S P E C I A L I S S U E F E AT U R E

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MANTLE MELTING BENEATH
MID-OCEAN RIDGES
B Y C H A R L E S H . L A N G M U I R A N D D O N A L D W. F O R S Y T H

The plate-tectonic revolution was initially “kinematic”— pressures equivalent to thousands of atmospheres in the inte-
a description of plate motions across Earth’s surface. Plate rior. As mantle ascends beneath the mid-ocean ridge, less and
tectonics is now recognized as the surface manifestation of a less rock lies above it, so large pressure changes occur, which
greater process—circulation of the solid earth. Magma ascends leads to melting. The melt is less dense than the solid, and rises
to the surface at mid-ocean-ridge spreading centers to cool and to the surface to form the oceanic crust.
form oceanic crust, which millions of years later returns to the Figure 1 shows how rising mantle crosses the “solidus” (the
mantle at subduction zones. Formation of oceanic crust is the transition from complete solid to partial melt) and melts pro-
greatest contribution of flow from our planet’s interior, as two- gressively towards the surface. Note that because the mantle is
thirds of the earth is resurfaced about every 100 million years. a solid consisting of many different molecules, it does not melt
Partial melting of the mantle at spreading centers is the mecha- entirely at a single temperature, but progressively over a range
nism by which this flow takes place, and thus is fundamental to of temperatures—from 0 percent melting at the solidus to
understanding solid-earth circulation. 100 percent melting several hundred degrees higher at the liq-
Melting is a primary means by which the earth cools: sea- uidus. Thus, partial melting is possible.
floor spreading brings hot mantle from depth to the colder sur- Several lines of evidence provide information about this
face. Because we normally think that melting occurs through melting process. New maps generated over the past 25 years
heating (e.g., putting a slab of butter in a frying pan), it may show the variations in shape and depth of thousands of volca-
seem paradoxical to say the earth melts while cooling down. noes distributed along the ridge. These maps have enabled sci-
The explanation for this paradox is that melting temperatures entists to sample the volcanic rocks—ocean-ridge basalt—that
are dependent on pressure as well as temperature. Just as in- make up the surface pavement of the oceanic crust. About
creased temperature excites atoms so they free themselves from 80 percent of the 60,000-kilometer-long mid-ocean ridge
their ordered, solid, crystalline state, so increased pressure has been mapped and sampled at least to 100-km spacing
squeezes atoms, making it more difficult for them to transi- (see www.petdb.org). At the same time, experimental studies
tion from solid to liquid. Thus, temperature and pressure exert have led to quantitative models of how melt composition and
opposite effects on melting, and melting can occur by decreas- amount vary with temperature and pressure (e.g., Jacques and
ing pressure at a given temperature as well as by increasing Green, 1980; Kinzler and Grove, 1992; Baker and Stolper, 1994;
temperature at a given pressure. The reason melting by pres- Pickering-Witter and Johnston, 2000). And seismic studies,
sure release seems foreign to common experience is because which are able to probe Earth’s interior directly, provide infor-
human life on Earth is lived in an environment of almost con- mation about the “melting regime” beneath the ridge axis. This
stant pressure caused by the weight only of the atmosphere. article synthesizes some of these developments, and outlines a
The solid earth, however, is subject to huge changes in pressure, set of major questions for future research.
because the weight of hundreds of kilometers of rock exerts

78 Oceanography Vol. 20, No. 1

 AXIS
0
15% 4 Ocean Crust

5% 30%
3

Depth (km)
50
Solidus 20%
2
10%
1
100
Solidus

Cold Ascending Mantle Hot Ascending Mantle

Temperature Temperature

3 3

2 2
Pressure

Pressure
Ma

Ma
ntl

ntl

1 1
e

e
So

So
lid

lid

30% 30%
us

us
Ascending
Mantle

20% 20%
10% 10%
Ascending
Mantle

0%
0%

Figure 1. Diagrams illustrating the melting mechanisms beneath ocean ridges. At any one pressure, the mantle melts over a
temperature range of several hundred degrees. The boundary between melt absent and melt present is called the mantle
solidus. As mantle ascends beneath the ocean ridge, it begins melting as the solidus is crossed, and melts progressively dur-
ing further ascent. Thus, the mantle melts by pressure decrease rather than by temperature increase. Hot mantle crosses
the solidus at greater depths, leading to a larger melting regime, greater extents of melting, and thicker crust than that
produced by cold mantle. The numbers on the bottom diagrams correspond to the pressures where melting stops for the
numbered flow lines on the upper diagrams.

