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    Explosive volcanism on the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel ridge, Arctic Ocean

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    Figure 1: Detailed bathymetry (30 m grid spacing) of the Gakkel Ridge at 85°E in the Arctic Ocean (2.048Mb)
    Figure 2: Photographs of pyroclastic deposits (24.43Mb)
    Date
    2007-11-26
    Author
    Sohn, Robert A.  Concept link
    Willis, Claire  Concept link
    Humphris, Susan E.  Concept link
    Shank, Timothy M.  Concept link
    Singh, Hanumant  Concept link
    Edmonds, Henrietta N.  Concept link
    Kunz, Clayton G.  Concept link
    Hedman, Ulf  Concept link
    Helmke, Elisabeth  Concept link
    Jakuba, Michael V.  Concept link
    Liljebladh, Bengt  Concept link
    Linder, Julia  Concept link
    Murphy, Christopher A.  Concept link
    Nakamura, Ko-ichi  Concept link
    Sato, Taichi  Concept link
    Schlindwein, Vera  Concept link
    Stranne, Christian  Concept link
    Tausenfreund, Upchurch  Concept link
    Winsor, Peter  Concept link
    Jakobsson, Martin  Concept link
    Soule, Samuel A.  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/2636
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07075
    Abstract
    Roughly 60% of the Earth’s outer surface is comprised of oceanic crust formed by volcanic processes at mid-ocean ridges (MORs). Although only a small fraction of this vast volcanic terrain has been visually surveyed and/or sampled, the available evidence suggests that explosive eruptions are rare on MORs, particularly at depths below the critical point for steam (3000 m). A pyroclastic deposit has never been observed on the seafloor below 3000 m, presumably because the volatile content of mid-ocean ridge basalts is generally too low to produce the gas fractions required to fragment a magma at such high hydrostatic pressure. We employed new deep submergence technologies during an International Polar Year expedition to the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Basin at 85°E, to acquire the first-ever photographic images of ‘zero-age’ volcanic terrain on this remote, ice-covered MOR. Our imagery reveals that the axial valley at 4000 m water depth is blanketed with unconsolidated pyroclastic deposits, including bubble wall fragments (limu o Pele), covering a large area greater than 10 km2. At least 13.5 wt% CO2 is required to fragment magma at these depths, which is ~10x greater than the highest values measured to-date in a MOR basalt. These observations raise important questions regarding the accumulation and discharge of magmatic volatiles at ultra-slow spreading rates on the Gakkel Ridge (6- 14 mm yr-1, full-rate), and demonstrate that large-scale pyroclastic activity is possible along even the deepest portions of the global MOR volcanic system.
    Description
    Author Posting. © Nature Publishing Group, 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature 453 (2008): 1236-1238, doi:10.1038/nature07075.
    Collections
    • Geology and Geophysics (G&G)
    • Biology
    • Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOP&E)
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Preprint: Sohn, Robert A., Willis, Claire, Humphris, Susan E., Shank, Timothy M., Singh, Hanumant, Edmonds, Henrietta N., Kunz, Clayton G., Hedman, Ulf, Helmke, Elisabeth, Jakuba, Michael V., Liljebladh, Bengt, Linder, Julia, Murphy, Christopher A., Nakamura, Ko-ichi, Sato, Taichi, Schlindwein, Vera, Stranne, Christian, Tausenfreund, Upchurch, Winsor, Peter, Jakobsson, Martin, Soule, Samuel A., "Explosive volcanism on the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel ridge, Arctic Ocean", 2007-11-26, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07075, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/2636
     
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