Drilling constraints on lithospheric accretion and evolution at Atlantis Massif, Mid-Atlantic Ridge 30°N

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 116 (2011): B07103, doi:10.1029/2010JB007931.Expeditions 304 and 305 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program cored and logged a 1.4 km section of the domal core of Atlantis Massif. Postdrilling research results summarized here constrain the structure and lithology of the Central Dome of this oceanic core complex. The dominantly gabbroic sequence recovered contrasts with predrilling predictions; application of the ground truth in subsequent geophysical processing has produced self-consistent models for the Central Dome. The presence of many thin interfingered petrologic units indicates that the intrusions forming the domal core were emplaced over a minimum of 100–220 kyr, and not as a single magma pulse. Isotopic and mineralogical alteration is intense in the upper 100 m but decreases in intensity with depth. Below 800 m, alteration is restricted to narrow zones surrounding faults, veins, igneous contacts, and to an interval of locally intense serpentinization in olivine-rich troctolite. Hydration of the lithosphere occurred over the complete range of temperature conditions from granulite to zeolite facies, but was predominantly in the amphibolite and greenschist range. Deformation of the sequence was remarkably localized, despite paleomagnetic indications that the dome has undergone at least 45° rotation, presumably during unroofing via detachment faulting. Both the deformation pattern and the lithology contrast with what is known from seafloor studies on the adjacent Southern Ridge of the massif. There, the detachment capping the domal core deformed a 100 m thick zone and serpentinized peridotite comprises ∼70% of recovered samples. We develop a working model of the evolution of Atlantis Massif over the past 2 Myr, outlining several stages that could explain the observed similarities and differences between the Central Dome and the Southern Ridge

In Search of Life Under the Seafloor

ISSN:0096-3941ISSN:2324-925

Detachment shear zone of the Atlantis Massif core complex, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 30°N

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 7 (2006): Q06016, doi:10.1029/2005GC001109.Near-bottom investigations of the cross section of the Atlantis Massif exposed in a major tectonic escarpment provide an unprecedented view of the internal structure of the footwall domain of this oceanic core complex. Integrated direct observations, sampling, photogeology, and imaging define a mylonitic, low-angle detachment shear zone (DSZ) along the crest of the massif. The shear zone may project beneath the nearby, corrugated upper surface of the massif. The DSZ and related structures are inferred to be responsible for the unroofing of upper mantle peridotites and lower crustal gabbroic rocks by extreme, localized tectonic extension during seafloor spreading over the past 2 m.y. The DSZ is characterized by strongly foliated to mylonitic serpentinites and talc-amphibole schists. It is about 100 m thick and can be traced continuously for at least 3 km in the tectonic transport direction. The DSZ foliation arches over the top of the massif in a convex-upward trajectory mimicking the morphology of the top of the massif. Kinematic indicators show consistent top-to-east (toward the MAR axis) tectonic transport directions. Foliated DSZ rocks grade structurally downward into more massive basement rocks that lack a pervasive outcrop-scale foliation. The DSZ and underlying basement rocks are cut by discrete, anastomosing, normal-slip, shear zones. Widely spaced, steeply dipping, normal faults cut all the older structures and localize serpentinization-driven hydrothermal outflow at the Lost City Hydrothermal Field. A thin (few meters) sequence of sedimentary breccias grading upward into pelagic limestones directly overlies the DSZ and may record a history of progressive rotation of the shear zone from a moderately dipping attitude into its present, gently dipping orientation during lateral spreading and uplift.This work was supported by NSF grants OCE-9712430 and 0136816 to Karson and Kelley and Swiss SNF grant 2100-068055 to Früh-Green