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1.
Wide-angle and multichannel seismic data collected on the Malpelo Ridge provide an image of the deep structure of the ridge and new insights on its emplacement and tectonic history. The crustal structure of the Malpelo Ridge shows a 14 km thick asymmetric crustal root with a smooth transition to the oceanic basin southeastward, whereas the transition is abrupt beneath its northwestern flank. Crustal thickening is mainly related to the thickening of the lower crust, which exhibits velocities from 6.5 to 7.4 km/s. The deep structure is consistent with emplacement at an active spreading axis under a hotspot like the present-day Galapagos Hotspot on the Cocos-Nazca Spreading Centre. Our results favour the hypothesis that the Malpelo Ridge was formerly a continuation of the Cocos Ridge, emplaced simultaneously with the Carnegie Ridge at the Cocos-Nazca Spreading Centre, from which it was separated and subsequently drifted southward relative to the Cocos Ridge due to differential motion along the dextral strike-slip Panama Fracture Zone. The steep faulted northern flank of the Malpelo Ridge and the counterpart steep and faulted southern flank of Regina Ridge are possibly related to a rifting phase that resulted in the Coiba Microplate’s separation from the Nazca Plate along the Sandra Rift.  相似文献   

2.
A wealth of geologic information has been collected during studies of the Matuyama/Brunhes magnetic reversal boundary on the East Pacific Rise at 21°N. Five ALVIN and two CYANA dives, and a series of deep-tow traverses show that abyssal hills in this region of the Pacific are created near the spreading axis by inward dipping normal faulting and by back-tilting of these fault blocks. Outward dipping faults occur but are of less importance in the creation of relief. Tectonic disruption of the crust, particularly through tilting, is less pronounced than in the Atlantic. Small volcanoes approximately 50 m high and 400 m wide are common on the abyssal hills. A significant number of the volcanoes may have split apart at the spreading axis attesting to the narrowness of the crustal accretion zone on the East Pacific Rise. Active faulting is restricted to less than 10 to 12 km off-axis, although minor recent faulting may have been detected 23 km off-axis. Crustal sections exposed by faulting reveal that massive lava flows and sheet flows are common in the upper portion of oceanic layer two, but are less abundant than pillow lavas.  相似文献   

3.
The axis of the East Pacific Rise is defined by a topographic block about 15 km wide and 300 to 350 m high which is flanked by abyssal hills 100 to 200 m high and 3 to 5 km wide. These hills often are tilted such that their steep slopes face the axis. An empirical model explaining these features combines axial extrusion to form the central block and rotational faulting to lower the shoulders of the axial block to the regional depth and tilt them outward.The axial block is offset about 10 km left-laterally at 10.0°S and a similar amount right-laterally at 11.5°S. Offsets (or lack of offsets) of young magnetic anomalies indicate that these axial displacements occurred between 1.7 and 0.9 m.y. ago and 0.7 m.y. ago and the present in the north and south. respectively. These small axial offsets are interpreted to be the result of either brief episodes of asymmetric see-floor spreading or discrete jumps in the site of spreading activity. Both axial shifts were to the west; a unidirectional sequence of such shifts occurring at the above rate of one per million years would be difficult to differentiate from true regional asymmetric spreading and might explain that phenomenon on other medium-to fast-spreading rises.Reconnaissance data from the east flank of the East Pacific Rise indicate that spreading activity began on that part of the rise between the 9°S and 13.5°S fracture zones approximately 8.2 m.y. ago when the site of crustal accretion jumped westward from the now dormant Galapagos Rise. Slope change in crust approximately 2 and 6 m.y. old imply faster spreading rates between about 6 and 2 m.y. ago than either before or after that time. Identification and correlation of anomaly 3 allows an estimate of about 90 mm/y for this higher east flank spreading rate. Since 1.7 m.y. ago spreading rates have averaged about 80 mm/y to the west and 77 mm/y to the east.  相似文献   

