Models of Along Axis Segmentation and Across Axis Structure of Mid-Ocean Ridges

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Two problems of mid-ocean ridge structure and tectonics have been investigated by the PI: the mechanism of sub-ridge mantle diapirism, and the controls on normal fault evolution at a ridge. He has shown that depletion-related density variations alone are an unlikely cause of mantle diapirism, but that buoyancy resulting from melting and melt percolation through mantle upwelling below a ridge can lead to diapirism. Further work is proposed to look at the role of melt related viscosity in this prosess. The mantle conditions needed to explain observations of crustal thickness variations along the EPR, in contract to those along the MAR, will be considered. The results about the mechanisms of normal faulting will be applied to the problem of ridge tectonics.