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1.
The Kane Fracture Zone probably is better covered by geophysical survey data, acquired both by design and incidentally, than
any other fracture zone in the North Atlantic Ocean. We have used this data to map the basement morphology of the fracture
zone and the adjacent crust for nearly 5700 km, from near Cape Hatteras to the middle of the Mesozoic magnetic anomalies west
of Cap Blanc, northwest Africa. We use the trends of the Kane transform valley and its inactive fracture valley to determine
the record of plate-motion changes, and we interpret the basement structural data to examine how the Kane transform evolved
in response to changes in plate motion. Prior to about 133 Ma the Kane was a small-offset transform and its fracture valley
is structurally expressed only as a shallow ( < 0.5 km) trough. In younger crust, the offset may have increased to as much
as 190 km (present offset 150 km) and the fracture valley typically is up to 1.2 km deep. This part of the fracture valley
records significant changes in direction of relative plate motion (5°–30°) near 102 Ma, 92 Ma, 59 Ma, 22 Ma, and 17 Ma. Each
change corresponds to a major reorganization of plate boundaries in areas around the Atlantic, and the fracture-zone orientation
appears to be a sensitive recorder of these events.
The Kane transform has exhibited characteristic responses to changes in relative plate motion. Counterclockwise plate-motion
changes put the left-lateral transform offset into extension, and the response was for ridge tips at the ridge-transform intersections
to propagate across the transform valley and against the truncating lithosphere. Heating of this lithosphere appears to have
produced uplift and formation of a well developed transverse ridge that bounds the inactive fracture valley on its older side.
The propagating ridge tips also rotated toward the transform fault in response to the local stress field, forming prominent
hooked ridges that now extend into or across the inactive fracture valley. Clockwise (compressional) changes in relative plate
motion produced none of these features, and the resulting fracture valleys typically have a wide-V shape.
The Kane transform experienced severe adaptions to the changes in relative plate motion at about 102 Ma (compressional shift)
and 92 Ma (extensional shift), and new transform faults were formed in crust outside the contemporary transform valley. Subsequently,
the transform offset has been smaller and the rates of change in plate motion have been more gradual, so transform-fault adjustment
has been contained within the transform valley. The fracture-valley structure formed during extensional and compressional
changes in relative plate motion can be decidedly asymmetrical in conjugate limbs of the fracture zone. This asymmetry appears
to be related to the ‘absolute’ motion of the plate boundary with respect to the asthenosphere. 相似文献
2.
3.
Laura S. L. Kong Robert S. Detrick Paul J. Fox Larry A. Mayer W. B. F. Ryan 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1988,10(1-2):59-90
High-resolution Sea Beam bathymetry and Sea MARC I side scan sonar data have been obtained in the MARK area, a 100-km-long
portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rift valley south of the Kane Fracture Zone. These data reveal a surprisingly complex rift
valley structure that is composed of two distinct spreading cells which overlap to create a small, zero-offset transform or
discordant zone. The northern spreading cell consists of a magmatically robust, active ridge segment 40–50 km in length that
extends from the eastern Kane ridge-transform intersection south to about 23°12′ N. The rift valley in this area is dominated
by a large constructional volcanic ridge that creates 200–500 m of relief and is associated with high-temperature hydrothermal
activity. The southern spreading cell is characterized by a NNE-trending band of small (50–200 m high), conical volcanos that
are built upon relatively old, fissured and sediment-covered lavas, and which in some cases are themselves fissured and faulted.
This cell appears to be in a predominantly extensional phase with only small, isolated eruptions. These two spreading cells
overlap in an anomalous zone between 23°05′ N and 23°17′ N that lacks a well-developed rift valley or neovolcanic zone, and
may represent a slow-spreading ridge analogue to the overlapping spreading centers found at the East Pacific Rise. Despite
the complexity of the MARK area, volcanic and tectonic activity appears to be confined to the 10–17 km wide rift valley floor.