Oceanography March 2007 79

A FIR STORDER MODEL FOR larger range of pressures, leading to the water. The same principle applies on
O CE ANRID GE MELTING greater extents of melting. Here, then, Earth to crust “floating” on the denser
The deep mantle is solid, but not brittle. the common-sense intuition holds true: mantle. Oceanic crust is denser and
At the high temperatures and pres- hot mantle melts more than cold man- thinner than continental crust, and for
sures characteristic of Earth’s interior, tle. The greater quantity of melt from this reason the ocean floor is generally
the mantle beneath the plates flows like hot mantle thus produces thicker oce- at a lower elevation than continents.
a very viscous liquid at rates of up to anic crust than is produced from colder Variations in the thickness of the oceanic
several tens of centimeters per year. As mantle (see Figure 1). All of this can be crust along ocean ridges lead to varia-
the rigid plates separate at mid-ocean understood as a consequence of how the tions in the elevation of the ocean floor,
ridges, the deeper mantle rises to fill the pressure-temperature diagram relates with thick crust, in areas such as Iceland,
“gap” created by spreading. The ascend- to the melting regime created by mantle actually rising above sea level, and very
ing mantle crosses its melting point flow driven by plate separation. thin crust lying as much as 5000 meters
and begins to melt. The mantle-melting The actual extent of mantle melt- below sea level.
region beneath the ridge, the “melting ing can be estimated from the chemical Putting these considerations together,
regime,” is roughly triangular in shape compositions of the basalts that rise to the first-order prediction is that hotter
(see Figure 1). The total amount of melt the surface and are sampled at ocean mantle leads to lower sodium content,
that can be produced by any particular ridges. Elements that are preferentially thicker crust, and shallow water depths,
part of the mantle within the melting concentrated into the liquid (that is to and colder mantle to higher sodium con-
regime is proportional to how far this say, elements that are incompatible with tents, thinner crust, and greater depths.
mantle rises after crossing the solidus. the crystals remaining in the solid man- Observations are in agreement with this
The melting regime ranges in extent of tle, called “magmaphile” elements) have prediction, as Figure 2 shows. Quanti-
melting, therefore, from zero at the bot- concentrations that are inversely propor- tative models of this simple picture of
tom where the mantle begins to melt, tional to the extent of melting. The most mantle melting can to first order suc-
to a maximum at the shallowest point abundant element with this behavior is cessfully account for the composition
of melting. The remarkable fact is that sodium. High extents of melting lead to and thickness of the oceanic crust, and
as the mantle melts more and more, it liquids with low sodium concentrations, the global variations in depths of the
is at lower and lower temperatures, so it and low extents of melting to high con- ocean ridges (Klein and Langmuir, 1987;
actually melts while cooling down rather centrations, because most of the “incom- Langmuir et al., 1992). Thus, a simple
than while heating up. patible” sodium is partitioned into the bathymetric map of the ocean-ridge
Because the melts produced in the first small melt fraction. Further melting system could be considered to reflect
melting regime are buoyant and fluid, then dilutes the sodium concentration. largely the temperature structure of the
they separate from the solid and rise to A physical measure of the extent of underlying mantle.
the surface to form the oceanic crust. melting is the amount of crust produced
If the mantle is hotter, it starts to melt per increment of spreading, which is COMPLE XITIE S OF THE
deeper, and therefore can melt over a the crustal thickness. Crustal-thickness MELTING PRO CE SS
measurements are difficult and expensive This first-order understanding is only an
CHARLES H. LANGMUIR (langmuir@ because they require seismic experiments initial approach to what we now know is
eps.harvard.edu) is Professor, Department using instruments deployed on the sea- a more diverse and complex set of pro-
of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard floor. A useful proxy for crustal thick- cesses, such as the complexities of mantle
University, Cambridge, MA, USA. DONALD ness comes from Archimedes’s buoyancy flow, mantle composition, and the de-
W. FORSYTH is Professor, Department principle: A thick piece of wood sticks tailed processes of melt segregation. Let
of Geological Sciences, Brown University, up higher out of the water than a thin us consider some factors that are not tak-
Providence, RI, USA. piece, and also extends deeper below en into account by the first-order model.

