The magnetotelluric component of the Mantle Electromagnetic and Tomography (MELT) Experiment measured the electrical resistivity structure of the mantle beneath the fast-spreading southern East Pacific Rise (EPR). The data reveal an asymmetric resistivity structure, with lower resistivity to the west of the ridge. The uppermost 100 kilometers of mantle immediately to the east of the ridge is consistent with a dry olivine resistivity structure indicating a mantle depleted of melt and volatiles. Mantle resistivities to the west of the ridge are consistent with a low-melt fraction (about 1 to 2 percent interconnected melt) distributed over a broad region and extending to depths of about 150 kilometers. The asymmetry in resistivity structure may be the result of asymmetric spreading rates and a westward migration of the ridge axis and suggests distinct styles of melt formation and delivery in the mantle beneath the two plates.

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This paper is the first in a series of three (this issue) which present the results of the RAMESSES study (Reykjanes Axial Melt Experiment: Structural Synthesis from Electromagnetics and Seismics). RAMESSES was an integrated geophysical study which was carefully targeted on a magmatically active, axial volcanic ridge (AVR) segment of the Reykjanes Ridge, centred on 57°45′N. It consisted of three major components: wide‐angle seismic profiles along and across the AVR, using ocean‐bottom seismometers, together with coincident seismic reflection profiles; controlled‐source electromagnetic sounding (CSEM); and magnetotelluric sounding (MT). Supplementary data sets included swath bathymetry, gravity and magnetics.  Analyses of the major components of the experiment show clearly that the sub‐axial geophysical structure is dominated by the presence and distribution of aqueous and magmatic fluids. The AVR is underlain by a significant crustal magma body, at a depth of 2.5 km below the sea surface. The magma body is characterized by low seismic velocities constrained by the wide‐angle seismic data; a seismic reflection from its upper surface; and a region of anomalously low electrical resistivity constrained by the CSEM data. It includes a thin, ribbon‐like melt lens at the top of the body and a much larger region containing at least 20 per cent melt in a largely crystalline mush zone, which flanks and underlies the melt lens. RAMESSES is the first experiment to provide convincing evidence of a significant magma body beneath a slow spreading ridge. The result provides strong support for a model of crustal accretion at slow spreading rates in which magma chambers similar to those at intermediate and fast spreading ridges play a key role in crustal accretion, but are short‐lived rather than steady‐state features. The magma body can exist for only a small proportion of a tectono‐magmatic cycle, which controls crustal accretion, and has a period of at least 20 000 years. These findings have major implications for the temporal patterns of generation and migration of basaltic melt in the mantle, and of its delivery into the crust, beneath slow‐spreading mid‐ocean ridges.

This paper reports on a magnetotelluric (MT) survey across the central Mariana subduction system, providing a comprehensive electrical resistivity image of the upper mantle to address issues of mantle dynamics in the mantle wedge and beneath the slow back‐arc spreading ridge. After calculation of MT response functions and their correction for topographic distortion, two‐dimensional electrical resistivity structures were generated using an inversion algorithm with a smoothness constraint and with additional restrictions imposed by the subducting slab. The resultant isotropic electrical resistivity structure contains several key features. There is an uppermost resistive layer with a thickness of up to 150 km beneath the Pacific Ocean Basin, 80–100 km beneath the Mariana Trough, and 60 km beneath the Parece Vela Basin along with a conductive mantle beneath the resistive layer. A resistive region down to 60 km depth and a conductive region at greater depth are inferred beneath the volcanic arc in the mantle wedge. There is no evidence for a conductive feature beneath the back‐arc spreading center. Sensitivity tests were applied to these features through inversion of synthetic data. The uppermost resistive layer is the cool, dry residual from the plate accretion process. Its thickness beneath the Pacific Ocean Basin is controlled mainly by temperature, whereas the roughly constant thickness beneath the Mariana Trough and beneath the Parece Vela Basin regardless of seafloor age is controlled by composition. The conductive mantle beneath the uppermost resistive layer requires hydration of olivine and/or melting of the mantle. The resistive region beneath the volcanic arc down to 60 km suggests that fluids such as melt or free water are not well connected or are highly three‐dimensional and of limited size. In contrast, the conductive region beneath the volcanic arc below 60 km depth reflects melting and hydration driven by water release from the subducting slab. The resistive region beneath the back‐arc spreading center can be explained by dry mantle with typical temperatures, suggesting that any melt present is either poorly connected or distributed discontinuously along the strike of the ridge. Evidence for electrical anisotropy in the central Mariana upper mantle is weak.

The iron oxide copper-gold Olympic Dam deposit, situated along the margin of the Proterozoic Gawler craton, South Australia, is the world's largest uranium deposit and sixth-largest copper deposit; it also contains significant reserves of gold, silver, and rare earth elements. Gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms for genesis of the economic liberalization is fundamental for defining exploration models in similar crustal settings. To delineate crustal structures that may constrain mineral system fluid pathways, coincident deep crustal seismic and magnetotelluric (MT) transects were obtained along a 220 km section that crosses Olympic Dam and the major crustal boundaries. In this paper we present results from 58 long-period (10-10 4 s) MT sites, with site spacing of 5-10 km. A two-dimensional inversion of MT data from 33 sites to a depth of 100 km shows four notable features: (1) sedimentary cover sequences with low resistivity (Ͻ20 ⍀·m) thicken to 10 km toward the northern cover sequences of the Adelaide Rift Complex; (2) a northeast-dipping crustal boundary separates a highly resistive (Ͼ1000 ⍀ ·m) Archean crustal core from a more conductive crust and mantle to the north (typically Ͻ500 ⍀·m);(3) to the north of Olympic Dam, the upper-middle crust to ϳ20 km is quite resistive (ϳ1000 ⍀·m), but the lower crust is much more conductive (Ͻ100 ⍀ ·m); and (4) beneath Olympic Dam, we image a low-resistivity region (Ͻ100 ⍀·m) throughout the crust, coincident with a seismically transparent region. We argue that the cause of the lowresistivity and low-reflectivity region beneath Olympic Dam may be due to the upward movement of CO 2 -bearing volatiles near the time of deposit formation that precipitated conductive graphite liberalization along grain boundaries, simultaneously annihilating acoustic impedance boundaries. The source of the volatiles may be from the mantle degassing or retrograde metamorphism of the lower crust associated with Proterozoic crustal deformation.