Abstract
Ocean Drilling Program Hole 735B at Atlantis Bank on the Southwest Indian Ridge sampled 1508 m of plutonic oceanic crust, hosted in the footwall of an oceanic detachment fault. We present new high-precision isotope dilution-thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) U–Pb zircon dates from samples spanning the length of Hole 735B, and from the shallower adjacent Hole 1105A (158 m). The new dates provide the most complete and precise record of both the spatial and temporal distribution of magmatism during accretion of the lower oceanic crust to date. Whole rock and mineral geochemistry from Hole 735B define three main igneous series. Weighted mean 206Pb/238U dates suggest each igneous series intruded beneath the preceding series. Weighted mean 206Pb/238U dates range from 12.175 to 11.986 Ma in Series 1; 11.974 to 11.926 Ma in Series 2; and 11.936 to 11.902 Ma in Series 3 (±0.015 to 0.069 Ma). Weighted mean 206Pb/238U dates from Hole 1105A range from 11.9745 to 11.9573 Ma (±0.0082 to 0.0086 Ma). The Hole 1105A dates are coeval with Series 2 in Hole 735B, consistent with previous correlations of Fe-Ti oxide-rich layers between the two holes, suggesting individual magmatic series formed sheet-like bodies that were ≥250 m thick and extended ≥1.1 km parallel to the ridge axis (E–W) and ≥0.48 km in the spreading direction (N–S). The data suggest a total duration of magmatism in Hole 735B of ≥0.214±0.032 Ma, corresponding to accretion over a horizontal distance of ≥2.6±0.4 km. The crust at Atlantis Bank was formed during active detachment faulting, and the successive underplating of each magmatic unit may have been favored in this environment. The combined U–Pb dates, and reported Ti-in-zircon temperatures, are consistent with magmatic cooling rates of 103–104 °C/Ma over the temperature interval of 900–700 °C.
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