Explosive volcanism on the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel ridge, Arctic Ocean

Abstract

The latest deep submergence technologies have been used to perform the first high-definition photographic survey of the ultra-slow spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Basin, focusing on an area that is believed to have experienced a major eruption event in 1999. The images show that the axial valley at 4,000 m water depth is blanketed by an extensive set of pyroclastic deposits, raising important questions regarding the accumulation and discharge of magmatic volatiles on such ridges and demonstrating that large-scale pyroclastic activity is possible along even the deepest portions of the global mid-ocean ridge volcanic system. New deep submergence technologies are used to obtain photographic images of a ''zero-age'' volcanic terrain on the ultra-slow spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Basin. The imagery reveals that the axial valley at 4,000m water depth is blanketed with unconsolidated pyroclastic deposits, raising important questions regarding the accumulation and discharge of magmatic volatiles on such ridges and demonstrating that large-scale pyroclastic activity is possible along even the deepest portions of the global mid-ocean ridge volcanic system. Roughly 60% of the Earth’s outer surface is composed of oceanic crust formed by volcanic processes at mid-ocean ridges. Although only a small fraction of this vast volcanic terrain has been visually surveyed or sampled, the available evidence suggests that explosive eruptions are rare on mid-ocean ridges, particularly at depths below the critical point for seawater (3,000 m)1. A pyroclastic deposit has never been observed on the sea floor below 3,000 m, presumably because the volatile content of mid-ocean-ridge basalts is generally too low to produce the gas fractions required for fragmenting a magma at such high hydrostatic pressure. We employed new deep submergence technologies during an International Polar Year expedition to the Gakkel ridge in the Arctic Basin at 85° E, to acquire photographic and video images of ‘zero-age’ volcanic terrain on this remote, ice-covered ridge. Here we present images revealing that the axial valley at 4,000 m water depth is blanketed with unconsolidated pyroclastic deposits, including bubble wall fragments (limu o Pele)2, covering a large (>10 km2) area. At least 13.5 wt% CO2 is necessary to fragment magma at these depths3, which is about tenfold the highest values previously measured in a mid-ocean-ridge basalt4. These observations raise important questions about the accumulation and discharge of magmatic volatiles at ultraslow spreading rates on the Gakkel ridge5 and demonstrate that large-scale pyroclastic activity is possible along even the deepest portions of the global mid-ocean ridge volcanic system.