A New View of Ridge Segmentation and Near-Axis Volcanism at the East Pacific Rise, 8˚–12˚N, from EM300 Multibeam Bathymetry

Author(s)

Scott M. White, University of South Carolina - ColumbiaFollow
Rachel M. Haymon, University of California - Santa Barbara
S M. Carbotte, Columbia University

Document Type

Article

Abstract

New, high-resolution bathymetry for the East Pacific Rise between 8˚N and 12˚N was collected over a6 km wide swath centered on the ridge axis using the 30 kHz Simrad EM300 multibeam system. Thecoverage area corresponds latitudinally to the designated Ridge2000 Integrated Studies Site (ISS) for fastspreading ridges. The EM300 data, gridded at 30 m latitude by 50 m longitude, represent a greater than 4Ximprovement in horizontal resolution over previously available multibeam data and a 2X improvement indepth resolution. The new bathymetry was used to update the locations and hierarchy of ridge offsets forthis area. Among the many applications for this data, it enables us to tabulate volcanoes half the size thatcould be previously detected. The distribution of near-axis volcanic cones >25 m high suggests that thispopulation of small, near-axis cones results from low effusion rate eruptions of the ridge axis.

Publication Info

Published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Volume 7, Issue 12, 2006, pages 1-12.

Rights

White, S. M., Haymon, R. M., & Carbotte, S. (2006). A new view of ridge segmentation and near-axis volcanism at the East Pacific Rise, 8˚–12˚N, from EM300 multibeam bathymetry. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 7 (12), 1-12.

© Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 2006, American Geophysical Union