4.
A deeply-towed instrument package was used in a detailed survey of the crest of the East Pacific Rise (EPR) near 3°25S, where the Pacific and Nazca plates are separating at 152 mm/yr. A single 90 km-long traverse of the rise crest extends near-bottom observations onto the rise flanks. A ridge at the spreading axis is defined by its steep regional slopes, probably caused by rapid crustal contraction as the spreading magma chamber freezes, rather than by outward-facing fault scarps. It can be divided into a marginal horst-and-graben zone with low (<50 m), symmetric fault blocks, and a 2 km-wide elongate axial shield volcano that is unfaulted except for a narrow crestal rift zone. This has a summit graben (10–35 m deep) probably formed by caldera collapse, and narrow pillow basalt walls built over vent fissures. Small, low (<50 m) volcanic peaks occur on the shield volcano and the horst-and-graben zone, and some may have been built away from the spreading axis. Major plate-building lava flows issue from the crestal rift zone and flow an average of 500 m down the sides of the volcano. The marginal horst-and-graben zone results from tensional faulting of a thin crust of lava, and evolves by progressive shearing on inclined fault planes. Crustal extension continues at least as far as 20 km from the axis, and the large, long fault blocks formed in thicker crust beyond the subaxial magma chamber develop into abyssal hills. Pelagic sedimentation, at a maximum rate of 22 m/106 years, gradually infills open fissures and smooths the small-scale roughness of the fault blocks. Off-axis volcanism has also resulted in smoother crust, and built seamounts.Comparison of the EPR at 3°25S with the Famous Rift and Galapagos Rift reveals a similarity in the processes and small-scale landforms at fast, medium and slow-spreading ridges. There are significant differences in the medium-scale landforms, probably because plate-boundary volcanic and tectonic processes act on crust of very different strength, thickness, and age.Contribution of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, new series.  相似文献   

5.
The geography of the East Pacific Rise (EPR) between 10°N and 6°S, redetermined by new surface ship surveys, is characterized by long spreading axes orthogonal to infrequent transform faults. Near 2°10N the EPR is intersected by the Cocos-Nazca spreading center at the Galapagos triple junction. The present pattern was established 27-5.5 m.y.b.p. by a complex sequence of rise-crest jumps and reorientations from a section of the Pacific-Farallon plate boundary. Transverse profiles of the rise flanks can be matched by thermal contraction curves for aging lithosphere, except between the triple junction and 4°S, where the east flank is anomalously shallow and almost horizontal. Most sections of spreading axis have the 10–30 km wide, 100–400 m high, axial ridge that is characteristic of fast spreading centers. However, within 60 km of the triple junction the rise crest structure is atypical, with an axial rift valley and elevated rift mountains, despite a spreading rate of 140 mm/yr. With the exception of this atypical section, the bathymetric profile along the spreading axis is remarkably even, with continuous, gentle slopes for hundreds of kilometers between major transform faults, where step-like offsets in axial depths occur. Most of the observations can be accommodated by a model in which the long spreading axes are underlain by continuous crustal magma chambers that allow easy longitudinal flow of magma, and whose size controls the style and dimensions of EPR crestal topography.Contribution of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, new series.  相似文献   

6.
The development of an anomalously deep rift appears to be a common characteristic of the evolution of microplates along the East Pacific Rise, including the Galapagos, Easter, and Juan Fernandez microplates. We investigate crustal rifting at Endeavor Deep on the Juan Fernandez microplate using bathymetry, gravity and side scan sonar data. An initial phase of lithospheric extension accompanied by extensive subsidence results in the formation of a very deep rift valley (up to 4 km of relief, 70 km long and 20 km wide). Morphological observations and gravity data derived from GEOSAT satellite altimetry show the subsequent initiation of crustal accretion and development of a mature spreading center. Recent models of the kinematics of microplate rotation allow the amount of opening across Endeavor Deep over the past 1 m.y. to be quantified. We develop a simple mechanical model of rifting involving block faulting and flexural response to explain the gravity signature over the rift valley. The Bouguer gravity anomaly is asymmetric with respect to the surface topography and requires that a shallow-dipping fault on the western wall of the valley dominate the extension at Endeavor Deep. Consideration of three similar microplate rift valleys leads us to suggest that asymmetric rifting is the characteristic process forming microplate deeps.  相似文献   

