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Petrological and tectonic segmentation of the East Pacific Rise, 5°30′–14°30′ N

Abstract

Lavas from the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise are geochemically diverse even within a single tectonically defined spreading cell. Within such spreading cells, small offsets of the rise axis are often boundaries between petrologically distinct magmatic units which must be supplied independently from beneath the ocean crust. Volcanics erupted near the small offsets can have chemical characteristics similar to those previously found near transform faults.

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Langmuir, C., Bender, J. & Batiza, R. Petrological and tectonic segmentation of the East Pacific Rise, 5°30′–14°30′ N. Nature 322, 422–429 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/322422a0

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