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John Chen 2001
John Chen, Y. (2001). Thermal effects of gabbro accretion from a deeper second melt lens at the fast spreading East Pacific Rise. Journal of Geophysical Research 106: doi: 10.1029/2000JB900420. issn: 0148-0227.

Motivated by recent observations, a ridge model has been developed which includes both a shallow melt lens and a second deeper melt lens above the Moho to assess the thermal effect of the gabbro accretion from the lower melt lens at the fast spreading East Pacific Rise. Modeling results argue for a limited role of the lower melt lens in constructing the layer 3 gabbros. If significant (>10%) amount of the layer 3 gabbros is emplaced near the Moho, then the liberated latent heat during crystallization would generate a large molten section of the lower crust due to the inability of cold seawater to penetrate into this hot/ductile region. A large molten section of the lower crust is not consistent with recent seismic tomographic results of the East Pacific Rise. Thus it is likely that the amount of the gabbro being emplaced from the lower melt lens at the EPR is significantly less than that suggested by Oman ophiolite studies, such a lower melt lens is short-lived, or a large portion of the still intrusions observed at Oman was emplaced at a few kilometers off axis (>3--4 km). ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union

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Abstract

Keywords
Marine Geology and Geophysics, Heat flow (benthic) and hydrothermal processes, Marine Geology and Geophysics, Midocean ridge processes, Mathematical Geophysics, Modeling
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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