Block faulting along near-vertical, small-offset normal faults, accompanied by minor amounts of back-tilting (generally less
than 5°), begins within a few km of the ridge axis and is largely completed by the time the crust is transported up into the
rift valley walls. Features that appear to be constructional volcanic ridges formed in the median valley are preserved largely
intact in the rift mountains. Mass-wasting and gullying of scarp faces, and sedimentation which buries low-relief seafloor
features, are the major geological processes occurring outside of the rift valley. The morphological and structural heterogeneity
within the MARK rift valley and in the flanking rift mountains documented in this study are largely the product of two spreading
cells that evolve independently to the interplay between extensional tectonism and episodic variations in magma production
rates. 相似文献
4.
Submersible observations and photogeology document dramatic variations in the distribution of young volcanic rocks, faulting,
fissuring, and hydrothermal activity along an 80 km-long segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge south of the Kane Transform (MARK
Area). These variations define two spreading cells separated by a cell boundary zone or a small-offset transform zone. The
northern spreading cell is characterized by a median ‘neovolcanic’ ridge which runs down the axis of the median valley floor
for 40 km. This edifice is as much as 4 km wide and 600 m high and is composed of very lightly sedimented basalts inferred
to be < 5000 years old. It is the largest single volcanic constructional feature discovered to date on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The active Snake Pit hydrothermal vent field is on the crest of this ridge and implies the presence of a magma chamber in
the northern spreading cell. In contrast, the southern cell is characterized by small, individual volcanos similar in size
to the central volcanos in the FAMOUS area. Two of the volcanos that were sampled appear to be composed of dominantly glassy
basaltic rocks with very light sediment cover; whereas, other volcanos in this region appear to be older features. The boundary
zone between the two spreading cells is intensely faulted and lacks young volcanic rocks. This area may also contain a small-offset
( < 8 km) transform zone. Magmatism in the northern cell has been episodic and tens of thousands of years have lapsed since
the last major magmatic event there. In the southern cell, a more continuous style of volcanic accretion appears to be operative.
The style of spreading in the southern cell may be much more typical for the Mid-Atlantic Ridge than that of the northern
cell because the latter is adjacent to the 150 km-offset Kane Transform that may act as a thermal sink along the MAR. Such
large transforms are not common on the MAR, therefore, lithosphere produced in a spreading cell influenced by a large transform
may also be somewhat atypical. 相似文献
5.
Peter Lonsdale 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1986,8(3):203-242
A Seabeam reconnaissance of the 400 km-long fast-slipping (88 mm yr-1) Heezen transform fault zone and the 55 km-long spreading center that links it to Tharp transform defined and bathymetrically described several types of ridges built by tectonic uplift and volcanic construction. Most prominent is an asymmetric transverse ridge, at which abyssal hills adjacent to the fault zone have been raised 2–3 km above normal rise-flank depths. Topographic and petrologic evidence suggests that this uplift, which has produced a 5400 m scarp from the crest of the ridge to the floor of a 10 km-wide transform valley, is caused by rapid serpentinization of upper mantle which has been exposed to hydrothermal circulation by fault-zone fracturing of an unusually thin crust. Transverse ridges have been thought atypical of fast-slipping transforms. One class of volcanic ridge more common at these sites is the overshot ridge, formed by prolongation of spreading-center rift zones obliquely across the transform. Overshot ridges are well developed at Heezen transform, especially at the eastern end where an eruptive rift zone extending 60 km from the southern tip of the East Pacific Rise has built a transform-parallel ridge that fills the eastern transform valley. Obliteration of fault-zone structure by ridges overshooting from the spreading center intersections means that the topography of the aseismic fracture zones is not just inherited from that of the active transform fault zone. The latter has several en echelon and overlapping fault traces, linked by short oblique spreading axes that generally form pull-apart basins rather than volcanic ridges. Interpretation of the origin and pattern of the fault zone's tectonic and volcanic relief requires refinement of the plate geography and history of this part of the Pacific-Antarctic boundary, using new Seabeam and magnetic traverses to supplement and adjust the existing geophysical data base. 相似文献
6.
