The spreading rate dependence of the distribution of axial magma lenses along mid-ocean ridges

Seismically imaged axial melt lenses (AMLs) are seen almost everywhere along the axis of fast-spreading ridges but at only a few localized segment centers on slow-spreading ridges. Standard models assuming that AMLs form when melt percolating upward pools where freezing produces an impermeable cap do not explain this fundamental observation. To tackle this long-standing problem, we combine a crustal density model and a thermal model with a recent mechanical model for sill formation. The mechanical model predicts that AMLs form below the axial lithosphere but only if the average density of the axial brittle lithosphere is not greater than the magma density. For standard thermal models, crustal density structures inferred from seismic velocity data and normal crustal thicknesses, AMLs are found to be stable along all of a ridge segment for spreading rates greater than about 50 mm/y. To explain slow-spreading observations, we assume that a share of the melt produced by the mantle upwelling all along a segment is focused to the segment center. Some of this melt partially crystallizes, releasing latent heat, before the evolved magma flows along the axis to build the crust away from the segment center. This “extra” heat, beyond what is supplied by the magma that builds the crust near the segment center, results in the lithosphere thin enough for stable melt lenses at the segment center. Our results are consistent with observations and offer a quantitative explanation of the marked difference in the distribution of AMLs along fast- versus slow-spreading centers.