Small-scale structure of the Kane oceanic core complex, Mid-Atlantic Ridge 23°30′N, from waveform tomography of multichannel seismic data

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 37 (2010): L21305, doi:10.1029/2010GL044412.Frequency-domain waveform tomography applied to deep-sea multichannel seismic data collected across the Kane oceanic core complex (OCC) reveals the small-scale structure of this section of oceanic lithosphere formed at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge 3.3–2.1 Myr ago that has been uplifted and exhumed at the seafloor along an oceanic detachment fault. Geological and geophysical studies indicate that the central-eastern area of the Kane OCC is formed by a large gabbroic intrusion. The new high-resolution seismic velocity models show that this gabbroic core is 1,000–1,350 m thick and it is underlain by a ∼300-m-thick layer of low-velocity material interpreted as serpentinized peridotite. The models also reveal the presence of a deeper, 200-m-thick by 1,700-m-long high-velocity body interpreted as a small gabbroic sill embedded in serpentinzed peridotite.The author thanks the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowed Fund for Innovative Research for the award that supported this study