The Atlantis Fracture Zone (30° N) is one of the smallest transform faults along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge with a spatial offset of 70 km and an age offset of ~ 6 Ma. The morphology of the Atlantis Fracture Zone is typical of that of slow-slipping transforms. The transform valley is 15–20 km wide and 2–4 km deep. The locus of strike-slip deformation is confined to a narrow band a few kilometers wide. Terrain created at the outside corners of the transform is characterized by ridges which curve toward the ridge-transform intersections and depressions which resemble nodal basins. Hooked ridges are not observed on the transform side of the ridge-transform intersections. Results of the three-dimensional inversion of the surface magnetic field over our survey area suggest that accretionary processes are sufficiently organized within 3–4 km of the transform fault to produce lineated magnetic anomalies. The magnetization solution further documents a 15-km, westward relocation of the axis of accretion immediately south of the transform about 0.25 Ma ago. The Atlantis Transform is associated with a band of high mantle Bouguer anomalies, suggesting the presence of high densities in the crust and/or mantle along the transform, or anomalously thin crust beneath the transform. Assuming that all the mantle Bouguer anomalies are due to crustal thickness variations, we calculate that the crust may be 2–3 km thinner than a reference 6-km thickness beneath the transform valley, and 2–3 km thicker beneath the mid-points of the spreading segments which bound the transform. Our results indicate that crustal thinning is not uniform along the strike of the fracture zone. Based on studies of the state of compensation of the transform, we conclude that the depth anomaly associated with the fracture zone valley is not compensated everywhere by thin crust. Instead, the regional relationship between bathymetry and gravity is best explained by compensation with an elastic plate with an effective thickness of ~ 4 km or greater. However, the remaining isostatic anomalies indicate that there are large variations away from this simple model which are likely due to variations in crustal thickness and density near the transform. 相似文献
7.
A survey across the western intersection of the mid-Atlantic ridge with Oceanographer fracture zone near 35°N shows this intersection to be different in character from its more typical eastern counterpart. At the western junction the transform valley broadens into a parallelogram shaped deep some 46 by 24 km, which extends well across the trace of the active transform. Within 30 km south of the fracture zone the median valley becomes oblique forming a NE trending ridge which is the SE edge of the deep. Magnetic mapping shows the current spreading centre to be adjacent to this ridge.A sequence of evolution for this intersection over the past 0.7 Ma is proposed to explain the features mapped. We suggest that the oblique ridge crest trends extended across the transform trace to form the elongated graben-like deep with its associated faults and sediment slumps. Such complex patterns may occur as plate-wide changes in spreading direction become modified by localised shear stress fields at ridge crest-transform intersections, as have been observed in a number of other cases. The absence of significant tranverse ridges across from the spreading centre at this particular fracture zone intersection, may have temporarily allowed these stress patterns to propagate across the fracture zone. 相似文献
8.
