest Indian Ridge (16°–25°E)[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2021, 40(5): 94-104. doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1724-3

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Variations in melt supply along an orthogonal supersegment of the Southwest Indian Ridge (16°–25°E)

doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1724-3

Caicai Zha^{1, 2, 3, 5, 6},
Jian Lin^{1, 2, 3, 4, 6
,
,},
Zhiyuan Zhou^{1, 2, 3},
Xubo Zhang^{1, 2, 3},
Min Xu^{1, 2, 3},
Fan Zhang^{1, 2, 3}

1.
Key Laboratory of Ocean and Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
2.
Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 511458, China
3.
China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Earth Sciences, CAS-HEC, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
4.
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
5.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
6.
Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China

Funds: The Program of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) under contract No. GML2019ZD0205; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41890813, 41976066, 41976064, 91858207, 91958211 and 91628301; the Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract Nos Y4SL021001, QYZDY-SSW-DQC005 and 133244KYSB20180029; the National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract Nos 2018YFC0309800 and 2018YFC0310105; the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation under contract No. 2021A1515012227; the Program of China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association under contract No. DY135-S2-1-04.

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail: jlin@whoi.edu
Received Date: 2020-03-05
Accepted Date: 2020-05-03

Available Online: 2021-04-20

Publish Date: 2021-05-01

Abstract

Abstract

The orthogonal supersegment of the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge at 16°–25°E is characterized by significant along-axis variations of mantle potential temperature. A detailed analysis of multibeam bathymetry, gravity, and magnetic data were performed to investigate its variations in magma supply and crustal accretion process. The results revealed distinct across-axis variations of magma supply. Specifically, the regionally averaged crustal thickness reduced systematically from around 7 Ma to the present, indicating a regionally decreasing magma supply. The crustal structure is asymmetric in regional scale between the conjugate ridge flanks, with the faster-spreading southern flank showing thinner crust and greater degree of tectonic extension. Geodynamic models of mantle melting suggested that the observed variations in axial crustal thickness and major element geochemistry can be adequately explained by an eastward decrease in mantle potential temperature of about 40°C beneath the ridge axis. In this work, a synthesized model was proposed to explain the axial variations of magma supply and ridge segmentation stabilities. The existence of large ridge-axis offsets may play important roles in controlling melt supply. Several large ridge-axis offsets in the eastern section (21°–25°E) caused sustained along-axis focusing of magma supply at the centers of eastern ridge segments, enabling quasi-stable segmentation. In contrast, the western section (16°–21°E), which lacks large ridge-axis offsets, is associated with unstable segmentation patterns.
- ultraslow-spreading ridge,
- Southwest Indian Ridge,
- ridge segmentation,
- asymmetric accretion,
- melt supply,
- mantle temperature gradient

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References(43)

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