PETROLOGICAL, MAGNETIC AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF BASALT DREDGED FROM AN ABYSSAL HILL IN NORTH-EAST PACIFIC

OVER the years, samples of basalt from the oceanic crust have been taken mainly from seamounts, fracture zones and ridge and rise crests1-6, and rarely from the vast fields of abyssal hills which cover a large part of the deep-sea floor. The basalt sampled from the deeper regions of the oceanic crust (for example, on fault scarps) is a distinct variety of tholeiitic basalt, while alkali basalt is restricted to the volcanic edifices4. Oceanic tholeiitic basalt differs from alkali basalt and continental tholeiite chiefly in having a relatively low percentage of K2O (0.2 weight per cent)4. Some authors have speculated that this type of tholeiitic basalt is the major extrusion from the upper mantle and constitutes the predominant rock type in the upper oceanic crust. © 1969 Nature Publishing Group.