Tivey Maurice Takeuchi Akira Scientific Party WMARK 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1998,20(3):195-218
In 1994, a joint Japanese-American dive program utilizing the worlds deepest diving active research submersible (SHINKAI 6500) was carried out at the western ridge-transform intersection (RTI) of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Kane transform in the central North Atlantic Ocean. A total of 15 dives were completed along with surface-ship geophysical mapping of bathymetry, magnetic and gravity fields. Dives at the RTI traced the neovolcanic zone up to, and for a short distance (2.5 km) along, the Kane transform. At the RTI, the active trace of the transform is marked by a narrow valley (<50 m wide) that separates the recent lavas of the neovolcanic zone from the south wall of the transform. The south wall of the transform at the western RTI consists of a diabase section near its base between 5000 and 4600 m depth overlain by basaltic lavas, with no evidence of gabbro or deeper crustal rocks. The south wall is undergoing normal faulting with considerable strike-slip component. The lavas of the neovolcanic zone at the RTI are highly magnetized (17 A m–1) compared to the lavas of the south wall (4 A m–1), consistent with their age difference. The trace of the active transform changes eastwards into a prominent median ridge, which is composed of heavily sedimented and highly serpentinized peridotites. Submersible observations made from SHINKAI find that the western RTI of the Kane transform has a very different seafloor morphology and lithology compared to the eastern RTI. Large rounded massifs exposing lower crustal rocks are found on the inside corner of the eastern RTI whereas volcanic ridge and valley terrain with hooked ridges are found on the outside corner of the eastern RTI. The western RTI is much less asymmetric with both inside and outside corner crust showing a preponderance of volcanic terrain. The dominance of low-angle detachment faulting at the eastern RTI has resulted in a seafloor morphology and architecture that is diagnostic of the process whereas crust formed at the WMARK RTI must clearly be operating under a different set of conditions that suppresses the initiation of such faulting. 相似文献
9.
Kastens Kim Bonatti Enrico Caress David Carrara Gabriela Dauteuil Olivier Frueh-Green Gretchen Ligi Marco Tartarotti Paola 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1998,20(6):533-556
Transverse ridges are elongate reliefs running parallel and adjacent to transform/fracture zones offsetting mid-ocean ridges. A major transverse ridge runs adjacent to the Vema transform (Central Atlantic), that offsets the Mid-Atlantic Ridge by 320 km. Multibeam morphobathymetric coverage of the entire Vema Transverse ridge shows it is an elongated (300 km), narrow (<30 km at the base) relief that constitutes a topographic anomaly rising up to 4 km above the predicted thermal contraction level. Morphology and lithology suggest that the Vema Transverse ridge is an uplifted sliver of oceanic lithosphere. Topographic and lithological asymmetry indicate that the transverse ridge was formed by flexure of a lithospheric sliver, uncoupled on its northern side by the transform fault. The transverse ridge can be subdivided in segments bound by topographic discontinuities that are probably fault-controlled, suggesting some differential uplift and/or tilting of the different segments. Two of the segments are capped by shallow water carbonate platforms, that formed about 3–4 m.y. ago, at which time the crust of the transverse ridge was close to sea level. Sampling by submersible and dredging indicates that a relatively undisturbed section of oceanic lithosphere is exposed on the northern slope of the transverse ridge. Preliminary studies of mantle-derived ultramafic rocks from this section suggest temporal variations in mantle composition. An inactive fracture zone scarp (Lema fracture zone) was mapped south of the Vema Transverse ridge. Based on morphology, a fossil RTI was identified about 80 km west of the presently active RTI, suggesting that a ridge jump might have occurred about 2.2 m.a. Most probable causes for the formation of the Vema Transverse ridge are vertical motions of lithospheric slivers due to small changes in the direction of spreading of the plates bordering the Vema Fracture Zone. 相似文献
10.
