Abstract
Published bathymetric, geophysical and geochemical data suggest the presence of a hotspot in the South Atlantic, between the Bode Verde and Ascension fracture zones, in the vicinity of Ascension Island which has been named Ascension hotspot. We provide here new isotope and trace element data on Grattan (a near-ridge seamount) basalts which suggest that this edifice was produced by the plume presently feeding the adjacent Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) segment and that it could represent the geochemical “missing end-member” described by Hanan et al. (1986) in the South Atlantic Ocean. Its isotopic signature differs slightly from that of Ascension Island and is more radiogenic in 208Pb. Trace element data are intermediate between those of MORB and characteristic OIB. We suggest that near Grattan seamount there exists a weak, perhaps intermittent, and slightly chemically heterogeneous plume.
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