1. Is there a brittle/ductile transition beneath the ridge axis?
2. What dictates the location of the mid ocean ridges? Are they created by mantle instabilities or crustal/mantle flaws?
3. Given the suggested variation in along-axis crustal thickness for fast spreading ridges, will a 2D model still be sufficient? (based on Nicholas et al., 1996, JGR 101, 17941-17950).
4. If ridges are passive systems, what's up with India?
5. Are the convective rolls illustrated in Sparks and Parmentier purely the result of numerical modelling or is there some evidence fro them? (Geophysical - heat flow or tomography; physical - ?). Why the asyemmetry?
6. What mechanisms (physical and/or chemical) bring about a transition from "near-fractional" melt migration to focused conduit flow?
7. Why is it at all possible to have even small fractures in the gabbros beneath the sheeted dikes in which hydrothermal circulation can occur? Shouldn't the P-T conditions be so high to close these fractures?

Return to the Oman Home Page

Return to the Syllabus Page

Last updated 1/15/98