Dredged Basalt from the Reykjanes Ridge, North Atlantic

Abstract

THE Reykjanes Ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean has been¹ an important example in derivations of the theory of sea-floor spreading. A detailed dredging programme by the R/V Trident (September 1967) with camera and gravity core stations covered a profile across the crest of the Reykjanes Ridge (at latitude 60° N, Fig. 1) to look for direct information on the mechanism of spreading and to test one suggested explanation¹. Many data were already available^2–4. Continuous depth, total magnetic intensity and seismic profiling measurements along this traverse correlated the new data with the old (magnetic, gravity and seismic). There was also a secondary, incomplete profile at latitude 61° 25′ N, 150 km north, as well as heat flow measurements by K. Horai and M. Chessman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.