Pressures of Crystallization of the Sequeiros Fault Region

The focus of the research is around the Siqueiros fault zone, which lies on the mid-ocean ridge that is the East Pacific Rise. The region can potentially provide reliable information on the depths and pressures of partial crystallization and provide information on mantle processes and the plumbing systems of magmas. Glass sample composition data were gathered and analyzed from published data of the region that was in a database. The analyses of composition data looked at changes in chemistry of the samples and were used to produce pressures and depths of crystallization of the glass samples. The samples were separated into 4 different segments with an overall average depth of 6.7 kilometers and average pressure of 190.09 MPa. Although these averages can be useful, a sizeable portion of the calculated pressures are unreasonably high with some pressures reaching around 700 – 800 MPa. These pressures are unlikely to be the actual pressure during crystallization and indicate other processes occurring with crystallization in this region. This can be exemplified when looking at patterns of the variation diagrams where there seem to be other patterns occurring besides the normal pattern. This would indicate the complexity of the processes occurring here, near the Sequeiros fault zone, and the lack of reliability of the calculated pressures and depths of partial crystallization.The Ohio State University School of Earth Sciences Edmund M. Spieker Memorial ScholarshipSchool of Earth Sciences Field Experience Travel FundJoseph and Marcia Newhart Scholarship FundA three-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Earth Science