DOCSLIB.ORG

03-074 Oceanusmktivey.Indd

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
03-074 Oceanusmktivey.Indd http://oceanusmag.whoi.edu/v42n2/mktivey.html The Remarkable Diversity of Seafloor Vents Explorations reveal an increasing variety of hydrothermal vents By Margaret Kingston Tivey, Associate Scientist Juan de Fuca Ridge off the Pacific North- thrive in the absence of sunlight. It was Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry Department west coast. Expecting to find common also becoming clear that the relatively con- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution seafloor rocks called basalts, scientists stant chemistry of the ocean was in part n late summer of 1984, I anxiously were surprised to pull up fragments and sustained by hydrothermal activity. Iawaited my first trip to the seafloor in boulders of massive sulfide covered with What my colleagues and I were only the submersible Alvin. There was a delay small tubeworms. They had discovered beginning to realize then was that hydro- in launching the sub, but I resisted the the fourth and, at the time, newest site of thermal vent systems are like snowflakes— urge to have a drink, anticipating one fi- hydrothermal venting on the seafloor, a no two are ever exactly alike. nal trip to the bathroom before crawling place now known as the Main Endeavour into Alvin’s three-person, 6-foot sphere for Field. These rocks helped launch my sci- Long-standing mysteries eight hours. I was excited not only about entific career. When scientists in Alvin discovered my first chance to dive, but about visiting In the years leading up to my 1984 the first active hydrothermal system in the home of the seafloor rocks I had long dive, I had learned that hydrothermal vent 1977 at the Galápagos Rift, they found been studying for my master’s thesis. systems played a significant role in trans- warm fluids, later determined to be a Since 1982, I had spent most of my ferring heat and mass from the solid Earth blend of cold seawater and hot vent flu- waking hours examining pieces of seafloor to the ocean, and that the vent sites host ids, seeping from seafloor crust. Never- vent deposits that had been recovered dur- unusual biological communities, including before-seen organisms were present at ing a routine dredging operation along the tubeworms, bivalves, crabs, and fish that the vents, including large clams and tall, IMAX film by William Reeve and Stephen Low, Stephen Low Productions Low Stephen Low, Reeve and Stephen William film by IMAX When hot hydrothermal fluid jets from the seafloor and mixes with cold seawater, fine particles of dark metal sulfides precipitate out of solution, creating the appearance of black “smoke.” 1 Oceanus Magazine • Vol. 42, No.2 • 2004 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution • oceanusmag.whoi.edu A Seafloor Observatory In 2000-2001, scientists collaborated for the most comprehensive study of a hydrothermal vent system to date, making complementary and continuous observations at the Main Endeavour Field off the Pacific Northwest coast. This schematic depiction shows the various instruments deployed and vehicles used (though the vehicles were not used simultaneously). They measured currents, pressure, vent fluid temperatures and flow rates, chemical properties, and seafloor magnetic properties. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a model for future long-term seafloor observatories. The Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE) collects data on seafloor depths, water properties above the vent field, and mag- netic properties of the seafloor. The remotely operated vehicle Jason makes acoustic images of vent structures and venting fluids. The human-occupied submers- ible Alvin “eavesdrops” on data being collected by downloading information without removing the instrument from a vent site. E. Paul Oberlander E. Paul red-tipped tubeworms. posed by geophysicists: How is heat trans- The chemistry of the ocean In 1979, a second active hydrothermal ferred from Earth’s interior to the oceans? The discovery of vents allowed sci- system was discovered along the East Pa- Earlier studies had shown that, contrary to entists to begin to answer another major cific Rise. At that site, much hotter fluids model predictions, not as much heat was question: How does the ocean maintain its (350°C) jetted from tall rock formations being transferred by conduction (particle- relatively constant chemical