Mantle-derived serpentinized peridotites crop out in a belt approximately 2 km wide and 20 km long along the western median valley wall of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge just south of the Kane Transform in the MARK area. Serpentinites extend southward from extensive exposures of gabbroic rocks near the Kane Transform. The belt crops out along approximately half the length of a well-defined ridge segment parallel to a prominent neovolcanic ridge. It terminates in a segment boundary zone to the south marked by a bathymetric depression whose trace extends obliquely off axis northwestward into older crustwhere serpentinites have also been dredged.

The serpentinites are considered to have been exposed by extreme lithospheric extension along a major crustal detachment, as suggested for mafic plutonic rocks that crop out as an oceanic “core complex” to the north. Gently dipping metamorphic fabrics and fault surfaces in the serpentinites suggest a similar structural history for these two adjacent areas. Consistently oriented high- and low-temperature fabrics along the length of the belt of serpentinized peridotites do not support diapiric uplift as a mechanism for the exposure of these exotic rocks. Gabbroic to diabasic intrusions and overlying basaltic lavas suggest that the serpentinites were exposed by uplift and faulting of upper mantle material that did not develop an extensive overlying magmatic crust as it rose beneath the ridge axis and spread laterally. These types of exposures of hydrated upper mantle material appear to be common elements of oceanic crust formed at slow-spreading ridges with low magma budgets.

Date of initial receipt: 19 July 1995
Date of acceptance: 5 March 1996

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