A seismic anisotropy study of the Dragon Flag hydrothermal field (49°39′E ) on the Southwest Indian Ridge

Abstract:

Dragon Flag hydrothermal field located at 49°39′E on the Southwest Indian Ridge contains the active hydrothermal vents firstly discovered on the ultraslow spreading ridge (Tao et al, 2012). Anisotropic study in this area will provide important information tectonic activities. 65634 traveltime residuals from the three-dimensional isotropic inversion (Zhao et al., 2013), were divided into three groups, which correspond to quasi ocean crustal Layer 2 (qL2), quasi ocean crustal Layer 3 (qL3) and quasi uppermost mantle (qUM), respectively. Traveltime residuals at different depths show that there are obvious cosine relationships between traveltime residuals and azimuth of qL2, qL3 and qUM, indicating anisotropy existed in both crust and mantle beneath Dragon Flag hydrothermal field. The best fitted cosine curves indicate that the fast directions (negative traveltime residuals) corresponding to the general trend of ridge axis of N104°E. According to these results, we propose that there may be prevalent cracks penetrating into lower crust or even uppermost mantle. We argue that the hydrothermal convection of Dragon Flag hydrothermal field not only occurs perpendicular to ridge axis, but also occurs parallel to ridge axis. We reveal for the first time anisotropic characteristics of the ultraslow spreading ridge, which has profound scientific significance for the future research on global ocean lithospheric anisotropy. This research was granted by the Natural Science Foundation of China (91028002, 41176053, 91428204).

Keywords: ultraslow spreading ridge, Southwest Indian Ridge, Dragon Flag hydrothermal field, P wave traveltime residuals, anisotropy

References:

Tao C H, Lin J, Guo S, et al. First active hydrothermal vents on an ultraslow-spreading center: Southwest Indian Ridge. Geology, 2012, 40(1): 47~50.

Zhao M H, Qiu X L, Li J B, et al. Three-dimensional seismic structure of the Dragon Flag oceanic core complex at the ultraslow spreading Southwest Indian Ridge (49°39′ E). Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 2013, 14(10): 4544~4563.