composition? composed of calcium sulfate (anhydrite) to-particle transfer) near the ridge crests. Over time, rivers drain materials into and metal sulfides. When the clear hot Scientists hypothesized that heat was the oceans, and winds blow in particles, fluid jetting from these chimney-like also transferred by convection, as fluid some of which dissolve to add chemical structures mixed with cold seawater, fine circulated within the crust near mid-ocean elements to the oceans. Some of these ele- particles of dark metal sulfides precipitat- ridges. Sure enough, cold seawater is en- ments, in turn, exit ocean waters, settling ed out of solution, creating the appearance tering cracks and conduits within seafloor in ocean sediments, for example. of black “smoke” (hence the name “black crust. It is being heated by underlying Many components of seawater—in- smoker chimneys.”) rocks and rising and venting at the sea- cluding lithium, potassium, rubidium, The discovery of these vent systems floor, carrying significant amounts of heat cesium, manganese, iron, zinc, and cop- immediately answered a question long from Earth to ocean. per—enter the oceans via vents. They are 2 Oceanus Magazine • Vol. 42, No.2 • 2004 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution • oceanusmag.whoi.edu leached from seafloor crust by subterra- The Birth of a Black Smoker nean chemical reactions with hot hydro- The key to the creation of black smoker chimneys is an unusual chemical property of the thermal fluids. Other hydrothermal vent reactions draw elements out of seawater mineral anhydrite, or calcium sulfate (CaSO4). Unlike most minerals, anhydrite dissolves at low temperatures and precipitates at high temperatures greater than ~150˚C (302˚F). and place them back into the earth. For example, magnesium eroded from land is carried to the ocean by rivers. Yet P A R magnesium concentrations have not in- T I C creased in the oceans. Scientists puzzled L E S for decades over where all the magnesium could be going. Scrutinizing hydrothermal vents, re- searchers found that seawater entering sea- floor crust is rich in magnesium, but fluids exiting the vent are free of it. Oceanogra- phers surmised that magnesium is left be- 10°C hind in the crust, deposited in clay minerals as seawater reacts chemically with hot rock. 200 °C 350°C Dive to Main Endeavour Field 2°C 2°C seawater seawater In those early years when observations S E were few and samples fewer, my thesis L IC T rocks provoked considerable interest. In R A P some ways, the rocks were similar to those recovered from the East Pacific Rise, but in other ways they were quite different. 350°C The Main Endeavour Field samples Anhydrite were rich with amorphous silica, which 2°C seawater Chalcopyrite should only precipitate if the hydrother- 350°C mal fluid had cooled without mixing with seawater. And they did not contain anhy- 0.5 – 5 inches drite, a common vent chimney mineral diameter that dissolves in seawater at temperatures 350°C hydrothermal fluid Hydrothermal fluid Different minerals less than about 150°C (302°F). (containing dissolved and seawater mix precipitate at different We theorized that the dredged pieces 2+ Ca ions) exits the through the nascent temperatures. must have come from the low-lying mounds seafloor and mixes anhydrite wall around Chalcopyrite is that lay beneath and around black smoker with cold seawater the vent opening. Sulfide deposited against chimneys. Our dives to the Endeavour Field (containing dissolved and sulfate minerals the inner wall, which in 1984 would tell us if we were correct. 2+ 2- Ca and SO4 ions). precipitate within pore is adjacent to 350°C The trip to the seafloor took 90 minutes. A ring of anhydrite spaces of the wall, which hydrothermal fluid. As we approached the seafloor, the pilot precipitates around a gradually becomes Anhydrite, iron, copper- asked me to look out my viewport and let vent opening and the jet less permeable. The iron, and zinc-sulfide him know when I saw bottom. Alvin’s lights of hot fluid. anhydrite wall also minerals (such as pyrite, were turned on. It was like the curtain go- provides a substrate, or marcasite, bornite, ing up in a dark theater and the stage lights foothold, on which other sphalerite, wurtzite) going on. We were hovering over the same minerals can precipitate. precipitate at lower basaltic rocks that I had spent countless temperatures within hours studying in photographs. pore spaces of the Then to my right, I could