The spreading rate dependence of the distribution of axial magma lenses along mid-ocean ridges

Significance The best constraints on the size and depth of magma chambers on Earth come from seismic studies of quasihorizontal axial melt lenses (AMLs) seen all along fast-spreading mid-ocean ridges but only at the centers of slow-spreading segments. We present a model that explains the observed distribution of AMLs by assuming that lenses form as magma-filled tension fractures during the opening of magmatic dikes. This stress change can force open an AML below the axial lithosphere only if the average density of the lithosphere is less than or equal to the magma density. Seismic observations and thermal models suggest that this condition is met along most fast- and some intermediate-spreading ridges but only at the centers of slow-spreading segments.

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

• Publication date

  2022-12-27

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Geology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1073/pnas.2214048120PMID 36574682PMCID 9910491
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Copyright 2022

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