80 Oceanography Vol. 20, No. 1

 4 some scale (Allegre and Turcotte, 1986).
COLD, LESS Major chemical heterogeneities can also
MELTING be caused by other mantle processes
3.5
such as recycling back into the mantle of
the cold lithosphere beneath continents,
and within the mantle the movement of
3
melts that do not reach the surface.
Na 8.0

Another important aspect of mantle

2.5 composition that affects how it melts
beneath a spreading center is its con-
HOT, MORE
Normal Ridges tent of volatiles, principally water and
MELTING
2 carbon dioxide. Both have very low
Hot Spot Margins
melting temperatures, and addition of
Hot Spot Centers
these compounds to the mantle can sub-
1.5 stantially increase the pressure where
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Depth (m) melting begins, as we will examine in
Figure 2. Plots of average compositions of ocean-ridge basalts (each point represents more detail below.
about 100 km of ridge length) vs. the average depth of the ridge. Na8.0 is the composi-
tion of basalt normalized to a constant MgO content of 8 wt.% to correct for shallow-
level differentiation. High Na contents reflect small extents of melting, while lower Na Variations in Spreading Rate
contents reflect higher extents of melting. High extents of melting lead to low Na con- Ridges vary in the rate at which they
tents, greater crustal thickness, and shallower depths below sea level, consistent with a
model of varying mantle temperature. After Langmuir et al., 1992
produce new seafloor, from less than
10 mm yr -1 to nearly 200 mm yr -1. At
spreading rates of 100 mm yr -1, the up-
welling mantle rises from the depth
of melting onset to the surface in only
Complexities of Melt Segregation Variations in Mantle Composition about one million years. At 10 mm yr -1,
The model assumes that melt is delivered Sodium contents of erupted magmas it takes about ten million years, long
to the surface without significant inter- are influenced not only by the extent of enough for the mantle to lose heat by
action with the surrounding mantle and melting, but also by source composition. conduction to the surface while it is still
crustal rocks that it traverses. Although Although the mean mantle composition rising (Figure 3). At the slowest spread-
this assumption may seem simplistic, is quite well constrained (McDonough ing rates, therefore, the extent of melting
it became more conceivable with the and Sun, 1995), the operation of plate decreases, and the average depth of melt-
discovery that melt can be transported tectonics inevitably leads to variations on ing increases, compared to fast-spreading
through the mantle in channels of pure a variety of scales, called mantle hetero- rates (Shen and Forsyth, 1995).
olivine (Kelemen et al., 1995), a mineral geneity. Melting beneath an ocean ridge
that has little effect on chemical compo- creates some 6 km of crust enriched in Tectonic Complexities
sition. The potential chemical complexi- elements such as sodium and titanium, The Figure 1 cartoon shows a two-
ties and ramifications of melt transport and 60–100 km of mantle that is de- dimensional slice across a spreading
are still only beginning to be understood, pleted in these elements. When this plate ridge, which is assumed to extend long
however, and a full model of mantle is recycled into the mantle at convergent distances along the ridge axis. The real
melting must ultimately consider both margins, these heterogeneities gradually world is far more interesting. Ridges are
melt generation and melt transport and become mixed, but differences in density offset by transform faults every 100 km
the chemical consequences of each. and stiffness will preserve variations on or so, creating a segmented fabric, as

Oceanography March 2007 81

shown in Figure 4. Upwelling is expected cally by “hotspots,” such as those found beneath the ridge, and a different rela-
to be slowed in the vicinity of transform near Iceland, the Galápagos, and the tionship between extent of melting and
faults, and the rising mantle should be Azores islands (see Dyment et al., this crustal thickness. And there is evidence
cooled by proximity to the colder, older issue). Most scientists consider hotspots from trace elements and radiogenic iso-
lithosphere across the transform (Fox to be generated by hot plumes rising topes that the mantle at hotspots may
and Gallo, 1984; Bender et al., 1984). from the deep mantle in “active” mantle have a composition different from that
Thus, on a local scale, we would also flow, rather than the passive mantle found under normal ridges, creating an
expect a truncation of the top of the flow at ridges that we considered in the additional complexity (e.g., Schilling,
melting regime. first-order model. Active flow generates 1975; Schilling et al., 1982).
Ridges are also punctuated periodi- a different pattern of mantle upwelling Finally, there are the spreading axes
that are closely associated with con-
vergent margins, called back-arc basin
spreading centers (see Martinez et al.,
this issue). Down-going slabs influence
the pattern of mantle flow and prevent
the kind of simple upwelling seen in
Figure 1. Back-arc spreading centers are
also influenced by the flux of water and
other elements that come from the slab
as it subducts (e.g., Gill, 1976; Sinton
and Fryer, 1987; Stolper and Newman,
1994; Taylor and Martinez, 2003). Simple
consideration of the geometry also indi-
cates that there may not be enough room
in the mantle wedge above the slab to
accommodate a melting regime such as
is observed at open-ocean ridges (Kelley
et al., 2006; Langmuir et al., 2006b).