see a rock chimney wall. wall rising from the seafloor. It was obvi- Jayne Doucette Jayne ous from the hedges of pencil-diameter 3 Oceanus Magazine • Vol. 42, No.2 • 2004 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution • oceanusmag.whoi.edu Hydrothermal Circulation Seawater percolates through permeable seafl oor crust, beginning a complex circulation process. The seawater undergoes a series of chemical reactions with subsurface rocks at various temperatures and eventually changes into hydrothermal fl uids that vent at the seafl oor. ���������������������������� ������������������������������� ���������������������������� ����������������������������� ���������������������������� ��������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ������������������������� �������������������������������� ����������� �����������������������������
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hydrothermal Circulation Within the Endeavour Segment; Juan De Fuca Ridge
    Hydrothermal Circulation within the Endeavour Segment; Juan de Fuca Ridge H. Paul Johnson1, Maurice A. Tivey2, Tor A. Bjorklund1, and Marie S. Salmi1 1School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7940 2Department of Geology and Geophysics Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, MA 02543 Correspondence should be addressed to HPJ, [email protected] 206-543-8474 Hydrothermal Circulation within the Endeavour Segment; Juan de Fuca Ridge Abstract Areas of the seafloor at mid-ocean ridges where hydrothermal vents discharge are easily recognized by the dramatic biological, physical and chemical processes that characterize such sites. Locations where seawater flows into the seafloor to recharge hydrothermal cells within the crustal reservoir are by contrast almost invisible, but can be indirectly identified by a systematic grid of conductive heat flow measurements. An array of conductive heat flow stations in the Endeavour axial valley of the Juan de Fuca Ridge has identified recharge zones that appear to represent a nested system of fluid circulation paths. At the scale of an axial rift valley, conductive heat flow data indicate a general cross-valley fluid flow, where seawater enters the shallow sub-surface crustal reservoir at the eastern wall of the Endeavour axial valley and undergoes a kilometer of horizontal transit beneath the valley floor, finally exiting as warm hydrothermal fluid discharge on the western valley bounding wall. Recharge zones also have been identified as located within an annular ring of very cold seafloor around the large Main Endeavour Hydrothermal Field, with seawater inflow occurring within faults that surround the fluid discharge sites.
    [Show full text]
  • Three-Dimensional Models of Hydrothermal Circulation Through a Seamount Network on Fast-Spreading Crust ∗ Rachel M
    Earth and Planetary Science Letters 501 (2018) 138–151 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Earth and Planetary Science Letters www.elsevier.com/locate/epsl Three-dimensional models of hydrothermal circulation through a seamount network on fast-spreading crust ∗ Rachel M. Lauer a,b,c, , Andrew T. Fisher b,c, Dustin M. Winslow b,c,d a Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada b Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, 95064, USA c Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations, University of California, Santa Cruz, 95064, USA d GrowthIntel, 25-27 Horsell Road, London N5 1XL, UK a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: We present results from three-dimensional, transient, fully coupled simulations of fluid and heat Received 25 February 2018 transport on a ridge flank in fast-spread ocean crust. The simulations quantify relationships between rates Received in revised form 17 July 2018 of fluid flow, the extent of advective heat extraction, the geometry of crustal aquifers and outcrops, and Accepted 14 August 2018 crustal hydrologic parameters, with the goal of simulating conditions similar to those seen on 18–24 M.y. Available online xxxx old seafloor of the Cocos plate, offshore Costa Rica. Extensive surveys of this region documented a Editor: M. Bickle 2 ∼14,500 km area of the seafloor with heat flux values that are 10–35% of those predicted from Keywords: conductive cooling models, and identified basement outcrops that serve as pathways for hydrothermal hydrothermal circulation circulation via recharge of bottom water and discharge of cool hydrothermal fluid.
