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Primitive layered gabbros from fast-spreading lower oceanic crust

Nature volume 505, pages 204–207 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Three-quarters of the oceanic crust formed at fast-spreading ridges is composed of plutonic rocks whose mineral assemblages, textures and compositions record the history of melt transport and crystallization between the mantle and the sea floor. Despite the importance of these rocks, sampling them in situ is extremely challenging owing to the overlying dykes and lavas. This means that models for understanding the formation of the lower crust are based largely on geophysical studies1 and ancient analogues (ophiolites)2,3,4,5 that did not form at typical mid-ocean ridges. Here we describe cored intervals of primitive, modally layered gabbroic rocks from the lower plutonic crust formed at a fast-spreading ridge, sampled by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program at the Hess Deep rift. Centimetre-scale, modally layered rocks, some of which have a strong layering-parallel foliation, confirm a long-held belief that such rocks are a key constituent of the lower oceanic crust formed at fast-spreading ridges3,6. Geochemical analysis of these primitive lower plutonic rocks—in combination with previous geochemical data for shallow-level plutonic rocks, sheeted dykes and lavas—provides the most completely constrained estimate of the bulk composition of fast-spreading oceanic crust so far. Simple crystallization models using this bulk crustal composition as the parental melt accurately predict the bulk composition of both the lavas and the plutonic rocks. However, the recovered plutonic rocks show early crystallization of orthopyroxene, which is not predicted by current models of melt extraction from the mantle7 and mid-ocean-ridge basalt differentiation8,9. The simplest explanation of this observation is that compositionally diverse melts are extracted from the mantle and partly crystallize before mixing to produce the more homogeneous magmas that erupt.

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Figure 1: Tectonic setting of the HDR and the location of IODP Site U1415.
Figure 2: Typical gabbroic rocks at Site U1415.
Figure 3: Variations in whole-rock CaO and Al2O3 with MgO for different parts of the crust at the HDR.

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Acknowledgements

This research used samples and data provided by the IODP. We thank the USIO staff and the Siem Offshore crew for recovering hard rock core in an unsedimented environment at >4,850-m water depth, and for their invaluable assistance during the expedition. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the drilling proposal proponents and the leaders (C. MacLeod and D. Teagle) and participants of the site survey cruise (JC21) in making IODP Expedition 345 possible. We thank E. Klein and H. Dick for reviews.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700 Station CSC, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 2Y2, Canada,

    Kathryn M. Gillis & Kathrin Faak

  2. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, 312 Science and Research Building 1, Houston, Texas 77204-5007, USA,

    Jonathan E. Snow

  3. United States Implementing Organization, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, Texas A&M University, 1000 Discovery Drive, College Station, Texas 77845, USA,

    Adam Klaus

  4. Institute for Research on Earth Evolution, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan,

    Natsue Abe

  5. Institute of Geoscience, Rio Grande do Sul Federal University, Avenida Bento Gonçalves, 9500 Bloco I Prédio, 43113 Sala 207, Porto Alegre/RS 91501-970, Brazil,

    Álden B. Adrião

  6. Department of Earth Sciences, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan,

    Norikatsu Akizawa & Sumiaki Machi

  7. Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (UMS 831), CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, Toulouse Cedex 31400, France,

    Georges Ceuleneer

  8. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Department 3006, University of Wyoming, 1000 University Avenue, Laramie, 82071, Wyoming, USA

    Michael J. Cheadle & Barbara E. John

  9. Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie, and Geophysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstrasse 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany,

    Kathrin Faak

  10. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 7001, Tasmania, Australia

    Trevor J. Falloon

  11. Department of Geology, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, 62901, Illinois, USA

    Sarah A. Friedman

  12. Géosciences Montpellier, Université Montpellier 2, CNRS UMR5243, CC 60, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France,

    Marguerite Godard & Benoit Ildefonse

  13. Borehole Research Group, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, PO Box 1000, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, New York 10964, USA,

    Gilles Guerin

  14. Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, AIST Tsukuba Central 7, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba Ibaraki 305-8567, Japan,

    Yumiko Harigane

  15. Department of Geology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, 44074, Ohio, USA

    Andrew J. Horst

  16. Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan,

    Takashi Hoshide

  17. Department of Geology and Environmental, Geosciences, Northern Illinois University, Davis Hall 312, Normal Road, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA,

    Marlon M. Jean

  18. Institut für Mineralogie, University of Hannover, Callinstrasse 3, Hannover 30167, Germany,

    Juergen Koepke

  19. Department of Natural History Sciences, Hokkaido University, North 10, West 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0810, Japan,

    Jinichiro Maeda & Marie Python

  20. Chemistry and Material Sciences Department, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 808, L-231, Livermore, California 94551, USA,

    Naomi E. Marks

  21. School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK,

    Andrew M. McCaig

  22. Centre for Geobiology and Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Allegaten 41, Bergen 5007, Norway,

    Romain Meyer

  23. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK,

    Antony Morris

  24. Department of Earth Sciences, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Okayama 700-8530, Japan,

    Toshio Nozaka

  25. Department of Geology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700 019, India,

    Abhishek Saha

  26. Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, 1001 East 10th Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA,

    Robert P. Wintsch

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  1. Kathryn M. Gillis
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Contributions

All authors were shipboard participants on IODP Expedition 345, contributed to the shipboard data collection, and discussed the results and their implications. K.M.G. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, K.M.G. and J.E.S. were co-chief scientists on the expedition, and A.K. was the staff scientist.

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Correspondence to Kathryn M. Gillis.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Summary lithostratigraphic columns of the gabbroic rocks recovered at IODP holes.

a, U1415I; b, U1415J; c, U1415P. Columns show recovery, lithological units, major rock types, dip of magmatic foliations and well-constrained magnetic remanence inclination values (mean and 1 s.d. listed). Lithological units were identified on the basis of similarities in rock types, magmatic textures and foliations. Palaeomagnetic remanence directions and the dip of the magmatic foliations and layers (not shown) for units II and III in holes U1415J and U1415P are most easily interpreted as blocks that probably formed by slumping and were rotated relative to each other. Ghost cores (G cores) are intervals drilled during hole cleaning operations. In a, Unit II refers to the Unit II layer gabbro series. d, Map showing the relative locations of holes U1415I, U1415J and U1415P; microbathymetry from ref. 45.

Extended Data Figure 2 Core images showing examples of simple, centimetre-scale modal layering and a moderate-to-strong magmatic foliation.

a, 345-U1415J-5R-2, piece 1, 2.0–17.5 cm; b, 345-U1415J-8R-2, piece 9, 105.5–121.0 cm.

Extended Data Table 1 Bulk compositions of crustal sections used to calculate the bulk-crustal composition and the bulk composition of the HDR crust and plutonic section
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Gillis, K., Snow, J., Klaus, A. et al. Primitive layered gabbros from fast-spreading lower oceanic crust. Nature 505, 204–207 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12778

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