TE STING MULTI
AXIS AXIS
DIMENSIONAL CONTROL S
OceanCrust
Ocean Crust Ocean Crust
ON MANTLE MELTING
15% This overview of the diverse ocean-
10% 10%
ridge environments shows that there
are many “forcing functions” that in-
5% 5%
fluence the ridge. Understanding the
diverse influences of all these forc-
Solidus Solidus
ing functions continues to be a focus
of ocean-ridge research.
Figure 3. Map of the Arctic Ocean’s Gakkel Ridge, which is the slowest major spreading ridge on Earth. The classic approach to such ques-
Spreading rate decreases progressively towards Siberia, as evident from the narrowing of the basin tions in many other areas of scientific
created by the spreading (delimited by the red lines). As spreading rate declines, slower upwelling
prevents melting all the way to the surface, and the melting regime becomes progressively truncated, research is to carry out experiments
leading to a melting trapezoid rather than a melting triangle such as seen in Figure 1. in the laboratory where the boundary

82 Oceanography Vol. 20, No. 1

 conditions can be controlled, and the influences on mantle melting and crust place, traversing the platform created by
experiment completed in weeks to years. formation. Many other examples from the Galápagos hotspot in the equatorial
Much research in earth science cannot be other portions of the ocean-ridge system Pacific (Cushman et al., 2004).
addressed in this way because the rele- can be found in the literature. Around the Azores and Galápagos, the
vant scales of time and space are millions ridge varies in depth from greater than
of years and hundreds of kilometers. It Transects Across the Azores 3000 m some thousand kilometers from
is not possible to go to a ridge and turn and Galápagos Platforms the hotspot to less than 1500 m where the
up the spreading rate or turn down the The first project of the InterRidge pro- ridge most closely approaches the hot-
mantle temperature to see what happens gram was a targeted series of investiga- spot. In earlier studies of these regions,
or to build a functioning ridge in the lab. tions across the Azores platform in the Schilling et al. (1980, 1982) showed that
Instead, earth scientists have to make use Atlantic Ocean to see how a near-ridge the contents of volatiles, such as water
of “natural experiments” provided by hotspot influenced the ridge (Detrick et in the spreading-axis magmas, increased
the earth. The following are examples of al., 1995; Langmuir et al., 1997; Asimow toward the hotspots’ centers as ridge
such experiments and a brief discussion et al., 2004). More recently, a similar in- depth shallowed, and that “hotspots”
of what they reveal about the diverse vestigation of the Galápagos Rise took were also “wet spots.” Bonatti (1990)

-3˚00'

-3˚30'

-4˚00'

-4˚30'

-5˚00'

253˚30' 254˚00' 254˚30' 255˚00' 255˚30' 256˚00' 256˚30' 257˚00' 257˚30' 258˚00'

2400 2500 2600 2700 2800 2900 3000 3100 3200 3300 3400 3500 3600 3700 3800 3900 4000 4100 4200 4300 4400 4500 4600 4700 4800
Bathymetry (m)

Figure 4. Map of the East Pacific Rise where there are large transform offsets, illustrating the three-dimensional complexity of the ridge system. Melting
regimes cannot be continuous across such long transforms, and the cooling effects of the transforms also truncate the top of the melting regime, leading
to melting trapezoids near the transform edges, such as seen in Figure 3. From Forsyth et al. (2006)

Oceanography March 2007 83

 inferred that mantle temperatures Water is significant to mantle melting partitioned into the first melts formed,
beneath these shallow ridges might even because it acts as a melting flux in the its influence decreases markedly with
be colder than usual, rather than hotter. mantle and is a “carrier phase” for mag- increasing extent of melting. This leads
Schilling also showed that concentra- maphilic elements. The melting point of to very low melt production in the deep
tions of various magmaphile elements the mantle is substantially lowered by the part of the melting regime, and a very
also substantially increased, and that the addition of water, even in small amounts. different distribution of melt with depth.
gradient in water depth was associated Each 0.1 percent of water added to the Therefore, water and temperature both
with a gradient in chemical composition. mantle lowers the melting point of the lead to increases in total melt production
The natural experiment here, then, was first liquid produced by 150°C–250°C and crustal thickness, and therefore shal-
to explore the influence of a hotspot on (e.g., Gaetani and Grove, 1998; Katz et lower ridge depths, but the effect of wa-
the spreading center. From the “hot,” one al., 2003 and references therein). If this ter is in the deep, low-degree melts.
would infer higher mantle temperatures, effect is added to the melting diagram Experimental data quantify the effects
and yet the mantle composition, includ- shown in Figure 1 (Figure 5), it becomes of water on mantle melting (e.g., Gaetani
ing the particularly significant volatile evident that water causes melting to and Grove, 1998). The challenge is to
abundances, changes towards the hot- begin at much higher pressures and leads produce models that yield both the cor-
spot. Both water and temperature aug- to greater extents of melting at the top of rect crustal thickness and contents of
ment the extent of mantle melting. Can the melting regime (Hirth and Kohlstedt, water and other elements in the magmas
the relative importance of these variables 1996; Asimow and Langmuir, 2003). at the hotspot center. Such models show
be separated? Because water, like sodium, is strongly that the shallow depths and increased

Melt Fraction
00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18
a b
Mean 12
5 Melt Dry to Wet,
35°C T
Fractions difference Dry Only,
10 75°C T
11 difference
15
Azores Platform Crust
Crustal Thickness (km)

10
20
Pressure

25
9 Wet melting
with 700 ppm Dry melting
30 H 2O

35 8

40
7
45 1000 ppm water Normal Atlantic Crust
100 ppm water
50 6
1325 1350 1375 1400 1425 1450 1475
Potential Temperature °C

Figure 5. Illustration of the effects of water on melting beneath ridges. The left panel shows that addition of water creates a deep “tail” of low extents of
melting, which contributes additional melt and causes greater crustal thickness. Although adding water causes the maximum extent and total amount of
melt to increase, the average extent of melting across the whole depth of melting decreases because of the large, deep region of low-degree melts. The right
panel shows how this effect can help to explain data from the Azores hotspot. Having a water-rich mantle source reduces the needed temperature excess to
explain crustal thickness variations from about 75°C to 35°C. Right-hand panel modified from Asimow et al (2004)

84 Oceanography Vol. 20, No. 1

 crustal thickness are the result of both perature structure. Direct ground-truth the surface (Figure 6). This lack of a
hotspot and wet-spot effects (Asimow tests of how the mantle actually melts deep root confirms that upwelling at
et al., 2004). Temperature differences require imaging the melting regime this spreading center is passively driven
alone would suggest that the ridge near beneath the ridge axis. The Mantle Elec- by plate separation rather than by active
the Azores was some 75°C hotter than tromagnetic and Tomography (MELT) convective upwelling. Seismic shear-
normal. Inclusion of water shows the seismic experiment was designed to im- wave velocities dropped dramatically at
addition of some 750 parts per mil- age the mantle beneath a spreading axis depths above 100–150 km, indicating the
lion of water to the mantle leads to the using seismic and electromagnetic meth- onset of melting (shear or “s” waves can-
appropriate chemical compositions ods (MELT Seismic Team, 1998). The not propagate through liquid). Because
and crustal thickness, and this reduces ideal location for this investigation was experiments on peridotite melting show
the temperature differences required to the equatorial East Pacific Rise, which is that volatile-free mantle should begin to
some 35°C (Asimow et al., 2004). characterized by a long ridge with few melt only at 60–80 km, the presence of
transform offsets, a high spreading rate melt at greater depths inferred from the
The MELT Seismic Experiment on and therefore maximum rate of melt MELT results indicate that, even in the
the Southern East Pacific Rise production, and good weather. absence of a hotspot or wet-spot influ-
The various models of mantle melting The experiment showed that, unlike ence, the effects of water on melting
outlined above are based on information beneath hotspot islands, there was no regime are important.
derived from experiments on peridotite deep “root” of anomalously hot mantle Some theoretical models had sug-
melting and calculations of mantle tem- extending hundreds of kilometers below gested that once melting began, mantle

West DISTANCE FROM AXIS (km) East

400 200 0 200 400

101 mm/yr 45 mm/yr

Crust
0 Figure 6. Schematic of results from the
MELT experiment, showing that melting
begins at about 150-km depth and that
the melting regime extends preferentially
Lithospheric to the west of the East Pacific Rise. This
Mantle experiment was the first attempt to image
an ocean-ridge melting regime, testing
100 the conceptual cartoons seen in Figure 1.
Embedded
DEPTH (km)

Primary Melting Modified from the MELT Seismic Team, 1998

Heterogeneity

Incipient
200 Melting

300

400 410 km Discontinuity

Oceanography March 2007 85

upwelling might concentrate into a very (see Snow and Edmonds, this issue). The primary spreading centers (Figure 4).
narrow zone directly beneath the spread- Gakkel is the slowest-spreading ridge This area provides a natural laboratory
ing axis. Instead, the low-velocity zone in the world, with spreading rates from to test models of the three-dimensional
was more than 100 km across, consistent 6–15 mm yr -1. It has no transform offsets pattern of mantle flow and melt migra-
with the roughly triangularly shaped re- or hotspots that would lead to perturba- tion. If melting occurs in broad, trian-
gion of melting shown in Figure 1. The tions in mantle temperature. This simple gular zones beneath the ridges as shown
electromagnetic experiment showed geometry is ideal for an investigation in Figure 1, how does the melt from the
that the upper 60 to 70 km of the mantle of the role of spreading rate on mantle distal portions of the melting regime
away from the spreading center itself is melting (Michael et al., 2003). Simple migrate laterally back to the ridge axis?
highly resistive, indicating that the man- thermal models suggest that at these Several ideas have been suggested, such
tle above this depth has been depleted of low spreading rates there would be a as melt migrating vertically to the top
water by the removal of melt (Evans et substantially increased lid of cold litho- of the melting region, then flowing up
al., 2005). Perhaps the most surprising sphere and lower extents of melting. along the base of the sloping lithosphere
result was the degree of asymmetry of If variations in lithospheric thickness back to the spreading center (Magde and
structure beneath the East Pacific Rise, rather than mantle temperature cause Sparks, 1997). Another suggestion is that
with lower seismic velocities, shallower the variations in crustal thickness and the melts are driven by pressure gradi-
seafloor, and more pronounced seismic magma chemistry observed along ridges, ents within the deforming solid mantle
anisotropy associated with alignment then variations along the Gakkel Ridge (Phipps Morgan, 1987; Spiegelman and
of olivine crystals. This result suggested should mirror global trends. Or, can the McKenzie, 1987). These models make
that deeper flow in the mantle (to supply important variables of spreading rate different predictions for the composi-
the material flowing in to fill the gap left and mantle temperature be separated? tion and volume of melt that would
by the separating plates) comes primarily Analyses of the wealth of data from this be delivered to each intra-transform
from the west, perhaps supplied by hot- expedition are well underway. The criti- spreading center.
spots beneath Tahiti and other islands cal chemical parameters turned out to A research cruise in April 2006 (For-
far from the spreading center (Mahoney be the basalts’ iron and silica concentra- syth et al., 2006) mapped the bathymetry
et al., 1994; Phipps Morgan et al., 1995; tions, and the distribution of the rare in detail, made gravity measurements
Toomey et al., 2002; Conder et al., 2002). earth elements, whose pattern of distri- to estimate differences in crustal thick-
bution is sensitive to melting pressure. ness, and sampled basalts. The composi-
Investigation of the Gakkel Ridge, The results clearly show the effects of tion of the basalts will reveal the relative
Arctic Ocean increased lithospheric thickness on the contributions of deep and shallow melt-
One of the most interesting spreading melting regime, as distinct from those ing to the crust that is formed at each
centers on Earth, the Gakkel Ridge, lies caused by mantle temperature differ- intra-transform center, thus helping to
beneath the ice of the Arctic Ocean and ences (Langmuir et al., 2006b). decipher the plumbing system that pipes
extends from Greenland to Siberia (see magma out of the mantle and the effect
Figure 3). Studying this ridge is fraught The Quebrada-Discovery-Gofar of transform offsets on melt production.
with operational difficulties. InterRidge Fracture Zone System
scientists invested considerable time and The Quebrada, Discovery, and Gofar The Lau Basin Back-Arc
effort in devising a plan to begin study- fracture zones are a set of transform Spreading Center
ing this ridge, a plan that came to frui- faults on the fast-spreading East Pacific Back-arc basins provide another natural
tion in 2001 with the two-ship AMORE Rise. Within each transform, there are experiment for ocean-ridge processes
expedition involving the new US ice- short, intra-transform spreading cen- because of their unique thermal and
breaker, the Coast Guard cutter Healy, ters from 5–15 km in length, which are tectonic environments. The Lau back-
and the German icebreaker Polarstern offset by different distances from the arc basin formed behind the northeast-

