Research Catalog

Title

The mid-oceanic ridges : mountains below sea level / Adolphe Nicolas ; [translator, Thomas Reimer].

Author

Nicolas, A. (Adolphe), 1936- .

Publication

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [1995], ©1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvii, 200 pages : illustrations (some color); 24 cm

Summary

• Despite turbulent actions of plate tectonics, continents, which since the first cooling of the planet float on its substratum, are a geological record of the history of Earth. Since the existing oceans are geologically relatively young, they register the activity, the life of the Earth. They formed when a large supercontinent (Pangea) broke apart some 150 Ma ago.
• The mid-oceanic ridges are narrow belts of submarine mountains marking the boundaries between plates which are moving apart, with new oceanic crust being created at the same time. Under the continents oceanic crust is subducted. The ocean bottom is an ideal location to study recent geodynamic processes on Earth.
• Of special interest to the reader will be the combination of the most recent oceanographic data with ophiolites, representing fossil ocean crust, obducted onto the continents by tectonic processes.

Uniform Title

Montagnes sous la mer. English

Alternative Title

• Montagnes sous la mer.
• Mountains below sea level.

Subject

• Sea-floor spreading
• Mid-ocean ridges

Note

• Translation of: Les montagnes sous la mer. c1990.

Contents

• 1. Young and Living Oceans. The Opening of the Oceans - Proof of Global Tectonics. Life and Death of the Oceans -- 2. The Earth, a Heat Engine. Convection in the Mantle. Hotspots and Mantle Plumes -- 3. The Ridges - Cradles of the Ocean. Submarine Topography and Geology. The Belt of Rifts and Ridges. Fracture Zones. Slow- and Fast-Spreading Ridges. Oceanic and Continental Rifts -- 4. Submarine Exploration. The Oceanic Rocks. The Penetrating Eye of Geophysics. Hydrothermal Activity of Ridges -- 5. Ophiolites - or in Search of Lost Oceans. The Ocean, Dry-Footed. Stranding or Obduction of Ophiolites on the Continents. Comparative "Ophiolitology" The Two Types of Ophiolites -- 6. Mantle Metallurgy. The Message of the Mantle. Ophiolites Deprived of Their Mantle. The Roots of Volcanoes -- 7. The Forges of Vulcan in the Kingdom of Neptune. Continuous Flow. A Well-Combed Mantle. Diapirs - Mushrooms Under the Ridge. Chimneys in the Mantle. The Focussing Effect of a Ridge. Is There a Moho Below a Ridge?
• The Origin of a Chromite Deposit - a Freak of Nature. Flattening of a Diapir Below a Ridge. Magma Chambers: Layered Igneous Complexes? The Magma Chambers Below Ridges. The Carapace of Ridges. The Reconstructed Ridge -- 8. From Rifts to Fast-Spreading Ridges. Slow- or Fast-Spreading Ridges and Ophiolites. Expansion of Rifts. Expansion of Slow-Spreading Riffs. In Search of a General Model. Mantle Diapirism as the Cause of Segmentation and Periodic Activity of Ridges -- 9. The Major Pulsations of the Earth. A Geological Police Investigation. A Supercontinent at the Dawn of the Mesozoic. And Tomorrow? The Pangean Cycle. Ophiolites Created at Springtime.

ISBN

• 3540573801 (Berlin : acid-free)
• 0387573801 (New York : acid-free)

LCCN

95002777

OCLC

ocm31970522

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries