We report the results of a seismic tomography experiment which images the t
hree-dimensional nature of the crustal melt delivery system beneath a segme
nt of the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In the lower crust ( > 3.5 km
depth) near the segment center, inversion of first-arriving crustal P-waves
reveals a pair of vertical pipe-like ( < 10-km-diameter) low-velocity anom
alies (-0.4 km/s), in the upper crust, these two features, which are physic
ally isolated from each other below 3 km, both connect to a l0-km-wide, 45-
km-long, axis-parallel, low-velocity zone (-0.2 km/s). Three higher-amplitu
de low-velocity anomalies (-0.6 km/s) are observed in the upper crust ( < 2
km depth), and are located directly beneath seafloor volcanic features. We
interpret the overall image to represent the thermal/melt signature of a m
agma feeding system in which focused injections of magma from the mantle tr
avel upward until they intersect the brittle-ductile transition, where they
are then diverted along-axis to supply shallow intrusive bodies and seaflo
or eruptions along much of the ridge segment. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V
. All rights reserved.