    [Show full text]
  • 27. Chinook Trough Rifting and Hydrothermal Deposition at Sites 885 and 8861
    Rea, D.K., Basov, I.A., Scholl, D.W., and Allan, J.F. (Eds.), 1995 Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, Vol. 145 27. CHINOOK TROUGH RIFTING AND HYDROTHERMAL DEPOSITION AT SITES 885 AND 8861 Gerald R. Dickens2 and Robert M. Owen2 ABSTRACT The Chinook Trough is a pronounced deep located in the central North Pacific Ocean that spans approximately 1500 km in a northeast-southwest direction. Geophysical and geomorphological considerations suggest that this feature is the southern litho- spheric scar marking initiation of Late Cretaceous north-south rifting within the ancient Farallon Plate. If this hypothesis is correct, then, by analogy to other active and passive mid-ocean rift zones, Late Cretaceous sediment deposited immediately south of the Chinook Trough should contain significant amounts of hydrothermal material deposited in association with the intraplate rifting event. Because the proposed tectonic origin for the Chinook Trough places seafloor south of the eastern end of the trough beneath the Cretaceous calcite compensation depth (CCD), expected hydrothermal components deposited during the Late Cretaceous at these locations also should lack carbonate dilution. Ocean Drilling Program Sites 885 and 886 were drilled approximately 60 km south of the northeast section of the Chinook Trough. High-resolution chemical and mineralogical analyses demonstrate that sediment deposited after 75-81 Ma at these sites contains an extensive record of hydrothermal deposition without associated carbonate. Various proxy indicators
    [Show full text]
  • Seafloor Hydrothermal Activity Around a Large Non-Transform
    Journal of Marine Science and Engineering Article Seafloor Hydrothermal Activity around a Large Non-Transform Discontinuity along Ultraslow-Spreading Southwest Indian Ridge (48.1–48.7◦ E) Dong Chen 1,2, Chunhui Tao 2,3,*, Yuan Wang 2, Sheng Chen 4, Jin Liang 2, Shili Liao 2 and Teng Ding 1 1 Institute of Marine Geology, College of Oceanography, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; [email protected] (D.C.); [email protected] (T.D.) 2 Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences, SOA & Second Institute of Oceanography, MNR, Hangzhou 310012, China; [email protected] (Y.W.); [email protected] (J.L.); [email protected] (S.L.) 3 School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China 4 Ocean Technology and Equipment Research Center, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Non-transform discontinuity (NTD) is one category of tectonic units along slow- and ultraslow-spreading ridges. Some NTD-related hydrothermal fields that may reflect different driving mechanisms have been documented along slow-spreading ridges, but the discrete survey strategy makes it hard to evaluate the incidence of hydrothermal activity. On ultraslow-spreading ridges, fewer NTD-related hydrothermal activities were reported. Factors contributing to the occurrence of hydrothermal activities at NTDs and whether they could be potential targets for hydrothermal explo- Citation: Chen, D.; Tao, C.; Wang, Y.; Chen, S.; Liang, J.; Liao, S.; Ding, T. ration are poorly known. Combining turbidity and oxidation reduction potential (ORP) sensors with Seafloor Hydrothermal Activity a near-bottom camera, Chinese Dayang cruises from 2014 to 2018 have conducted systematic towed around a Large Non-Transform surveys for hydrothermal activity around a large NTD along the ultraslow-spreading Southwest ◦ Discontinuity along Indian Ridge (SWIR, 48.1–48.7 E).