High inside corners at ridge-transform intersections 总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1
A large topographic high commonly occurs near the intersection of a rifted spreading center and a transform fault. The high occurs at the inside of the 90° bend in the plate boundary, and is called the high inside corner, while the area across the spreading center, the outside corner, is often anomalously low. To better understand the origin of this topographic asymmetry, we examine topographic maps of 53 ridge-transform intersections. We conclude the following: (1) High inside corners occur at 41 out of 42 ridge-transform intersections at slow spreading ridges, and thus should be considered characteristic and persistent features of rifted slow spreading ridges. They are conspicuously absent at fast spreading ridges or at spreading centers that lack a rift valley. (2) High inside corners occur wherever an axial rift valley is present, and an approximate 1:1 correlation exists between the relief of the rift valley and the magnitude of the asymmetry. (3) Large high inside corners occur at both long and short transform offsets. (4) High inside corners at long offsets decay off-axis faster than predicted by the square root of age cooling model, precluding a thermalisostatic origin, but consistent with dynamic or flexural uplift models.These observations support the existing hypothesis that the asymmetry is due to the contrast in lithospheric coupling that occurs in the active transform versus the inactive fracture zone. Active faulting in the transform breaks the lithosphere along a high angle fault, permitting vertical movement of the inside corner block, whereas the inactive fracture zone forms a weld that couples the outside corner to the adjacent block, preventing it from rising. Large asymmetry at very short transform offsets appears to be caused by the added effect of a second uplift mechanism. Young lithosphere in the rift valley couples to the older plate, and when it leaves the rift valley it lifts the older plate with it. At very short offsets, this coupled uplift acts upon the high inside corner; at long offsets, it may upwarp the older plate or its expression may be muted. 相似文献
11.
J. A. Karson P. J. Fox H. Sloan K. T. Crane W. S. F. Kidd E. Bonatti J. B. Stroup D. J. Fornari D. Elthon P. Hamlyn J. F. Casey D. G. Gallo D. Needham R. Sartori OTTER 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1984,6(2):109-141
Seven dives in the submersible ALVIN and four deep-towed (ANGUS) camera lowerings have been made at the eastern ridge-transform intersection of the Oceanographer Transform with the axis of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. These data constrain our understanding of the processes that create and shape the distinctive morphology that is characteristic of slowly-slipping ridge-transform-ridge plate boundaries. Although the geological relationships observed in the rift valley floor in the study area are similar to those reported for the FAMOUS area, we observe a distinct change in the character of the rift valley floor with increasing proximity to the transform. Over a distance of approximately ten kilometers the volcanic constructional terrain becomes increasingly more disrupted by faulting and degraded by mass wasting. Moreover, proximal to the transform boundary, faults with orientations oblique to the trend of the rift valley are recognized. The morphology of the eastern rift valley wall is characterized by inward-facing scarps that are ridge-axis parallel, but the western rift valley wall, adjacent to the active transform zone, is characterized by a complex fault pattern defined by faults exhibiting a wide range of orientations. However, even for transform parallel faults no evidence for strike-slip displacement is observed throughout the study area and evidence for normal (dip-slip) displacement is ubiquitous. Basalts, semi-consolidated sediments (chalks, debris slide deposits) and serpentinized ultramafic rocks are recovered from localities within or proximal to the rift valley. The axis of accretion-principal transform displacement zone intersection is not clearly established, but appears to be located along the E-W trending, southern flank of the deep nodal basin that defines the intersection of the transform valley with the rift floor. 相似文献
12.
G. A. Barth 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1994,16(1):51-64
A multi-channel seismic reflection image shows the reflection Moho dipping toward the Clipperton Fracture Zone in crust 1.4 my old. This seismic line crosses the fracture zone at its eastern intersection with the East Pacific Rise. The seismic observations are made in travel time, not depth. To establish constraints on crustal structure despite the absence of direct velocity determinations in this region, the possible effects of temperature, tectonism, and anomalous lithospheric structure have been considered. Conductive, advective, and frictional heating of the old crust proximal to the ridge-transform intersection can explain <20% of the observed travel-time increase. Heating has a negligible effect on crustal seismic velocity beyond ~10 km from the ridge tip. The transform tectonized zone extends only 6 km from the ridge tip. Serpentinization is unlikely to have thickened the seafloor-to-reflection Moho section in this case. It is concluded that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the 1.4 my old Cocos Plate crust thickens approaching the eastern Clipperton Ridge-Transform Intersection. Increase in thickness must be at least 0.9 km between 22 and 3 km from the fracture zone. 相似文献
13.