86 Oceanography Vol. 20, No. 1

 southwest trending Tonga volcanic arc, the arc front also increases. These condi- understanding of this region.
which itself was formed by subduction tions make the Lau Basin an ideal back- Back-arc basins are important from
of the Pacific Plate at the Tonga trench arc environment for addressing issues the mantle melting perspective because
(Figure 7). Situated west of the arc, the such as transport of fluid components water is added from dehydration of the
southern Lau Basin is relatively young from slab to mantle wedge, the timing of subducting slab, and the influence of
(< 5.5 million years old) oceanic crust these transport processes, and the influ- water contrasts markedly with its influ-
created by two main rifts, the Central ence of slab fluids on mantle melting. To ence at open-ocean ridges. Plotting an
Lau Spreading Center and the Eastern take advantage of this unique tectonic index of the extent of melting (such as
Lau Spreading Center. From south to setting, the US Ridge 2000 program the TiO2 or Na2O contents) vs. H2O con-
north, the spreading rate increases from designated the Lau Basin an “integrated tents, indicates opposite trends in the
65 mm yr -1 at 21°S to 90 mm yr -1 at study site.” Japanese, British, German, back-arc and open ocean. This result can
18°S (Taylor et al., 1996; Martinez et al., and Australian investigators have also be understood visually by placing the
2006), as distance between the ridge and made substantial contributions to the melting regime seen in Figure 1 within








 Figure 7. The left-hand panel shows the Lau Back-Arc Basin cre-
1000 ated by spreading along the Eastern Lau Spreading Center (ELSC)
500
0 behind the Tonga arc, where the Pacific Plate is being subducted.
-500
-1000 The right-hand panel shows a cross section at about 22°S. The grey
-1500
-2000 diamonds are earthquake locations that indicate the position of
CLSC -2500
Late -3000 the cold, subducting plate. There is no room for a triangular melt-
-3500
-4000 ing regime in this environment—the slab truncates it. Thus, the

 -4500 effects of hydrous melting seen in Figure 5, which are the result of
ILSC -5000
-5500 the deep “wings” of the melting regime, are prevented from tak-
-20
00 -6000
-6500 ing place in the back-arc environment. Map from Martinez et al.
0
00

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Oceanography March 2007 87

the context of a back-arc such as the science remains a frontier. ing that incorporate mantle flow, melt
southern Lau Basin (Figure 7b). There With sustained funding, it seems like- migration, and crystallization in the
is no room for it! In the open ocean, the ly that over the next 10–15 years, better context of three-dimensional mantle
effects of water lowering the mean ex- constraints from all parts of the system flow and tectonic environments that
tent of melting come from the “wings,” will lead to an integrated understanding reflect the fascinating complexities of
or distal edges, of the melting regime. of mantle melting beneath ridges. These the real earth.
And in the back-arc, there is no room for constraints will likely arise from the fol-
the extremities of the melting regime on lowing complement of directions: ACKNOWLED GE MENTS
the arc side of the system, exactly where 1. Although there are many samples This manuscript benefited from reviews
the subducting plate might be introduc- from ocean ridges, few of them have by Colin Devey and John Sinton, and the
ing water into the mantle. Therefore, in relatively complete geochemical anal- careful editing of Kristen Kusek, whose
the back-arc it seems likely that melts yses, which are crucial to test models efforts are much appreciated. Research
from the two halves of the melting re- of melting and mantle heterogeneity. was supported by the National Science
gime have very different characteristics. Comprehensive data sets are likely to Foundation.
On the back-arc, or dry side, melting provide much clearer constraints.
is similar to open-ocean ridges. On the 2. Over the next 10–15 years, the ridges REFERENCE S
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