CO2-depleted fluids from mid-ocean ridge-flank hydrothermal springs

High-Resolution 3D Simulations of Mid-ocean Ridge Hydrothermal Systems

Reconstructing past seawater Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca from mid-ocean ridge flank calcium carbonate veins.

Proxies for past seawater chemistry, such as Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios, provide a record of the dynamic exchanges of elements between the solid Earth, the atmosphere, and the hydrosphere and the evolving influence of life. We estimated past oceanic Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios from suites of 1.6- to 170-million-year-old calcium carbonate veins that had precipitated from seawater-derived fluids in ocean ...

Dissolved inorganic carbon isotopic composition of low-temperature axial and ridge-flank hydrothermal fluids of the Juan de Fuca Ridge

We analyzed stable carbon (δC) and radiocarbon (ΔC) isotopes of ocean crustal fluid samples from two low-temperature environments on and near the Juan de Fuca Ridge (JDFR), a seafloor spreading center in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Themajor goals of this work were to resolve relative dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) sources and removal processes, and characterize the isotopic signatures of ...

Physical response of mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal systems to local earthquakes

[1] Observations from the East Pacific Rise (EPR) and the Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge show that local earthquake swarms can lead to increased hydrothermal venting temperatures after a delay of several days. I develop two models for this process. In the temperature perturbation model, a new pathway opens to a heat source, and the temperatures of fluids leaving the reaction zone i...

The Sound Generated by Mid-Ocean Ridge Black Smoker Hydrothermal Vents

Hydrothermal flow through seafloor black smoker vents is typically turbulent and vigorous, with speeds often exceeding 1 m/s. Although theory predicts that these flows will generate sound, the prevailing view has been that black smokers are essentially silent. Here we present the first unambiguous field recordings showing that these vents radiate significant acoustic energy. The sounds contain ...