In the equatorial Atlantic the Ceará and Sierra Leone rises lie on opposing sides of the mid-ocean ridge and are equidistant from its axis. The northern and southern boundaries respectively, of the two rises are formed by the same fracture zones. The area of shallowest acoustic basement under the Ceará Rise coincides with the presence of a 1–2 km thick seismic layer (velocity: 3.5 km/sec) lying over the oceanic layer 2. This 3.5 km/sec layer is interpreted as a sequence of volcanics which began erupting about 80 m.y. ago when the sites of the two rises lay at the ridge axis. As the “abnormal” volcanic activity ceased, the breakup of this volcanic pile into two pieces has formed the Ceará and Sierra Leone rises.
In the South Atlantic, the northern and southern boundaries of the Rio Grande Rise are also formed by fracture zones and an approximately 1 km thick layer with a velocity of 3.5 km/sec exists also under this rise. The same fracture zones appear to bound the Walvis Ridge. Drilling data suggests that both the Rio Grande Rise and Walvis Ridge have subsided continuously since their creation. The igneous rocks recovered from both rises consist of alkalic basaltic suites typical of oceanic volcanic islands. The existing data favor a model in which “excessive” volcanism along the same segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge created both the South Atlantic aseismic rises between 100 and 80 m.y. ago. In both the examples, the northern and southern boundaries of the rises are formed by the same fracture zones which originally bounded the abnormally active segment of the ridge axis. 相似文献
14.
R. N. Hey J. M. Sinton M. C. Kleinrock R. N. Yonover K. C. Macdonald S. P. Miller R. C. Searle D. M. Christie T. M. Atwater N. H. Sleep H. P. Johnson C. A. Neal 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1992,14(3):207-226
ALVIN investigations have defined the fine-scale structural and volcanic patterns produced by active rift and spreading center propagation and failure near 95.5° W on the Galapagos spreading center. Behind the initial lithospheric rifting, which is propagating nearly due west at about 50 km m.y.–1, a triangular block of preexisting lithosphere is being stretched and fractured, with some recent volcanism along curving fissures. A well-organized seafloor spreading center, an extensively faulted and fissured volcanic ridge, develops ~ 10 km (~ 200,000 years) behind the tectonic rift tip. Regional variations in the chemical compositions of the youngest lavas collected during this program contrast with those encompassing the entire 3 m.y. of propagation history for this region. A maximum in degree of magmatic differentiation occurs about 9 km behind the propagating rift tip, in a region of diffuse rifting. The propagating spreading center shows a gentle gradient in magmatic differentiation culminating at the SW-curving spreading center tip. Except for the doomed rift, which is in a constructional phase, tectonic activity also dominates over volcanic activity along the failing spreading system. In contrast to the propagating rift, failing rift lavas show a highly restricted range of compositions consistent with derivation from a declining upwelling zone accompanying rift failure. The lithosphere transferred from the Cocos to the Nazca plate by this propagator is extensively faulted and characterized by ubiquitous talus in one of the most tectonically disrupted areas of seafloor known. The pseudofault scarps, where the preexisting lithosphere was rifted apart, appear to include both normal and propagator lavas and are thus more lithologically complex than previously thought. Biological communities, probably vestimentiferan tubeworms, occur near the top of the outer pseudofault scarp, although no hydrothermal venting was observed. 相似文献
15.
