Seismic refraction data constrain along-axis structure of the Mid-Cayman spreading center

Abstract:

The Mid-Cayman Spreading Center (MCSC) is an ultraslow (15 mm/yr) spreading ridge between the Caribbean and North American plates. From north to south the MCSC is just ~140 km long, as it is bounded to the north by the Oriente transform fault, and to the south by the Swan Islands and Walton fault systems. The neovolcanic zone is characterized by an axial valley with depths to 6000 m, and a few off-axis bathymetric highs that can be as shallow as 2000 m. The role of tectonic and magmatic processes in the creation of this bathymetric relief is not yet understood. In the 2015 CaySEIS experiment, a collaboration between German, US and UK scientists, we gathered ocean-bottom seismic refraction data along five lines across and parallel to the MCSC to determine its crustal structure. We here present the tomographic analysis of marine seismic refractions recorded along the spreading axis. The presence of thin crust here shows that the bathymetric relief of the MCSC is at least in part isostatically compensated. Much of the older ultraslow spread crust on the flanks of the MCSC may not have accreted along the deep axial valley, but it may instead have formed by exhumation of gabbros along extensional faults in the adjacent seafloor.