Development of Core Complex Domes Due to Along-Axis Variation in Diking

Continental and oceanic core complexes are characterized by fairly smooth, unfaulted, but corrugated surfaces of high grade rocks often domed both along and orthogonal to the transport direction. The corrugations, or mega-mullions, are remarkably continuous in the transport direction and may be tens of kilometers long. Spencer [1999] suggests that corrugations with across-transport wavelengths of millimeter to ~25 km scales are formed when the lower plate of a large-offset normal fault is “continuously cast,” as warm, ductile mantle and gabbro is pulled up against the cooler upper plate. Continuous casting is widely accepted as a mechanism to form the shorter wavelength corrugations as a result of irregularities of the brittle upper plate surface. However, doming is generally ascribed to upflow of buoyant diapirs or transtensional deformation of the lithosphere.

We suggest that doming of core complexes can be a product of continuous casting when a large-offset fault evolves to be curved in plan-view. For oceanic core complexes along-axis variation in magmatism can lead to lateral offset of a detachment fault relative to the spreading axis. We assume that near-ridge normal faults form relatively straight and consider that horizontal offsets in the along-axis position of a large-offset fault (or detachment) result from variations in the rate of magmatic diking. Assuming a sinusoidal variation in the rate of dike opening with distance along the axis the evolution of fault offset and the plan-view shape of the active fault is easy to describe. Because the fault length increases as it is offset, the work to slip on the fault increases with time. Eventually, it should be easier to slip in a new straight fault and the conditions for this can be described with an approximate analytic model.

We are developing 3D numerical models to test the predictions of this analytic model and show how the topographic amplitude of the domes depends the fault dip, the amplitude of the horizontal offset of the fault and the thickness of the brittle layer. Consistent with observations, the model predicts that flexurally supported domes occur where the magma supply is the lowest.