Volcanic Eruptions on Mid-Ocean Ridges: Insights into Axial Magma Chamber Processes

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

This is a renewal of studies of volcanological phenomena at a superfast spreading mid-ocean ridge, with data from the southern East Pacific Rise. Mapping and sampling of seven lava flow sequences have been completed and has revealed that their size, along-axis continuity, internal chemical heteorgeneity, and relation to other lava sequences within individual ridge segments has implications for magmatic processes occurring in sub-axial magma chambers. The processes underlying the production of chemical heterogeneity in erupted lavas can now be studied, as well as the how the various magmatic processes operate on inter- and intra-eruption timescales.