Extensional tectonics in the Gorringe Bank rocks, Eastern Atlantic ocean: evidence of an oceanic ultra-slow mantellic accreting centre

The Gorringe Bank corresponds to an upper mantle peridotite ridge enclosing a 500-m thick/ 50-km long laccolith-like body of gabbro, locally cut and poorly covered by tholeiitic rocks. Strain and kinematic analysis of orientated gabbros and peridotites sampled during the GORRINGE diving cruise (1996) provides new kinematic constraints on extensional high-temperature deformation recorded at deep levels during stretching, near an accreting centre axis of a mantle-dominant oceanic lithosphere. It is argued that the Gorringe Bank lithosphere formed at an oceanic ultra-slow, N010°–020°-trending accreting centre, mostly by passive tectonic denudation of the mantle, without any synchronous large magmatism. This peculiar lithosphere may be representative of the Iberia oceanic domain located between the continent and the J anomaly ridge, which likely marks the beginning of true spreading at an oceanic spreading ridge.     

Gabbro and related rock emplacement beneath rifting continental crust: UPb geochronological and geochemical constraints for the Galicia passive margin (Spain)

The thinned continental crust of the west Galicia margin is bound by a belt of serpentinized peridotites (‘peridotite ridge’) lying about 300 km off the coast in the North Atlantic ocean. From this ridge, a gabbro and a chlorite rock were studied in an attempt to substantiate rift-related subcontinental magmatism, occurring prior to sea-floor spreading. U-Pb dating of 13 different zircon fractions yields a precise age of 122.1 ± 0.3 Ma (2σ) for the emplacement of the chlorite rock protolith, from which more than 50% of Si and alkali-calc-alkali elements were lost during greenschist facies tectonometamorphism. Sr and Nd isotope signatures suggest that the gabbro and chlorite rock protoliths were derived from mantle sources that were moderately depleted in LILE, relative to a chondritic reservoir. No evidence for the presence of continental material in the magma source regions can be observed. From the new zircon age of 122.1 ± 0.3 Ma, and earlier determined³⁹Ar⁴⁰Ar age of 122.0 ± 0.6 Ma for amphibole from the same locality, it can be documented that magma formation, solidification and unroofing of the mantle rocks occurred during a short period of time of about 3.4 Ma, which means that the peridotite ridge detached from the continent and rose to the surface immediately after, or even coevally with mantle melting.     

Seismic image of undercrusted serpentinite beneath a rifted margin

During the continental rifting the upper mantle was unroofed, and the mantle rocks were transformed into serpentinite at the ocean-continent transition of the west Galicia margin (Spain). The serpentinite layer, several km thick, extends probably eastwards, beneath the highly thinned continental crust of the margin.
The serpentinite layer was recently imaged by seismic reflection. It is discontinuously and deeply layered. As serpentinized peridotite can have densities and seismic velocities comparable to those of the lower continental crust, we suggest that undercrusting by serpentinite can play a part in building the lower seismic crust in highly stretched continental rifted areas.     

From rifting to spreading in the eastern Gulf of Aden: a geophysical survey of a young oceanic basin from margin to margin

A geophysical survey in the eastern Gulf of Aden, between the Alula–Fartak (52°E) and the Socotra (55°E) transform faults, was carried out during the Encens–Sheba cruise. The conjugate margins of the Gulf are steep, narrow and asymmetric. Asymmetry of the rifting process is highlighted by the conjugate margins (horst and graben in the north and deep basin in the south). Two transfer fault zones separate the margins into three segments, whereas the present‐day Sheba Ridge is divided into two segments by a transform discontinuity. Therefore segmentation of the Sheba Ridge and that of the conjugate margins did coincide during the early stages of oceanic spreading. Extensive magma production is evidenced in the central part of the western segment. Anomaly 5d was identified in the northern and southern parts of the oceanic basin, thus confirming that seafloor spreading in this part of Gulf of Aden started at least 17.6 Ma ago.