7.
A submersible study has been conducted in February–March 1978 at the axis of the East Pacific Rise near 21°N. The expedition CYAMEX, the first submersible program to be conducted on the East Pacific Rise, is part of the French-American-Mexican project RITA (Rivera-Tamayo), a 3-year study devoted to detailed geological and geophysical investigations of the East Pacific Rise Crest. On the basis of the 15 dives made by CYANA in the axial area of the Rise, a morphological and tectonic zonation can be established for this moderately-fast spreading center. A narrow, 0.6 to 1.2 km wide zone of extrusion (zone 1), dominated by young lava flows, is flanked by a highly fissured and faulted zone of extension (zone 2) with a width of 1 to 2 km. Further out, zone 3 is dominated by outward tilted blocks bounded by inward-facing fault scarps. Active or recent faults extend up to 12 km from the axis of extrusion of the East Pacific Rise. This represents the first determination from direct field evidence of the width of active tectonism associated with an accreting plate boundary. Massive sulfide deposits, made principally of zinc, copper and iron, were found close to the axis of the Rise. Other signs of the intense hydrothermal activity included the discovery of benthic fauna of gian size similar to that found at the axis of the Galapagos Rift. We emphasize the cyclic character of the volcanicity. The main characteristics of the geology of this segment of the East Pacific Rise can be explained by the thermal structure at depth below this moderately-fast spreading center. The geological observations are compatible with the existence of a shallow magma reservoir centered at the axis of the Rise with a half-width of the order of 10 km.  相似文献   

8.
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9.
Analysis of new multibeam bathymetry and all available magnetic data shows that the 340 km-long crest of the East Pacific Rise between Rivera and Tamayo transforms contains segments of both the Pacific-Rivera and the Pacific-North America plate boundaries. Another Pacific-North America spreading segment (Alarcon Rise) extends 60 km further north to the Mexican continental margin. The Pacific-North America-Rivera triple junction is now of the RRR type, located on the risecrest 60 km south of Tamayo transform. Slow North America-Rivera rifting has ruptured the young lithosphere accreted to the east flank of the rise, and extends across the adjacent turbidite plain to the vicinity of the North America-Rivera Euler pole, which is located on the plate boundary. The present absolute motion of the Rivera microplate is an anticlockwise spin at 4° m.y.–1 around a pole located near its southeast corner; its motion has recently changed as the driving forces applied to its margins have changed, especially with the evolution of the southern margin from a broad shear zone between Rivera and Mathematician microplates to a long Pacific-Rivera transform. Pleistocene rotations in spreading direction, by as much as 15° on the Pacific-Rivera boundary, have segmented the East Pacific Rise into a staircase of en echelon spreading axes, which overlap at lengthening and migrating nontransform offsets. The spreading segments vary greatly in risecrest geomorphology, including the full range of structural types found on other rises with intermediate spreading rates: axial rift valleys, split shield volcanoes, and axial ridges. Most offsets between the segments have migrated southward, but within the past 1 m.y. the largest of them (with 14–27 km of lateral displacement) have shown dueling behavior, with short-lived reversals in migration direction. Migration involves propagation of a spreading axis into abyssal hill terrain, which is deformed and uplifted while it occupies the broad shear zones between overlapping spreading axes. Tectonic rotation of the deformed crust occurs by bookshelf faulting, which generates teleseismically recorded strike-slip earthquakes. When reversals of migration direction occur, plateaus of rotated crust are shed onto the rise flanks.  相似文献   

10.
The geologic history of the eastern Indian Ocean between northwest Australia and the Java Trench is known to involve two separate events of rifting and sea-floor spreading. Late Jurassic spreading in the Argo Abyssal Plain off northwest Australia was followed by Early Cretaceous spreading in the Cuvier and Perth Abyssal Plains off west Australia. However, the evolution and interaction of these events has not been clear. Mesozoic sea-floor spreading anomalies have been identified throughout the Argo Abyssal Plain that define a rifting event and subsequent northward spreading on the northwestern Australian margin at 155 m.y.b.p. Magnetic anomalies northwest of the Argo Abyssal Plain indicate a ridge jump to the south at about 130 m.y.b.p. that is approximately synchronous with east-west rifting along the southwestern Australian margin. The Joey Rise in the Argo Plain was probably formed by volcanism at the intersection of this new rift and the spreading ridge to the north. The southern and northern spreading systems were connected through the Exmouth Plateau which was stretched and faulted as spreading progressed. The RRR triple junction was formed at the intersection of the two spreading systems and appears to have migrated west along the northern edge of the Gascoyne Abyssal Plain. Spreading off northwest Australia cannot be easily related to simultaneous spreading in the west central Pacific via any simple tectonic scheme.  相似文献   

