[1] We report highly variable mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) major element and water concentrations from a single 1050-km first-order spreading segment on the ultraslow spreading Southwest Indian Ridge, consisting of two supersegments with strikingly different spreading geometry and ridge morphology. To the east, the 630 km long orthogonal supersegment (<10°obliquity) dominantly erupts normal MORB with progressive K/Ti enrichment from east to west. To the west is the 400 km long oblique supersegment (up to 56°obliquity) with two robust volcanic centers erupting enriched MORB and three intervening amagmatic accretionary segments erupting both N-MORB and E-MORB. The systematic nature of the orthogonal supersegments' ridge morphology and MORB composition ends at 16°E, where ridge physiography, lithologic abundance, crustal structure, and basalt chemistry all change dramatically. We attribute this discontinuity and the contrasting characteristics of the supersegments to localized differences in the upper mantle thermal structure brought on by variable spreading geometry. The influence of these differences on the erupted composition of MORB appears to be more significant at ultraslow spreading rates where the overall degree of melting is lower. In contrast to the moderate and rather constant degrees of partial melting along the orthogonal supersegment, suppression of mantle melting on the oblique supersegment due to thickened lithosphere means that the bulk source is not uniformly sampled, as is the former. On the oblique supersegment, more abundant mafic lithologies melt deeper thereby dominating the more enriched aggregate melt composition. While much of the local major element heterogeneity can be explained by polybaric fractional crystallization with variable H 2 O contents, elevated K 2 O and K/Ti cannot. On the basis of the chemical and tectonic relationship of these enriched and depleted basalts, their occurrence requires a multilithology mantle source. The diversity and distribution of MORB compositions, especially here at ultraslow spreading rates, is controlled not only by the heterogeneity of the underlying mantle, but also more directly by the local thermal structure of the lithosphere (i.e., spreading geometry) and its influence on melting processes. Thus at ultraslow spreading rates, process rather than source may be the principle determiner of MORB composition.

The compositions of natural glasses and phenocrysts in basalts from Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 501, 504, and 505, near the Costa Rica Rift, constitute evidence for the existence of a periodically replenished axial magma chamber that repeatedly erupted lavas of remarkably uniform composition. Magma compositions were affected by three general components: (1) injected magmas carrying (in decreasing order of abundance) Plagioclase, olivine, and chrome-spinel phenocrysts (spinel assemblage); (2) injected magmas carrying Plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and olivine phenocrysts, but no spinel (clinopyroxene assemblage); and (3) moderately evolved hybrids in the magma chamber itself. The compositions of the injected phenocrysts and minerals in glomerocrysts are as follows: Plagioclase-Angj,^; olivine-Fo 87 _ 89 ; clinopyroxene-high Cr 2 O 3 (0.7-1.1%), endiopside (Wc^E^jFs^, and aluminous chromian spinel (Cr/Cr + Al 0.3). These minerals resemble those thought to occur in upper mantle sources (9 kbars and less) of ocean-ridge basalts and to crystallize in magmas near those sources. In the magma chamber, more sodic Plagioclase (An 79 _g 5 ), less magnesian olivine (Fo 8J _ 86 ) and low-Cr 2 O 3 (0.1-0.4%) clinopyroxene formed rims on these crystals, grew as other phenocrysts, and formed cumulus segregations on the walls and floors of the magma chamber. In the spinel-assemblage magmas, magnesiochromite (Cr/Cr + Al = 0.4-0.5) also formed. Some cumulus segregations were later entrained in lavas as xenoliths.The glass compositions define 16 internally homogeneous eruptive units, 13 of which are in stratigraphic order in a single hole, Hole 504B, which was drilled 561.5 meters into the ocean crust. These units are defined as differing from each other by more than analytical uncertainty in one or more oxides. However, many of the glass groups in Hole 504B show virtually no differences in TiO 2 contents, Mg/Mg + Fe 2 " 1 ", or normative An/An + Ab, all of which are sensitive indicators of crystallization differentiation. The differences are so small that they are only apparent in the glass compositions; they are almost completely obscured in whole-rock samples by the presence of phenocrysts and the effects of alteration. Moreover, several of the glass units at different depths in Hole 504B are compositionally identical, with all oxides falling within the range of analytical uncertainty, with only small variations in the rest of the suite. The repetition of identical chemical types requires (1) very regular injection of magmas into the magma chamber, (2) extreme similarity of injected magmas, and (3) displacement of very nearly the same proportion of the magmas in the chamber at each injection. Numerical modeling and thermal considerations have led some workers to propose the existence of such conditions at certain types of spreading centers, but the lava and glass compositions at Hole 504B represent the first direct evidence revealed by drilling of the existence of a compositionally nearly steady-state magma chamber, and...

The petrology of the mid‐Atlantic ridge between 22° and 23°N latitude may be typical of those portions of the ridge characterized by a linear topography parallel to the axis, a well‐developed median valley, and an absence of volcanic cones. Submarine basalt lavas dredged at fifteen stations on the crest of the ridge are of three eruptive facies, all derived from essentially identical magmas; (1) pillow lavas, (2) sideromelane‐rich tuffs, and (3) massive, mainly holocrystalline basalts. This association is well known from continental exposures of ancient submarine lavas. Chemically, the lavas are oceanic tholeiites and thus support the view that these low‐potassium olivine basalts are by far the dominant eruptive on the deep‐sea floor. In the 22° area, they are probably the product of voluminous fissure eruptions. The oceanic tholeiite is evidently the counterpart of the continental flood basalts, but it differs compositionally from these, especially in a lower potassium content. As a further characterization of the basalts, seven new analyses of major, minor, and trace elements are presented. Post‐cooling hydrothermal metamorphism under some overburden has transformed some of these basalts into greenschists and lower‐grade metamorphic rocks. New data indicate that faulting and shearing along the median valley combined with the introduction of hot, probably saline solutions were major agents in the metamorphism.

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