EMRIDGE: The electromagnetic investigation of the Juan de Fuca Ridge

Abstract

From July to November 1988, a major electromagnetic (EM) experiment, known as EMRIDGE, took place over the southern end of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific. It was designed to complement the previous EMSLAB experiment which covered the entire Juan de Fuca Plate, from the spreading ridge to subduction zone. The principal objective of EMRIDGE was to use natural sources of EM induction to investigate the processes of ridge accretion. Magnetotelluric (MT) sounding and Geomagnetic Depth Sounding (GDS) are well suited to the study of the migration and accumulation of melt, hydrothermal circulation, and the thermal evolution of dry lithosphere. Eleven magnetometers and two electrometers were deployed on the seafloor for a period of three months. Simultaneous land-based data were made available from the Victoria Magnetic Observatory, B.C., Canada and from a magnetometer sited in Oregon, U.S.A. Changes in seafloor bathymetry have a major influence on seafloor EM observations as shown by the orientation of the real GDS induction arrows away from the ridge axis and towards the deep ocean. Three-dimensional (3D) modelling, using a thin-sheet algorithm, shows that the observed EM signature of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and Blanco Fracture Zone is primarily due to nonuniform EM induction within the ocean, associated with changes in ocean depth. Furthermore, if the influence of the bathymetry is removed from the observations, then no significant conductivity anomaly is required at the ridge axis. The lack of a major anomaly is significant in the light of evidence for almost continuous hydrothermal venting along the neo-volcanic zone of the southern Juan de Fuca Ridge: such magmatic activity may be expected to have a distinct electrical conductivity signature, from high temperatures, hydrothermal fluids and possible melt accumulation in the crust. Estimates of seafloor electrical conductivity are made by the MT method, using electric field records at a site 35 km east of the ridge axis, on lithosphere of age 1.2 Ma, and magnetic field records at other seafloor sites. On rotating the MT impedance tensor to the principal axis orientation, significant anisotropy between the major (TE) and minor (TM) apparent resistivities is evident. Phase angles also differ between the principal axis polarisations, and TM phase are greater than 90° at short periods. Thin-sheet modelling suggests that bathymetric changes accounts for some of the observed 3D induction, but two-dimensional (2D) electrical conductivity structure in the crust and upper mantle, aligned with the ridge axis, may also be present. A one-dimensional (1D) inversion of the MT data suggests that the top 50 km of Earth is electrically resistive, and that there is a rise in conductivity at approximately 300 km. A high conductivity layer at 100 km depth is also a feature of the 1D inversion, but its presence is less well constrained.