Tjeerd H. Van Andel Richard P. Von Herzen J. D. Phillips 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1971,1(3):261-283
At 11°N latitude, the Mid-Atlantic ridge is offset 300 km by the Vema fracture zone. Between the ridge offset, the fracture consists of an elongate, parallelogram-shaped trough bordered on the north and south by narrow, high walls. The W-E trending valley floor is segmented by basement ridges and troughs which trend W10°N and are deeply buried by sediment. Uniform high heat flow characterizes the valley area. Seismically inactive valleys south of the Vema fracture, also trending W10°N, are interpreted as relict fracture zones. We explain the high heat flow and the shape of the Vema fracture as the results of secondary sea-floor spreading produced by a reorientation of the direction of sea-floor spreading from W10°N to west-east. This reorientation probably began approximately 10 million years ago. Rapid filling of the fracture valley by turbidites from the Demerara Abyssal plain took place during the last million years.The large amount of differential uplift in the Vema fracture is not explained by the reorientation model. Since the spreading rate across the valley is small compared to that across the ridge crest, we suggest that it takes place by intrusion of very thin dikes that cool rapidly and hence have high viscosity. Upwelling in the fracture valley will thus result in cosiderable loss of hydraulic head, according to models by Sleep and Biehler (1970), and recovery of the lost head could produce valley walls higher than the adjacent ridge crest. We further postulate that the spreading takes place along the edges of the fracture zone rather than in the center. This would account for the uniform distribution of heat flow along the fracture valley and for the lack of disturbance of the valley fill. As a consequence, a median ridge should form in the center, where head loss is compensated in the older crust; such a median ridge may be present. The width of the valley should be a function of the angle and time of reorientation, and of the spreading rate; the width so obtained for the Vema fracture is in accordance with the observed width. If this model is correct, the narrowness of the valley walls implies a thin lithosphere of very limited horizontal strength. 相似文献
16.
Gallo D. G. Kidd W. S. F. Fox P. J. Karson J. A. Macdonald K. Crane K. Choukroune P. Seguret M. Moody R. Kastens K. 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1984,6(2):159-185
During the Fall of 1979, a manned submersible program, utilizing DSRV ALVIN, was carried out at the intersection of the East Pacific Rise (EPR) with the Tamayo Transform boundary. A total of seven dives were completed in the vicinity of the EPR/Tamayo intersection depression and documented the geologic relationships that characterize the juxtaposition of these types of plate boundaries. The young volcanic terrain of the EPR axis can be traced into and across the Tamayo Transform valley but becomes buried by sedimentary talus that is being shed from sediment scarps along the unstable sediment slope that defines the north side of the intersection depression. Within 4 km of the transform boundary, the dominant trend (000°) of the fissures and faults that disrupt the rise-generated volcanics is markedly oblique to the regional direction of sea floor spreading (120°). Since no evidence was found to suggest that these structures accommodate significant amounts of strike-slip displacement, they are taken to reflect a distortion of the EPR extensional tectonic regime by a transform generated shear couple. The floor of the Tamayo Transform valley in this area is inundated by mass-wasted sediment, and the principal transform displacement zone is characterized at the surface by a narrow (<1.5 km) interval of fault scarps in sediment that trends parallel with the transform valley. Extrapolated to the west, this zone links with zones of transform deformation investigated during earlier submersible studies (CYAMEX and Pastouret, 1981). Evidence of low-level hydrothermal discharge was seen at one locality on the EPR axis and at another 8 km west of the axis at the edge of the zone of transform deformation. 相似文献
17.
The Carlsberg Ridge lies between the equator and the Owen fracture zone. It is the most prominent mid-ocean ridge segment
of the western Indian Ocean, which contains a number of earthquake epicenters. Satellite altimetry can be used to infer subsurface
geological structures analogous to gravity anomaly maps generated through ship-borne survey. In this study, free-air gravity
and its 3D image have been generated over the Carlsberg Ridge using a very high resolution data base, as obtained from Geosat
GM, ERS-1, Seasat and TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data. As observed in this study, the Carlsberg Ridge shows a slow spreading
characteristic with a deep and wide graben (average width ∼15 km). The transform fault spacing confirms variable slow to intermediate
characteristics with first and second order discontinuities. The isostatically compensated region of the Carlsberg Ridge could
be demarcated with near zero contour values in the free-air gravity anomaly images over and along the Carlsberg Ridge axes
and over most of the fracture zone patterns. Few profiles have been generated across the Carlsberg Ridge and the characteristics
of slow/intermediate spreading ridge of various orders of discontinuity could be identified. It has also been observed in
zero contour image as well as in the characteristics of valley patterns along the ridge from NW to SE that different spreading
rates, from slow to intermediate, are occurring in different parts of the Carlsberg ridge. It maintains the morphology of
a slow spreading ridge in the NW, where the wide and deep axial valley (∼1.5–3 km) also implies the pattern of a slow spreading
ridge. However, a change in the morphology/depth of the axial valley from NW to SE indicates the nature of the Carlsberg Ridge
as a slow to intermediate spreading ridge.