11.
This paper describes GLORIA sidescan sonar data from a single swath along the Cocos-Nazca Spreading Centre between the 95.5° W propagating rift and the Pacific-Cocos-Nazca triple junction. Almost the whole of the plate boundary was imaged. Five medium sized offsets of the spreading centre, ranging from 10 to 25 km, were seen. Of these, at least one (at 99° W) is a previously unknown propagating rift, propagating westwards away from the Galapagos hotspot at about 40 mm a-1. Two other offsets have some, but not all, of the characteristics of propagating rifts, and may be poorly developed (possibly duelling) propagating rifts or migrating overlapping spreading centres. In each case the apparent propagation rate is between one and two times the half spreading rate. The average length of ridge segments in this region is 70 km, but lengths range from 12 to 135 km. The longest segments are those immediately behind actively propagating ridge offsets. The overall plan shape of the ridge axis is roughly sinusoidal, with a wavelength of 400–500 km and an amplitude of ±20 km. This nonlinear shape has arisen since the spreading centre was created, and may reflect an instability in the mantle plumes that control ridge segmentation.  相似文献   

12.
We present results from a SeaMARC II bathymetry, gravity, and magnetics survey of the northern end of the large-offset propagating East Rift of the Easter microplate. The East Rift is offset by more than 300 km from the East Pacific Rise and its northern end has rifted into approximately 3 Ma lithosphere of the Nazca Plate forming a broad (70–100 km) zone of high (up to 4 km) relief referred to as the Pito Rift. This region appears to have undergone distributed and asymmetric extension that has been primarily accommodated tectonically, by block faulting and tilting, and to a lesser degree by seafloor spreading on a more recently developed magmatic accretionary axis. The larger fault blocks have dimensions of 10–15 km and have up to several km of throw between adjacent blocks suggesting that isostatic adjustments occur on the scale of the individual blocks. Three-dimensional terrain corrected Bouguer anomalies, a three-dimensional magnetic inversion, and SeaMARC II backscatter data locate the recently developed magmatic axis in an asymmetric position in the western part of the rift. The zone of magmatic accretion is characterized by an axis of negative Bouguer gravity anomalies, a band of positive magnetizations, and a high amplitude magnetization zone locating its tip approximately 10 km south of the Pito Deep, the deepest point in the rift area. Positive Bouguer gravity anomalies and negative magnetizations characterize the faulted area to the east of the spreading axis supporting the interpretation that this area consists primarily of pre-existing Nazca plate that has been block faulted and stretched, and that no substantial new accretion has occurred there. The wide zone of deformation in the Pito Rift area and the changing trend of the fault blocks from nearly N-S in the east to NW-SE in the west may be a result of the rapidly changing kinematics of the Easter microplate and/or may result from ridge-transform like shear stresses developed at the termination of the East Rift against the Nazca plate. The broad zone of deformation developed at the Pito Rift and its apparent continuation some distance south along the East Rift has important implications for microplate mechanics and kinematic reconstructions since it suggests that initial microplate boundaries may consist in part of broad zones of deformation characterized by the formation of lithospheric scale fault blocks, and that what appear to be pseudofaults may actually be the outer boundaries of tectonized zones enclosing significant amounts of stretched pre-existing lithosphere.  相似文献   

13.
Geophysical data collected on three U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office cruises to the Galapagos Rise are presented. These data allow definition of the morphology and structure of the Galapagos Rise.A postulated “hot spot” beneath the Galapagos platform is suggested as the cause of: (1) decreased seismicity along the spreading center for a 400 km E—W distance from the islands; (2) distinctive petro-chemistry of tholeiites from the islands and adjacent oceanic crust generated by the Galapagos Rise; (3) high-amplitude magnetic anomalies in a 1,000 km E—W band including and just north of the Galapagos platform; and (4) morphologic shape and the regionally elevated sea floor of the Galapagos Rise as it approaches the insular platform.  相似文献   

