Publication Date:
2020-07-31
Description:
How well do we know the composition of oceanic crust? Countless studies have described the occurrence of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) at spreading centers, and few would argue that the bulk composition of oceanic crust is other than basaltic. Nevertheless, silicic volcanism (〉55 wt.% SiO2) does occur along part of the northern East Pacific Rise (10.5°N; Thompson et al. [1989]),on the 095° propagator of the Galápagos Spreading Center [Clague et al., 1981],and was recently discovered on the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge (PAR) near its intersection with the Foundation seamount chain [Hekinian et al., 1997, 1999]. Silicic lavas were recovered from a 290-km-long section of the northern PAR adjacent to the active Foundation plume (Figure 1) during cruise 157 of the F/S Sonne, which took place in June and July 2001. Furthermore, widespread hydrothermal activity indicates that the volcanogenic massive sulfidesilicic lava association is not only restricted to subduction and back arc settings.
Type:
Article
,
PeerReviewed
Format:
text
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