    [Show full text]
  • Complex Subsurface Hydrothermal Fluid Mixing at a Submarine Arc Volcano Supports Distinct and Highly Diverse Microbial Communities
    Complex subsurface hydrothermal fluid mixing at a submarine arc volcano supports distinct and highly diverse microbial communities Anna-Louise Reysenbacha,1,2, Emily St. Johna,2, Jennifer Meneghina, Gilberto E. Floresb, Mircea Podarc, Nina Dombrowskid, Anja Spangd,e, Stephane L’Haridonf, Susan E. Humphrisg, Cornel E. J. de Rondeh, Fabio Caratori Tontinih, Maurice Tiveyg, Valerie K. Stuckeri, Lucy C. Stewarth,j, Alexander Diehlk,l, and Wolfgang Bachk,l aCenter for Life in Extreme Environments, Biology Department, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97201; bDepartment of Biology, California State University, Northridge, CA 91330; cBiosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; dRoyal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NL-1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands; eDepartment of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, SE-75123 Uppsala, Sweden; fCNRS, Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer, Laboratoire de Microbiologie des Environnements Extrêmes, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, F-29280 Plouzané, France; gDepartment of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543; hDepartment of Earth Systems and Resources, GNS Science, Avalon, Lower Hutt 5010, New Zealand; iLaboratories and Collections, GNS Science, Avalon, Lower Hutt 5010, New Zealand; jToha Science, Wellington 6011, New Zealand; kFaculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany; and lMARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany Edited by Edward F. DeLong, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, and approved November 3, 2020 (received for review September 10, 2020) Hydrothermally active submarine volcanoes are mineral-rich bio- seawater circulation through oceanic crust.
    [Show full text]
  • Are There Significant Hydrothermal Resources in the U.S
    PROCEEDINGS. 'Twentieth Workshop on Geothermal Reselvolr Englneerlng Stanford Univenlty. Stanford, Califomla, January 2426 1995 scP-?RR-Iso ARE THERE SIGNIFICANT HYDROTHERMAL RESOURCES IN THE U.S. PART OF THE CASCADE RANGE? L.J. Patrick Muffler' and Marianne Guffanti2 US Geological Survey, MS 910, Menlo Park, CA 94025 2US Geological Survey, MS 922, Reston, VA 22092 ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION The Cascade Range is a geothermal dichotomy. On This paper presents preliminary conclusions from a the one hand, it is an active volcanic arc above a multi-year effort of the U.S. Geological Survey to subducting plate and is demonstrably an area of high evaluate the geothermal potential of the Cascade heat flow. On the other hand, the distribution of Range. A detailed assessment will be published as a hydrothermal manifestations compared to other Bulletin of the U.S. Geological Survey (Muffler and volcanic arcs is sparse, and the hydrothermal outflow Guffanti, in preparation). Here we draw heavily on a calculated from stream chemistry is low. manuscript (Guffanti and Muffler, 1995) submitted to the May 1995 World Geothermal Congress in Several large estimates of undiscovered geothermal Florence, Italy, as well as several recent publications resources in the U.S. part of the Cascade Range of our USGS colleagues, particularly Ingebritsen prepared in the 1970s and early 1980s were based etal. (1989, 1992, 1994), Mariner etal. (1990), and fundamentally on two models of the upper crust. One Blakely (1994). model assumed that large, partly molten, intrusive bodies exist in the upper 10 km beneath major volcanic centers and serve as the thermal engines driving overlying hydrothermal systems.