14.
The Bauer microplate was an independent slab of oceanic lithosphere that from 17 Ma to 6 Ma grew from 1.4 × 105 km2 to 1.2 × 106 km2 between the rapidly diverging Pacific and Nazca plates. Growth was by accretion at the lengthening and overlapping axes of the (Bauer-Nazca) Galapagos Rise (GR) and the (Pacific-Bauer) East Pacific Rise (EPR). EPR and GR axial propagation to create and rapidly grow the counter-clockwise spinning microplate occurred in two phases: (1) 17–15Ma, when the EPR axis propagated north and the GR axis propagated south around a narrow (100- to 200-km-wide) core of older lithosphere; and (2) 8–6 Ma, when rapid northward propagation of the EPR axis resumed, overlapping ∼400 km of the fast-spreading Pacific-Nazca rise-crest and appending a large (200- to 400-km-wide) area of the west flank of that rise as a ‘northern annex’ to the microplate. Between 15 and 8 Ma the microplate grew principally by crustal accretion at the crest of its rises. The microplate was captured by the Nazca plate and the Galapagos Rise axis became extinct soon after 6 Ma, when the south end of the Pacific-Bauer EPR axis became aligned with the southern Pacific-Nazca EPR axis and its north end was linked by the Quebrada Transform to the northern Pacific-Nazca EPR axis. Incomplete multibeam bathymetry of the microplate margins, and of both flanks of the Pacific-Bauer and Bauer-Nazca Rises, together with archival magnetic and satellite altimetry data, clarifies the growth and (counter-clockwise) rotation of the microplate, and tests tectonic models derived from studies of the still active, much smaller, Easter and Juan Fernandez microplates. Our interpretations differ from model predictions in that Euler poles were not located on the microplate boundary, propagation in the 15–8 Ma phase of growth was not toward these poles, and microplate rotation rates were small (5°/m.y.) for much of its history, when long, bounding transform faults reduced coupling to Nazca plate motion. Some structures of the Bauer microplate boundary, such as deep rift valleys and a broad zone of thrust-faulted lithosphere, are, however, similar to those observed around the smaller, active microplates. Analysis of how the Bauer microplate was captured when coupling to the Pacific plate was reduced invites speculation on why risecrest microplates eventually lose their independence.  相似文献   

15.
Detailed bathymetric data from a Hydrosweep multibeam sonar survey of a 250 km-long portion of the superfast-spreading southern East Pacific Rise crest and flanks show that the along-axis variation in morphology and axial depth differs significantly from that observed at the fast-spreading northern East Pacific Rise. While the deep mantle upwelling pattern is similar under the northern and southern East Pacific Rise, our observations require that the connectivity of the shallow, subcrestal plumbing system be more efficient beneath the super-fast spreading southern East Pacific Rise than beneath the slower spreading northern East Pacific Rise.  相似文献   

16.
Sea Beam and Deep-Tow were used in a tectonic investigation of the fast-spreading (151 mm yr-1) East Pacific Rise (EPR) at 19°30 S. Detailed surveys were conducted at the EPR axis and at the Brunhes/Matuyama magnetic reversal boundary, while four long traverses (the longest 96 km) surveyed the rise flanks. Faulting accounts for the vast majority of the relief. Both inward and outward facing fault scarps appear in almost equal numbers, and they form the horsts and grabens which compose the abyssal hills. This mechanism for abyssal hill formation differs from that observed at slow and intermediate spreading rates where abyssal hills are formed by back-tilted inward facing normal faults or by volcanic bow-forms. At 19°30 S, systematic back tilting of fault blocks is not observed, and volcanic constructional relief is a short wavelength signal (less than a few hundred meters) superimposed upon the dominant faulted structure (wavelength 2–8 km). Active faulting is confined to within approximately 5–8 km of the rise axis. In terms of frequency, more faulting occurs at fast spreading rates than at slow. The half extension rate due to faulting is 4.1 mm yr-1 at 19°30 S versus 1.6 mm yr-1 in the FAMOUS area on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). Both spreading and horizontal extension are asymmetric at 19°30 S, and both are greater on the east flank of the rise axis. The fault density observed at 19°30 S is not constant, and zones with very high fault density follow zones with very little faulting. Three mechanisms are proposed which might account for these observations. In the first, faults are buried episodically by massive eruptions which flow more than 5–8 km from the spreading axis, beyond the outer boundary of the active fault zone. This is the least favored mechanism as there is no evidence that lavas which flow that far off axis are sufficiently thick to bury 50–150 m high fault scarps. In the second mechanism, the rate of faulting is reduced during major episodes of volcanism due to changes in the near axis thermal structure associated with swelling of the axial magma chamber. Thus the variation in fault spacing is caused by alternate episodes of faulting and volcanism. In the third mechanism, the rate of faulting may be constant (down to a time scale of decades), but the locus of faulting shifts relative to the axis. A master fault forms near the axis and takes up most of the strain release until the fault or fault set is transported into lithosphere which is sufficiently thick so that the faults become locked. At this point, the locus of faulting shifts to the thinnest, weakest lithosphere near the axis, and the cycle repeats.  相似文献   

