Sampling and observation of oceanic mantle and crust on Gorringe Bank

THE structure and nature of the uppermost oceanic mantle and crust has been, and still is, the subject of a major international research effort 1 . Yet the direct field evidence known to us on this subject, whether obtained by drilling in the I.P.O.D. oceanic crust programme 2 or by submersible surv...

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Published in:Nature (London) 1978-05, Vol.273 (5657), p.45-49
Main Authors: AUZENDE, JEAN-MARIE, OLIVET, JEAN-LOUIS, CHARVET, JACQUES, LANN, ALAIN LE, PICHON, XAVIER LE, MONTEIRO, JOSE HYPPOLITO, NICOLAS, ADOLPHE, RIBEIRO, ANTONIO
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:THE structure and nature of the uppermost oceanic mantle and crust has been, and still is, the subject of a major international research effort 1 . Yet the direct field evidence known to us on this subject, whether obtained by drilling in the I.P.O.D. oceanic crust programme 2 or by submersible surveying in the Famous programme 3 , has been either very incomplete or limited to the upper part of layer 2. As a result, the problem of the comparison between ophiolites and oceanic crust is still debated 1 . We report here the preliminary results of an in situ geological survey in which we have sampled and observed what we believe to be an almost complete geological section starting a few kilometres below the Moho discontinuity and ending in the upper part of layer 2 (ref. 4). This section outcrops on the flanks of Gorringe Bank, which is a ridge 200 km long and 60 km wide between Tagus and Horseshoe abyssal plains in the Atlantic ocean, South West of Cape Saint Vincent, Portugal (Fig. 1).
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/273045a0