Offset Spreading Centers near 12°53′ N on the East Pacific Rise: Submersible observations and composition of the volcanics

Abstract

The Offset Spreading Center located between 12°52′ and 12°54′ N on the East Pacific Rise (Macdonald and Fox, 1983) has been studied in 1982 and 1984 with submersible Cyana and in 1983 with the deep towed vehicle Seamarc I. The two O.S.C. segments, about 1.5 km apart and 4 km in length, separated by a ‘depression’ (about 100 m in depth) show different volcano-tectonic settings. The Western Spreading Center (WSC) segment is characterised mainly by recent volcanic constructional features, while the Eastern Spreading Center (ESC) is highly fissured and consists essentially of older pillow-lava terrain. The intervening ‘depression’ located between the two segments is floored by small constructional mounds (<10 m in height) of pillow lava. The crust of both segments becomes older along strike towards their respective tips. However, the W.S.C. comprises generally younger flows than does the E.S.C. A small central volcano (80 m in height and 1 km in diameter) located near 12°51′ N near the Southern tip of the W.S.C. contains a different type of volcanics than that found on both spreading centers. The volcanics collected along the O.S.C. ridges are depleted tholeiites, with low K₂O (<0.15%), Na₂O (<3%) and TiO₂ (<1.76%) contents, comparable to other MORB from the axial graben of the E.P.R. south of the area of overlap. Instead the specimen from the small volcano is enriched in K₂O (>0.2%), Na₂O (>3%) and TiO₂ (2%).

Although there is a morphological overlap of the spreading centers in the study area there is no overlap in the present active axial volcanic zones. The bottom observations suggest that the Western spreading center is younger than the E.S.C. and thus that the W.S.C. could be propagating to the south.