Abstract:

The ocean floor makes up more than two-thirds of Earth’s surface and hosts the planet’s largest
continuous plate boundary, the mid-ocean ridge (MOR). The MOR marks the location where tectonic
plates spread apart and new crust is formed, but the manner in which this crust forms is poorly known.
Few constraints exist on the interplay between crustal faulting and magmatism, which is believed to
exert a first order control on MOR evolution. We examine how the rate of change of magmatic activity
may alter the style of faulting along a mid-ocean ridge using data collected in 2016 along the ~13°N
Marathon Fracture Zone of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and numerical models. We use a marker-in-cell,
finite-difference code to simulate the oceanic crust and lithosphere as an elastic-plastic material
spreading above a viscous asthenosphere. We impose a horizontal divergence equal to a fraction of the
plate separation rate to simulate magma injection within the upper ~6 km of the crust. Models were run
with different rates of change in axial magma supply to test the hypothesis that the rate of change in
magma supply along a MOR axis is an important controlling parameter on the style and lifetime of
faults.

Numerical Model:

To examine the role of changing magma supply on the transition in fault type along a mid-ocean ridge, we
use the two-dimensional, finite-difference, marker-in-cell code SiStER (Simple Stokes with Exotic
Rheologies; Olive et al., 2016). SiStER solves the equations of conservation of mass, momentum, and
energy for a visco-elastic-plastic crust and mantle. Viscous deformation is simulated using a temperature-
dependent Newtonian viscosity, ηNewt. Elasticity is incorporated by assuming that the lithosphere behaves
as a Maxwell solid and placing elastic stresses as source terms on the right-hand size of the momentum
equation (e.g., Moresi et al., 2003; Olive et al., 2016). Plastic deformation occurs when stresses surpass
the brittle yield stress 𝜎𝑦 determined by a Drucker-Prager failure criterion. When and where material fails
plastically, we introduce a plastic viscosity ηplas to maintain stresses at or below 𝜎𝑦 . At each point, the total
effective viscosity is defined as a harmonic average of the plastic and material viscosities,

−1
1 1
𝜂𝑒𝑓𝑓 = (𝜂 +𝜂 ) . (1)
𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑡 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠

The above formulation yields elastic-plastic behavior (e.g., faults) in the cold crust and viscous
deformation in the warmer mantle. Magma injection is modeled by introducing a localized zone of
divergence, effectively simulating opening of a magma-filled crack at the ridge.

Model initial and boundary conditions are set to allow dynamic evolution of faulting along the axis. The
domain measures 60 km laterally by 25 km in depth. The top boundary is free slip, while the bottom
boundary has pressure specified to equal the weight of the overlying material, but otherwise permits
material to enter or exit the model. The vertical sides have a velocity of 1.42 cm.yr-1 to simulate plate
spreading. Thermally, the model has a standard mid-ocean ridge temperature structure given by the
solution to a half-space cooling model (e.g., Turcotte and Schubert, 2008).
Parameters:

Symbol Definition Value

vi Velocity field with components (vx , vy )
P Pressure field
σ'ij, σ’ij, Deviatoric stress tensor, stress increment
σ'II Second invariant of the deviatoric stress tensor
σy, σy Yield stress, strength contrast between fault zone and intact lithosphere
ϵdottedII Second invariant of the strain rate tensor
G Gravitational acceleration 9.81 m.s-2
Ρ Density field
R Density of the faulted layer and underlying asthenosphere 3300 kg.m-3
O Density of the ocean layer 1000 kg.m-3
Δρ Density contrast between the faulted layer and the overlying fluid layer 2300 kg.m-3
T Temperature field
t Time step
Z Viscoelastic ratio
G Shear modulus 40 GPa
Ν Poisson’s ratio
E Young’s modulus
Η Viscosity field
ηREF Reference viscosity (temperature-dependent)
ηPLAS Plastic viscosity
ηL Viscosity of the faulted layer 1024 Pa.s
ηWEAK Viscosity of the sticky layer and asthenosphere 1018 Pa.s
Ωdotted Rotation rate
U Spreading rate (full) 2.84 cm.yr-1
H Faulted layer thickness
hCRIT, εCRIT Critical offset and strain on the fault necessary for full cohesion weakening
εP Accumulated plastic strain
τH Healing time scale 3100 m.U-1
CMAX, CMIN Maximum and minimum value of cohesion 40 and 0.01 MPa
μ, μ0 Friction coefficient in the fault zone, in the intact layer
α Flexural wavelength of the faulted layer
w(x) Flexural response of the faulted layer due to offset on the fault
w*(x) Topography of the faulted layer driven by rigid motion along the fault
wT(x) Total topography induced by offset on the fault
D Flexural rigidity of the faulted layer
L Width of the numerical model 60 km

References:

Moresi, L.N., F. Dufour, H.B. Mühlhaus (2003). A lagrangian integration point finite element method for
large deformation modeling of viscoelastic geomaterials J. Comput. Phys., 184, pp. 476-497,
10.1146/annurev.earth.30.091201.140357
Olive, J. A., M. D. Behn, E. Mittelstaedt, G. Ito, B. Z. Klein (2016), The role of elasticity in simulating long-
term tectonic extension, Geophysical Journal International, Volume 205, Issue 2, Pages 728–743,
https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggw044
Turcotte, D.L., and G. Schubert (2014). Geodynamics, Cambridge University Press, Third Edition, ISBN
978-1-107-00653-9