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Alkali Olivine Basalt dredged near St. Paul's Rocks, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Abstract

RECENT studies of deep sea basalts have revealed the great predominance of olivine tholeiites over both normative nepheline and normative quartz basalts1. An alkali basalt recently dredged between 2,950 and 1,975 m near St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks (St. Paul's Rocks) consequently seemed worthy of prompt description. Although mentioned in an abstract2, we have not previously published a chemical analysis of this basalt. This alkali basalt flow is of special interest because it is not part of a large submarine volcano, but rather evidently was erupted directly on a floor of spinel peridotite mylonites similar to and contiguous with those described from St. Paul's Rocks, a probable high temperature intrusion derived from the mantle3.

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References

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  2. Melson, W. G., Jarosewich, E., Bowen, V. T., and Thompson, G., Prog. Ann. Meeting Geol. Soc. Amer., 138 (1966).

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MELSON, W., JAROSEWICH, E., CIFELLI, R. et al. Alkali Olivine Basalt dredged near St. Paul's Rocks, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Nature 215, 381–382 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/215381a0

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