Fault rotation and core complex formation: Significant processes in seafloor formation at slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges (Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 13°-15°N)

Deborah K Smith (1) , Javier Escartin (2) , Hans Schouten (1) , Johnson R Cann (3)

1 WHOI - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
2 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
3 SEE - School of Earth and Environment [Leeds]

The region of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) between the Fifteen-Twenty and Marathon fracture zones displays the topographic characteristics of prevalent and vigorous tectonic extension. Normal faults show large amounts of rotation, dome-shaped corrugated detachment surfaces (core complexes) intersect the seafloor at the edge of the inner valley floor, and extinct core complexes cover the seafloor off-axis. We have identified 45 potential core complexes in this region whose locations are scattered everywhere along two segments (13° and 15°N segments). Steep outward-facing slopes suggest that the footwalls of many of the normal faults in these two segments have rotated by more than 30°. The rotation occurs very close to the ridge axis (as much as 20° within 5 km of the volcanic axis) and is complete by 1 My, producing distinctive linear ridges with roughly symmetrical slopes. This morphology is very different from linear abyssal hill faults formed at the 14°N magmatic segment, which display a smaller amount of rotation (typically <15°). We suggest that the severe rotation of faults is diagnostic of a region undergoing large amounts of tectonic extension on single faults. If faults are long-lived, a dome-shaped corrugated surface develops in front of the ridges and lower crustal and upper mantle rocks are exposed to form a core complex. A single ridge segment can have several active core complexes, some less than 25 km apart that are separated by swales. We present two models for multiple core complex formation: a continuous model in which a single detachment surface extends along axis to include all of the core complexes and swales, and a discontinuous model in which local detachment faults form the core complexes and magmatic spreading forms the intervening swales. Either model can explain the observed morphology.

Mots clés: slow-spreading ridges; detachment faulting; ocean core complex; fault rotation Index

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]

Deborah K Smith, Javier Escartin, Hans Schouten, Johnson R Cann. Fault rotation and core complex formation: Significant processes in seafloor formation at slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges (Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 13°-15°N). Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 2008, 9 (3), ⟨10.1029/2007gc001699⟩. ⟨insu-01875666⟩