For the prevailing security restrictions, lat./lon. coordinates have been omitted in few images. 相似文献
18.
Norbert J. Schulz Robert S. Detrick Stephen P. Miller 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1988,10(1-2):41-57
Magnetic data collected in conjunction with a Sea Beam bathymetric survey of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge south of the Kane Fracture
Zone are used to constrain the spreading history of this area over the past 3 Ma. Two-dimensional forward modeling and inversion
techniques are carried out, as well as a full three-dimensional inversion of the anomaly field along a 90-km-long section
of the rift valley. Our results indicate that this portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, known as the MARK area, consists of
two distinct spreading cells separated by a small, zero-offset transform or discordant zone near 23°10′ N, The youngest crust
in the median valley is characterized by a series of distinct magnetization highs which coalesce to form two NNE-trending
bands of high magnetization, one on the northern ridge segment which coincides with a large constructional volcanic ridge,
and one along the southern ridge segment that is associated with a string of small axial volcanos. These two magnetization
highs overlap between 23° N and 23°10° N forming a non-transform offset that may be a slow spreading ridge analogue of the
small ridge axis discontinuities found on the East Pacific Rise. The crustal magnetizations in this overlap zone are generally
low, although an anomalous, ESE-trending magnetization high of unknown origin is also present in this area. The present-day
segmentation of spreading in the MARK area was inherited from an earlier ridge-transform-ridge geometry through a series of
small (∼ 10 km) eastward ridge jumps. These small ridge jumps were caused by a relocation of the neovolcanic zone within the
median valley and have resulted in an overall pattern of asymmetric spreading with faster rates to the west (14 mm yr−1) than to the east (11 mm yr−1). Although the detailed magnetic survey described in this paper extends out to only 3 Ma old crust, a regional compilation
of magnetic data from this area by Schoutenet al. (1985) indicates that the relative positions and dimensions of the spreading cells, and the pattern of asymmetric spreading
seen in the MARK area during the past 3 Ma, have characterized this part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge for at least the past 36
Ma. 相似文献
19.
20.
Berndt C. Mjelde R. Planke S. Shimamura H. Faleide J.I. 《Marine Geophysical Researches》2001,22(3):133-152
Ocean bottom seismograph (OBS), multichannel seismic and potential field data reveal the structure of the Vøring Transform Margin (VTM). This transform margin is located at the landward extension of the Jan Mayen Fracture Zone along the southern edge of the Vøring Plateau. The margin consists of two distinctive segments. The northwestern segment is characterized by large amounts of volcanic material. The new OBS data reveal a 30–40 km wide and 17 km thick high-velocity body between underplated continental crust to the northeast and normal oceanic crust in the southwest. The southeastern segment of the mar is similar to transform margins elsewhere. It is characterized by a 20–30 km wide transform margin high and a narrow continent-ocean transition. The volcanic sequences along this margin segment are less than 1 km thick. We conclude from the spatial correspondence of decreased volcanism and the location of the fracture zone, that the amount of volcanism was influenced by the tectonic setting. We propose that (1) lateral heat transport from the oceanic lithosphere to the adjacent continental lithosphere decreased the ambient mantle temperature and melt production along the entire transform margin and (2) that right-stepping of the left-lateral shear zone at the northwestern margin segment caused lithospheric thinning and increased volcanism. The investigated data show no evidence that the breakup volcanism influenced the tectonic development of the southeastern VTM. 相似文献