Gravity anomalies and crustal thickness variations along the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge between 33°N and 40°N

Multibeam bathymetry and gravity data have been obtained along an ∼800-km-long section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from just south of the Hayes fracture zone at 33°N to the northern edge of the Azores Platform near 40°N. A three-dimensional analysis of these gravity and topography data, combined with results from earlier seismic refraction studies in this area, reveal two different scales of crustal heterogeneity. A systematic, along-axis, segment-scale (λ 8–9 km) near the middle of spreading segments and the thinnest crust (<3–4 km) near segment offsets. The magnitude of this along-axis variation in crustal thickness is proportional to the length of the spreading segment and the size of the adjacent ridge offset. There also is a distinct asymmetry in crustal structure across the rift valley near large segment offsets with gravity highs, inferred to be thinner crust, beneath the “inside corner” highs adjacent to these offsets. This segment-scale crustal heterogeneity is similar to that reported from the Kane-to-Atlantis section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and from parts of the intermediate-spreading southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is superimposed on a second, longer wavelength variation in gravity and crustal thickness associated with the Azores hot spot. The most pronounced effect of the Azores hot spot on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge occurs between 38°N and 40°N where the ridge axis rapidly shoals by more than 1000 m, the crust thickens by over 2 km, and the rift valley largely disappears. The absence of a deep axial rift valley on the Azores Platform, and near the midpoints of some ridge segments along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to the south, agrees well with the predictions of recent ridge crest thermal and rheological models that suggest a dependence of axial morphology on both crustal thickness and spreading rate. The transition from a rift valley to an axial high morphology at these spreading rates (∼11 mm/yr half rate) occurs at a crustal thickness of about 9±1km.

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