ЭКСГУМАЦИЯ ПОРОД ВЕРХНЕЙ МАНТИИ И НИЖНЕЙ КОРЫ В ЦЕНТРАЛЬНОЙ АТЛАНТИКЕ

Abstract

The article presents examples of exhumation of the upper mantle and lower crust rocks in various areas of the Atlantic Ocean and the mechanisms of translation of these deep formations to the upper crust horizons in the transition zone from the continent to the ocean, in areas of oceanic rises and troughs, in the ridge zone of the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic ridge. The latter is considered on the basis of original data obtained during many years of geological and geophysical research in the Central Atlantic by the research vessel «Academician Nikolay Strakhov». The main attention is paid to the oceanic core complexes, which are potential sites for the extraction of polymetallic sulfide ores and natural laboratories for studying the processes of ore genesis in the oceanic lithosphere and the formation of abiogenic hydrocarbons. It is shown that the translation of deep rocks to the bottom of the Central Atlantic took place throughout the history of its opening, starting with the rifting of the continental lithosphere in the Early Cretaceous and ending with the formation of oceanic core complexes in the axial part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the present stage. It is concluded that the exhumation of upper mantle and lower crust rocks is a vivid manifestation of the tectonic delamination of the Central Atlantic lithosphere.