Atlantic ocean floor: Geochemistry and petrology of basalts from legs 2 and 3 of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project

Abstract

Basalts cored on legs 2 and 3 of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) range in sea floor spreading age from 18 to 67×106 yr. Although many of the basalts are highly altered, fresh glass is usually present. Except for site 2–10 the fresh glasses are petrographically and geochemically similar to mid-Atlantic ridge (MAR) axial basalts. There are no systematic compositional differences as a function of distance from the MAR axis. Two sites contain basalts with olivine (Fo90) phenocrysts, high Mg/Mg + ΣFe, high Ni and Cr abundances, and very low large ion lithophile (LIL) element abundances. These basalts are the best candidates for primary magma recovered from the sea floor; fractional crystallization of such basalt may yield the more evolved basalts typical of the MAR. More fractionated basalts with clinopyroxene phenocrysts occur at twp other sites, but they retain low LIL element abundances. Site 2-10 contains titaniferous augite and is relatively enriched in LIL elements. It is unlikely that this basalt was derived by fractional crystallization from LIL element depleted tholeiites; instead, the site 2-10 basalt requires a different mantle source. These results imply that the upper Atlantic Ocean basement is dominantly LIL element depleted tholeiite.