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Reykjanes 'V'-shaped ridges originating from a pulsing and dehydrating mantle plume

Nature volume 411, pages 681–684 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Prominent crustal lineations straddle the Reykjanes ridge, south of Iceland (Fig. 1). These giant V-shaped features are thought to record temporal variations in magma production at the Reykjanes ridge axis, associated with along-axis flow of Icelandic plume material1. It has been proposed that this flow is channelled preferentially along the ridge axis2,3,4, and that temporal variability is induced by fluctuations of the Iceland plume itself1,4,5,6,7 or, alternatively, by relocations of the ridge axis on Iceland8. Here I present a geodynamic model that predicts the formation of crustal V-shaped ridges from a pulsing and radially flowing mantle plume. In this model, plume pulses produce mantle temperature perturbations that expand away from the plume in all directions beneath the zone of partial melting. The melting zone has a high viscosity owing to mantle dehydration at the onset of partial melting9. This high-viscosity region allows for reasonable variations in crustal thickness, produces crustal Vs that extend hundreds of kilometres along the axis, and prevents the plume material from being preferentially channelled along the ridge axis. The angle of the crustal V-shaped features relative to the ridge axis reflects the rate of lateral plume flow, which remains several times greater than the ridge half-spreading rate over the length of a crustal V. Consequently, this radially expanding plume produces lineations in crustal thickness and free-air gravity anomalies that appear to be nearly straight.

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Figure 1: Satellite-derived free-air gravity anomalies in region surrounding Iceland27.
Figure 2: Potential temperatures and flow fields (left) and differences from the steady-state model (right).
Figure 3: Maps of (a) predicted crustal thickness (contour interval 5 km) and (b) free-air gravity anomaly (contour interval 10 mGal) predicted from crustal structure.
Figure 4: Maximum crustal thickness variations (dots) predicted by models of different variation in plume flux.

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Acknowledgements

Discussions with D. Lizarralde motivated much of the early work of this study. I also appreciate valuable comments by C. Lesher, J.-G. Schilling and D. Sparks. Figures 1, 3 and 4 were produced using Generic Mapping Tools31. Funding was provided by NSF-OCE.

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  1. Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    Garrett Ito

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Correspondence to Garrett Ito.

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Ito, G. Reykjanes 'V'-shaped ridges originating from a pulsing and dehydrating mantle plume. Nature 411, 681–684 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35079561

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