Accretion mode of oceanic ridges governed by axial mechanical strength

Abstract

Oceanic spreading ridges exhibit structural changes as a function of spreading rate, mantle temperature and the balance of tectonic and magmatic accretion. The role that these or other processes have in governing the overall shape of oceanic ridges is unclear. Here, we use laboratory experiments to simulate ridge spreading in colloidal aqueous dispersions whose rheology evolves from purely viscous to elastic and brittle when placed in contact with a saline water solution. We find that ridge shape becomes increasingly linear with spreading rate until reaching a minimum tortuosity. This behaviour is predicted by the axial failure parameter ΠF, a dimensionless number describing the balance of brittle and plastic failure of axial lithosphere. Slow-spreading, fault-dominated and fast-spreading, fluid intrusion-dominated ridges on Earth and in the laboratory are separated by the same critical ΠF value, suggesting that the axial failure mode governs ridge geometry. Values of ΠF can also be calculated for different mantle temperatures and applied to other planets or the early Earth. For higher mantle temperatures during the Archaean, our results preclude the predicted formation of large tectonic plates at high spreading velocity. The shape of mid-ocean ridges is influenced by lithospheric mechanical strength, according to laboratory simulations of diverging plates. The results imply that large tectonic plates probably could not have formed on a younger, hotter Earth.