The Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 45 °N. VI. Remanent intensity, susceptibility, and iron content of dredged samples

Abstract

Results from 27 dredge hauls (75 samples) spaced from 150 km west to 70 km east of the Median Valley of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at about 45 °N are reported. Basalt is the most common rock type. The basalts have a mean remanent intensity of 92 × 10−4 and a mean susceptibility of 0.9 × 10−4 cgs cm−3. The remanence varies with distance from the axis, samples from the Median Valley (mean 574 × 10−4) being ten times more magnetic than samples at a greater distance. Most of this decrease of intensity occurs within a few kilometers (less than 6 km) of the central axis and within the zone of active volcanism. It is suggested that this dramatic drop in intensity is caused by viscous decay enhanced by thermal cycling or by chemical change in the narrow volcanic axial zone.Certain other properties of the basalts vary with distance; the blocking temperatures and stability (versus a.f. demagnetization) increase, and the ratio FeO/Fe2O3 decreases with distance. These changes are most marked at the inner slopes of the Crestal Mountains not within the narrow axial zone, and it is possible that they reflect sampling bias, the samples from the Median Valley being from flow margins, whereas the collections from the flanks contain material from the centers of flows.Non-basaltic rocks include serpentinized peridotite, greenstone, gabbro, and diabase. Serpentinized peridotite samples are strongly magnetic and have a mean intensity of 23 × 10−4 cgs cm−3. Greenstones, gabbros, and diabases are weakly magnetized, with mean intensities of about 10−4. Moreover, basalt showing partial alteration to greenstone has intermediate intensities showing that such a metamorphic process effectively demagnetizes a rock. This result is more consistent with the idea that Layer 3 is composed predominantly of gabbro and metamorphosed basalt rather than of serpentinized peridotite. The remanence and susceptibilities of 18 "erratic" samples, which are thought from other evidence to have been deposited by Pleistocene icebergs, have a wide and irregular spread.