Continuous Mantle Melt Supply Beneath an Overlapping Spreading Center on the East Pacific Rise

Abstract

Tomographic images of upper mantle velocity structure beneath an overlapping spreading center (OSC) on the East Pacific Rise indicate that this ridge axis discontinuity is underlain by a continuous region of low P-wave velocities. The anomalous structure can be explained by an approximately 16-kilometer-wide region of high temperatures and melt fractions of a few percent by volume. Our results show that OSCs are not necessarily associated with a discontinuity in melt supply and that both OSC limbs are supplied with melt from a mantle source located beneath the OSC. We conclude that tectonic segmentation of the ridge by OSCs is not the direct result of magmatic segmentation at mantle depths.