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Journal of Petrology Advance Access published online on September 24, 2004
Journal of Petrology, doi:10.1093/petrology/egh064
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Received July 10, 2003
Accepted July 29, 2004

Article

The Cocos and Carnegie Aseismic Ridges: a Trace Element Record of Long-term Plume-Spreading Center Interaction

KAREN S. HARPP 1*, VIRGINIA D. WANLESS 1, ROBERT H. OTTO 1, KAJ HOERNLE 2, and REINHARD WERNER 3

1 DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY, COLGATE UNIVERSITY, 13 OAK DRIVE, HAMILTON, NY 13346, USA
2 DYNAMICS OF THE OCEAN CRUST, IfM-GEOMAR, WISCHHOFSTR. 1-3, 24148 KIEL, GERMANY
3 TETHYS GEOCONSULTING GmbH, WISCHHOFSTR. 1-3, 24148 KIEL, GERMANY

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kharpp{at}mail.colgate.edu.


  Abstract

The aseismic Cocos and Carnegie Ridges, two prominent bathymetric features in the eastern Pacific, record ~20 Myr of interaction between the Galápagos hotspot and the adjacent Galápagos Spreading Center. Trace element data determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry in >90 dredged seamount lavas are used to estimate melt generation conditions and mantle source compositions along the ridges. Lavas from seamount provinces on the Cocos Ridge are alkalic and more enriched in incompatible trace elements than any in the Galápagos archipelago today. The seamount lavas are effectively modeled as small degree melts of a Galápagos plume source. Their eruption immediately follows the failure of a rift zone at each seamount province's location. Thus the anomalously young alkalic lavas of the Cocos Ridge, including Cocos Island, are probably caused by post-abandonment volcanism following either a ridge jump or rift failure, and not the direct activity of the Galápagos plume. The seamounts have plume-like signatures because they tap underlying mantle previously infused with Galápagos plume material. Whereas plume heterogeneities appear to be long-lived, tectonic rearrangements of the ridge plate boundary may be the dominant factor in controlling regional eruptive behavior and compositional variations.

Keywords: mantle plume; mid-ocean ridge; Galápagos; abandoned rift; partial melting of the mantle.
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