Momoh, Ekeabino, Nature of oceanic crust

Momoh, Ekeabino*

Nature of oceanic crust at Southwest Indian Ridge from 3D seismic reflection and refraction data 

S. Singh, M. Cannat (IPGP), S. Leroy (UPMC)

The Southwest Indian ridge is an example of an ultra-slow spreading center, with full spreading rate of ~14 mm/year. On the eastern segment of the ridge, mantle-derived rocks with various degrees of serpentinization have been sampled on the seafloor by bathymetric studies. Typical questions arise as to how these rocks found their way to the seafloor (from the mantle), and geologists have postulated the possibility of large-scale detachment faults based on surface observations (e.g., Sauter et al., 2013). How can we seismically constrain these faults if they exist? To what depth do they penetrate? What are the modalities of the activation and/or deactivation of these faults, and how do they interact with each other? To address some of these questions, 2D and pseudo-3D multichannel seismic and ocean bottom seismometer data were acquired in the eastern segment of the ridge, a melt-starved segment of the 7200 km ridge system. My research involves seismic data processing, tomography, possibly elastic full-waveform modeling and geologic modeling.

*Ekeabino was a former GPX Master student 2013-2014.