    [Show full text]
  • 4. Regional Environment
    4. Regional Environment By Klaus J. Schulz 4 of 21 Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Occurrence Model Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5070–C U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior KEN SALAZAR, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Marcia K. McNutt, Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2012 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment, visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1–888–ASK–USGS. For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod To order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this report. Suggested citation: Schulz, K.J., 2012, Regional environment in volcanogenic massive sulfide occurrence model: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5070 –C, chap. 4, 24 p. 35 Contents Geotectonic Environment ...........................................................................................................................37 Mid-Ocean Ridges and Mature Back-Arc Basins (Mafic-Ultramafic Lithologic Association) .........................................................................................................37
    [Show full text]
  • Heat Flow and Bending-Related Faulting at Subduction Trenches: Case Studies Offshore of Nicaragua and Central Chile
    Earth and Planetary Science Letters 236 (2005) 238–248 www.elsevier.com/locate/epsl Heat flow and bending-related faulting at subduction trenches: Case studies offshore of Nicaragua and Central Chile Ingo Grevemeyera,*, Norbert Kaulb, Juan L. Diaz-Naveasc, Heinrich W. Villingerb, Cesar R. Raneroa, Christian Reichertd aIFM-GEOMAR, Leibniz Institute for Marine Sciences, and SFB 574, Wischhofstrabe 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Germany bDepartment of Earth Sciences, University of Bremen, Klagenfurter Strabe, 28359 Bremen, Germany cSchool of Marine Sciences, Catholic University of Valparaı´so, Av. Altmirano 1480, Valparaı´so, Chile dFederal Institute for Geosciences and Resources, Stilleweg 2, 30655 Hanover, Germany Received 19 July 2004; received in revised form 10 March 2005; accepted 11 April 2005 Available online 1 July 2005 Editor: V. Courtillot Abstract Detailed heat flow surveys on the oceanic trench slope offshore Nicaragua and Central Chile indicate heat flow values lower than the expected conductive lithospheric heat loss and lower than the global mean for crust of that age. Both areas are characterised by pervasive normal faults exposing basement in a setting affected by bending-related faulting due to plate subduction. The low heat flow is interpreted to indicate increased hydrothermal circulation by the reactivation and new creation of faults prior to subduction. A previous global approach [1] [Stein C.A., Heat flow and flexure at subduction zones, Geophys. Res. Lett. 30 (2003) doi:10.1029/2003GL018478] failed to detect similar features in the global but sparse data set. Detailed inspection of the global data set suggests that the thickness of the sedimentary blanket on the incoming plate is an important factor controlling the local hydrogeological regime.
    [Show full text]
  • Environmental Controls on Mid-Ocean Ridge Hydrothermal Fluxes
    Chemical Geology 528 (2019) 119285 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Chemical Geology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemgeo Invited research article Environmental controls on mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal fluxes T ⁎ Laurence A. Coogana, , William E. Seyfriedb, Nicholas J. Pesterc a School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria V8P 5C2, Canada b Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, 310 Pillsbury Dr. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0219, USA c Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: High temperature hydrothermal fluxes at mid-ocean ridges are thought to be an important component of oceanic Hydrothermal fluxes biogeochemical cycles. However, little consideration has been given to how these fluxes vary as a consequence of Mid-ocean ridge changing environmental conditions over Earth history. Here we consider how changes in sea level and ocean Seawater composition chemistry are likely to have impacted on-axis, high-temperature, hydrothermal fluxes focusing on Phanerozoic conditions. Changes in sea level lead to changes in hydrostatic pressure near the base of hydrothermal systems where both peak fluid-rock reaction temperatures and phase separation occur. In general, higher global sea level will lead to higher peak temperatures of fluid-rock reaction. Additionally, phase separation at higher pressure tends to lead to formation of a more Cl-rich vapor, that constitutes a larger mass fraction of the system. These combined factors may serve to significantly modify hydrothermal fluxes even for sea level changes on the scale of 100 m. Changes in ocean chemistry can also affect axial hydrothermal fluxes in several ways.
