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Science 29 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5599, p. 1675
DOI: 10.1126/science.298.5599.1675n
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This Week in Science
Mid-ocean ridges are usually modeled as propagating fractures in a linear elastic medium, even though the rifting occurs in the brittle crust. Floyd et al. (p. 1765; see the cover) observed seismicity related to rift propagation along the Galapagos Rise in Hess Deep using six autonomous hydrophones moored in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. The seismic events were concentrated in space and time along the tip of the rift, and this finding is consistent with laboratory-based acoustic emission tests which show that crack growth is controlled by a sequence of microcracks that coalescence into one propagating fracture. At the Galapagos Rise, microfractures are concentrated at the rift tip under low tensile stress and then coalescence into a larger fracture, showing that rifts can propagate in a stable fashion in the brittle crust.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
