Ridge crest magma chambers: a review of results from marine seismic experiments at the East Pacific Rise

Abstract

Recent studies along the north East Pacific Rise have documented the existence of a thin, narrow crustal magma body that is significantly smaller than the magma chambers incorporated into many earlier ridge crest geological models. The predominately molten part of the chamber is only 1-2km wide and less than a kilometer thick, although it can extend as a nearly continuous feature for distances of several kilometers to several tens of kilometers along the ridge crest. This thin, sill-like body of melt is surrounded by a much wider zone of anomalously low seismic velocities that is interpreted as ranging from a partially molten crystal mush to the solidified (but still hot) plutonic rocks of the lower oceanic crust. -from Author