    [Show full text]
  • 8. Sediment Petrology of the Hydrothermal Mounds1
    8. SEDIMENT PETROLOGY OF THE HYDROTHERMAL MOUNDS1 Peter E. Borella,2 Deep Sea Drilling Project, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California and Richard Myers3 and Bill Mills, Deep Sea Drilling Project, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California ABSTRACT Sediments in the area of the Galapagos hydrothermal mounds are divided into two major categories. The first group, pelagic sediments, are nannofossil oozes with varying amounts of siliceous microfossils. The second group are hydrothermal sediments consisting of manganese-oxide crust fragments and green nontronitic clay granules. Hydro- thermal sediments occur only in the upper half to two-thirds of the cores and are interbedded and mixed with pelagic sediments. Petrologic evidence indicates that hydrothermal nontronite forms as both a primary precipitate and as a re- placement mineral of pre-existing pelagic sediment and hydrothermal manganese-oxide crust fragments. In addition, physical evidence supports chemical equations indicating that the pelagic sediments are being dissolved by hydrother- mal solutions. The formation of hydrothermal nontronite is not merely confined to the surface of mounds, but also oc- curs at depth within their immediate area; hydrothermal nontronite is very likely forming today. Geologically speaking, the mounds and their hydrothermal sediments form almost instantaneously. The Galapagos mounds area is a unique one in the ocean basins, where pelagic sediments can be diagenetically transformed, dissolved, and replaced, possibly within a matter of years. INTRODUCTION In addition to the DSRV Alvin dives and these sur- face-sediment and near-surface studies, Leg 54 of the The Galapagos Spreading Center and hydrothermal Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) drilled four holes in mounds area located in the Panama Basin (Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • The Genesis of Oceanic Crust: Magma Injection, Hydrothermal Circulation
    JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 98, NO. B4, PAGES 6283-6297, APRIL 10, 1993 The Genesis of Oceanic Crust: Magma Injection, HydrothermalCirculation, and CrustalFlow JASON PHIPPS MOROnN Instituteof Geophysicsand PlanetaryPhysics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography,La Jolla, California Y. JOHN (2HEN Collegeof Oceanography,Oregon State University,Corvallis, Oregon In this studywe constructa thermaland mechanicalmodel for the genesisof oceaniccrust. Magma is halted in its ascentwithin the oceaniccrust when it reachesa freezing horizon, where the dilational volumechange associated with magmafreezing leads to viscousstresses that favor magmaponding near the freezinghorizon. To modelthe steadystate thermal impact of crustalaccretion via dike injectionand pillow flows, we treat all crustalaccretion in rockscooler than a magma"solidus" to occurin a narrow 250-m-wide dike-like region centeredabout the ridge axis. The rest of the oceaniccrust is modeled to be emplacedas a steadystate magma lens directlybeneath the "solidus"freezing horizon where the steadystate emplacement rate is determinedby the constraintthat this lens supplyall crust that is not emplacedthrough diking/extrusion above the magmalens. If hydrothermalheat transportwithin crustal rocks cooler than 600øC removesheat 8 times as efficiently as heat conduction,then we find that a steadystate magma lens will only exist within the crustfor ridgesspreading faster than a 25 mm/yr half rate. The depthdependence of the magmalens with spreadingrate is in good agreementwith seismic observations.These
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring Two-Phase Hydrothermal Circulation at a Seafloor Pressure of 25 Mpa: Application for EPR 9°50’ N Liang Han
    Exploring two-phase hydrothermal circulation at a seafloor pressure of 25 MPa: Application for EPR 9°50’ N Liang Han Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science In Geosciences Robert P. Lowell Robert J. Bodnar John A. Hole Scott D. King October 21, 2011 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: seafloor hydrothermal system, FISHES, two phase flow, numerical modeling, East Pacific Rise, H 2O-NaCl Exploring two-phase hydrothermal circulation at a surface pressure of 25 MPa: Application for EPR 9°50’ N Liang Han ABSTRACT We present 2-D numerical simulations of two phase flow in seafloor hydrothermal systems using the finite control volume numerical scheme FISHES. The FISHES code solves the coupled non-linear equations for mass, momentum, energy, and salt conservation in a NaCl-H2O fluid to model the seafloor hydrothermal processes. These simulations use homogeneous box geometries at a fixed seafloor pressure of 25 MPa with constant bottom temperature boundary conditions that represent a sub-axial magma chamber to explore the effects of permeability, maximum bottom temperature and system depth on the evolution of vent fluid temperature and salinity, and heat output. We also study the temporal and spatial variability in hydrothermal circulation. The two -phase simulation results show that permeability plays an important role in plume structure and heat output of hydrothermal systems, but it has little effect on vent fluid temperature and salinity, given the same bottom temperature. For some permeability values, multiple plumes can vent at the seafloor above the simulated magma chamber.
    [Show full text]