Graben formation associated with recent dike intrusions and volcanic eruptions on the mid‐ocean ridge

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Grabens have been mapped immediately adjacent to recently erupted submarine lava flows on the Cleft and CoAxial segments of the Juan de Fuca Ridge (JdFR). The grabens are 10–100 m wide and 5–15 m deep and are located uprift and/or downrift of the eruptive vents that fed the flows. We interpret that these structures formed (or were reactivated) directly over the dike that fed the eruptions as it was intruding toward the surface. These graben structures are primary conduits for diffuse hydrothermal venting on the seafloor during the cooling of newly intruded dikes. The axial summit “graben” or “caldera” on the East Pacific Rise (EPR) in some locations has similar dimensions to the grabens observed on the JdFR, and we interpret that it too may be a dike‐induced graben structure (although often buried by subsequent eruptions where it is narrowest). These grabens on the JdFR and the EPR are distinctly narrower and deeper than grabens that formed during well‐documented dike intrusions on slow spreading rifts on land (Iceland and Afar). Mechanical modeling suggests that narrow grabens would form when a dike is at shallow depth where it imposes a high stress perturbation on the ambient stress state to cause faulting. Therefore the narrow grabens on the JdFR and EPR imply that a relatively high level of horizontal compressive stress typically exists perpendicular to the ridges, and this must be overcome by high dike‐induced perturbations to cause faulting. This is probably because gradual plate spreading rarely gets enough time to lower the compressive stress significantly due to the high frequency of dike intrusion events relative to the plate spreading rate. The dikes that do intrude in this environment must have relatively high internal magma pressure. Therefore the size and character of dike‐induced grabens that form at the surface on intermediate to fast spreading ridges reflect the fact that volcanism dominates over tectonism in regulating the local stress state where a robust magma supply is available.