17.
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   

18.
The junction between oceanic crust generated, within the Antarctic plate, at the Southeast Indian Ridge and the Southwest Indian Ridge has been studied using a SEABEAM swathe bathymetry mapping system and other geophysical techniques between the Indian Ocean Triple Junction (approximately 25°S, 70° E), and a point some 500 km to the southwest (at 28°25 S, 66°35 E). The morphotectonic boundary which marks this trace of the ridge-ridge-ridge triple junction is complex and varies with age. Recent theories proposing a cyclicity of volcanic and tectonic processes at this mode of triple junctions appear to be supported by a series of regularly spaced, en echelon escarpments facing the slowly spreading (0.6 to 0.8 cm a-1, half rate) Southwest Indian Ridge axis. The en echelon escarpments intersect at approximately right angles with the regularly spaced oceanic spreading fabric formed on the Antarctic plate at the Southeast Indian Ridge and together locally flank uplifted northward-pointing corner sections of ocean floor. The origins for the localised elevations are unclear, but may relate to intermittent and/or alternating rifting and volcanic episodes. Variations of degree of asymmetry and/or obliquity in spreading on the Central Indian Ridge and the Southwest Indian Ridge are suggested to explain detailed structural changes along the triple junction trace. It is suggested that discontinuities of the trace may be related to an intermittent development of new spreading centres beneath the most easterly part of the Southwest Indian Ridge, coupled with a more continuous process beneath the faster spreading Central Indian Ridge (2 to 2.5 cm a-1) and the Southeast Indian Ridge (2.5 to 3 cm a-1). A detailed history of triple junction evolution may be thus inferred from basic morphological and structural mapping along the three triple junction traces.  相似文献   

19.
A regional geophysical traverse of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the northern South Atlantic was obtained during CIRCE cruise of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. During the traverse, four detailed surveys were made of small areas on the crest and east flank. The geomagnetic anomaly profile can be used as a time base for the interpretation of tectonic events of the ridge. The profile also suggests that the rate of sea-floor spreading in this part of the South Atlantic accelerated twice, approximately 40 and 4.5 million years ago, and decelerated at least twice, 38 and 10 million years ago. Accelerations were probably accompanied by uplift and normal faulting of the central part of the ridge, while decelerations produced subsidence with modest contraction, reflected in reverse faulting and folding. The effects of uplift are clearly present in the reflection seismic records, which are, however, not well suited to detect reverse faulting.Spreading without creation of significant relief occurred on the ridge until approximately 5 million years ago. This process produced a low relief with small rifts, strongly reminiscent of the present crestal topography of the East Pacific Rise. A markedly linear secondary relief of 100–200 m, parallel to the ridge axis, developed later by faulting of the flanks. Portions of the crust that were near the crest during periods of uplift are more intensely faulted than those that were remote at all times. The importance of the last uplift of the crest and associated faulting on the flanks is reflected by a decrease in the density of faulting away from the ridge crest.The present crestal zone is very different from the flanks and from the older crests; the relief is nearly ten times greater, transverse disturbances are common, and there is conflicting evidence regarding its age. This striking change in character indicates either a recent change in the spreading process or a recent period of strong deformation which has affected only the crestal zone.Contribution from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.  相似文献   

20.
The Rodriguez Triple Junction (RTJ) corresponds to the junction of the three Indian Ocean spreading ridges. A detailed survey of an area of 90 km by 85 km, centered at 25°30 S and 70° E, allows detailed mapping (at a scale of 1/100 000) of the bathymetry (Seabeam) and the magnetic anomalies. The Southeast Indian Ridge, close to the triple junction, is a typical intermediate spreading rate ridge (2.99 cm a-1 half rate), trending N140°. The Central Indian Ridge rift valley prolongs the Southeast Indian Ridge rift valley with a slight change of orientation (12°). The half spreading rate and trend of this ridge are 2.73 cm a-1 and N152° respectively. In contrast, the Southwest Indian Ridge close to the triple junction is expressed by two deep-valleys (4300 and 5000 m deep) which abut the southwestcrn flanks of the two other ridges, and appears to be a stretched area without axial neovolcanic zone. The evolution of the RTJ is analysed for the past one million years. The instantaneous velocity triangle formed by the three ridges cannot be closed indicating that the RTJ is unstable. A model is proposed to explain the evolution of the unstable RRF Rodriguez Triple Junction. The model shows that the axis of the Central Indian Ridge is propressively offset from the axis of the Southeast Indian Ridge at a velocity of 0.14 cm a-1, the RTJ being restored by small jumps. This unstable RRF model explains the directions and offsets which are observed in the vicinity of the triple junction. The structure and evolution of the RTJ is similar to that of the Galapagos Triple Junction located in the East Pacific Ocean and the Azores Triple Junction located in the Central Atlantic Ocean.  相似文献   

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