The eastern Vema fracture zone interaction with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) axis was surveyed with the French submersible Nautile during the Vemanaute cruise in 1989. At this ridge-transform intersection (RTI), an elongated, E-W ridge, more than 50 km long, is present in the transform valley. This median ridge rises up to 1000 m above the surrounding seafloor. The crest of the median ridge is lower and presents an arcuate shape at the tip of the MAR axis. Dive observations on both the southern and northern flanks of the median ridge as well as sample studies suggest that this morphological feature is not a serpentinized mantle protrusion or a recent volcanic constructional ridge but represents a sliver of uplifted oceanic lithosphere covered by a sedimentary breccia formation. This detrital cover consists of polymictic sedimentary breccias, sandstones and siltstones, composed of basaltic, doleritic, and gabbroic clasts, with less frequent serpentinite and spinel fragments which originated from the disaggregation of shallow to deep levels of tectonically uplifted oceanic crust and upper mantle. Most of these clasts have undergone greenschist facies metamorphism prior to their incorporation in the detrital formation. Disaggregation, mass wasting and rapid emplacement of detrital formations on the valley floor by gravity flows are likely to be related to a major tectonic episode that affected one or both the fracture valley walls.

This event could be related to the uplift of the southern wall of the fracture zone (the ''transverse ridge'') which took place probably between 10 and 3 Ma ago. Since this uplift episode, the transverse ridge (which is now undergoing subsidence) and the detritus covered transform valley floor, separated by the transform fault zone, have migrated westward and eastward respectively. Vertical tectonics of the median ridge at the approach of the RTI can not be explained solely by the hypothesis of a diapiric intrusion of serpentinite as proposed by earlier authors. A possible interpretation follows the suggestions that the anomalous crust of the fracture valley near the western RTI, is more than 1 km out of isostatic equilibrium. Recent tectonic and magmatic events including subsidence and lava emplacement which occurred at the tip of the MAR axis have been recorded on the southern flank of the median ridge. Several stages in the very recent tectonic-volcanic history of the eastern RTI, that is, roughly during the last 300,000 years, can thus be defined. The lower elevation and narrow, arcuate shape of the median ridge east of 40¿57'W are inferred to have resulted from tectonic extension during the creation of the nodal basin. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1992