Table Of ContentHYDROTHERMAL
PROCESSES AT SEAFLOOR
SPREADING CENTERS
NATO CONFERENCE SERIES
Ecology
II Systems Science
III Human Factors
IV Marine Sciences
V Air-Sea Interactions
VI Materials Science
IV MARINE SCIENCES
Volume I Marine Natural Products Chemistry
edited by D. J. Faulkner and W. H. Fenical
Volume 2 Marine Organisms: Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution
edited by Bruno Battaglia and John A. Beardmore
Volume 3 Spatial Pattern in Plankton Communities
edited by John H. Steele
Volume 4 Fiord Oceanography
edited by Howard J. Freeland, David M. Farmer, and
Colin D. Levings
Volume 5 Bottom-interacting Ocean Acoustics
edited by William A. Kuperman and Finn B. Jensen
Volume 6 Marine Slides and Other Mass Movements
edited by Svend Saxov and J. K. Nieuwenhuis
Volume 7 The Role of Solar Ultraviolet Radiation
in Marine Ecosystems
edited by John Calkins
Volume 8 Structure and Development of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge
edited by Martin H. P. Bott, Svend Saxov,
Manik Talwani, and Jarn Thiede
Volume 9 Trace Metals in Sea Water
edited by C. S. Wong, Edward Boyle,
Kenneth W. Bruland, J. D. Burton, and Edward D. Goldberg
Volume IDA Coastal Upwelling: Its Sediment Record
Responses of the Sedimentary Regime to
Present Coastal Upwelling
edited by Erwin Suess and Jarn Thiede
Volume I DB Coastal Upwelling: Its Sediment Record
Sedimentary Records of Ancient Coastal Upwelling
edited by Jarn Thiede and Erwin Suess
Volume 11 Coastal Oceanography
edited by Herman G. Gade, Anton Edwards, and Harald Svendsen
Volume 12 Hydrothermal Processes at Seafloor Spreading Centers
edited by Peter A. Rona, Kurt Bostrom, Lucien Laubier,
and Kenneth L. Smith, Jr.
Photograph of mounds surmounted by elongate chimneys several meters high com
pos(!d primarily of polymetallic sulfide minerals discharging high-temperature pure
hydrothermal solutions as "black smokers." A white crab is present near the center
of the photograph on one of the chimneys. The objects in the foreground are water
sampling bottles. The photograph was taken from the Deep Submergence Research
Vehicle Alvin at a water depth of about 2000 meters at the "Hanging Gardens"
hydrothermal site near the axis of the East Pacific Rise at latitude 210 North (K.
Kim, Isotope Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography).
A thicket of the vestimentiferan worm Riftia consisting of tubes about one meter in
length with a red absorptive organ protruding into a mixture of ambient seawater
that supplies oxygen, and hydrothermal effluent that supplies hydrogen sulfide visi
ble as a milky haze in the water column; carbon dioxide is supplied by both sources.
The objects in the foreground are the tops of water sampling bottles. The
photograph was taken from the Deep Submergence Research Vehicle Alvin at a
water depth of about 2000 meters at the "Hanging Gardens" hydrothermal site near
the axis of the East Pacific Rise at latitude 210 North (K. Kim, Isotope Laboratory,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography).
HYDROTHERMAL
PROCESSES AT SEAFLOOR
SPREADING CENTERS
Edited by
Peter A. Rona
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Atlantic Oceanographic and
Meteorological Laboratories
Miami, Florida
Kurt Bostrom
University of Stockholm
Stockholm, Sweden
Lucien Laubier
National Center for Ocean Exploitation
Paris, France
and
Kenneth L. Smith, Jr.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California
La Jolla, California
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Hydrothermal processes at seafloor spreading centers.
(NATO conference series. IV, Marine sciences; v. 12)
"Proceedings of a NATO Advanced Research Institute, held April 5-8, 1982, at the
Department of Earth Sciences of Cambridge University, England"-T.p verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sea-floor spreading-Congresses 2. Hydrothermal deposits-Congresses. 3.
Heat budget (Geophysics)-Congresses. 4. Chemical oceanography-Congresses. 5.
Hydrothermal vent ecology-Congresses. I. Rona, Peter A. II. Series.
QE511.7.H93 1983 551.46'08 83-17747
ISBN 978-1-4899-0404-1 ISBN 978-1-4899-0402-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0402-7
Proceedings of a NATO Advanced Research Institute, held April 5-8, 1982, at the
Department of Earth Sciences of Cambridge University, England
© 1983 Spnnger SClence+Buslness Media New York
Onglnally published by Plenum Press. New York In 1983
Softcover repnnt of the hardcover 1st edition 1983
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
PREFACE
During the past ten years, evidence has developed to indicate
that seawater convects through oceanic crust driven by heat
derived from creation of lithosphere at the Earth-encircling
oceanic ridge-rift system of seafloor spreading centers. This has
stimulated multiple lines of research with profound implications
for the earth and life sciences. The lines of research comprise
the role of hydrothermal convection at seafloor spreading centers
in the Earth's thermal regime by cooling of newly formed litho
sphere (oceanic crust and upper mantle); in global geochemical
cycles and mass balances of certain elements by chemical exchange
between circulating seawater and basaltic rocks of oceanic crust;
in the concentration of metallic mineral deposits by ore-forming
processes; and in adaptation of biological communities based on a
previously unrecognized form of chemosynthesis. The first work
shop devoted to interdisciplinary consideration of this field was
organized by a committee consisting of the co-editors of this
volume under the auspices of a NATO Advanced Research Institute
(ARI) held 5-8 April 1982 at the Department of Earth Sciences of
Cambridge University in England. This volume is a product of that
workshop.
The papers were written by members of a pioneering research
community of marine geologists, geophysicists, geochemists and
biologists whose work is at the stage of initial description and
interpretation of hydrothermal and associated phenomena at
seafloor spreading centers. The papers are grouped by subject
into eight sections each with an introductory paper that places
the papers in that section in context of the subject as a whole.
The subjects treated comprise geologic settings of hydrothermal
activity at slow-, intermediate-, and fast-spreading oceanic
ridges (section 1); the nature of hydrothermal circulation
inferred from crustal sections exposed on land and modeled at
seafloor spreading centers (section 2); the exchange of elements
between basalt and seawater at elevated temperatures and pressures
determined experimentally in the laboratory and the application of
these findings to interpretation of natural hydrothermal systems
and basalt alteration at oceanic ridges (section 3); comparison of
chemical and physical processes at submarine oceanic ridges with
those on Iceland, a subaerial portion of an oceanic ridge (section
vii
viii PREFACE
4); the chemistry of submarine hot springs determined where
primary hydrothermal solutions were first sampled at an oceanic
ridge, and the role of such solutions in geochemical mass balances
and budgets, as well as in the maturation of hydrocarbons (section
5); a reconsideration of ferromanganese deposits including manga
nese nodules in light of the new knowledge of seafloor hydrother
mal processes (section 6); hydrothermal ore-forming processes
directly observed at an oceanic ridge and inferred from mineral
deposits in certain slices of oceanic crust exposed on land
(section 7); the adaptation of biologic communities to the envi
ronment of active hydrothermal vents at oceanic ridges (section
8). A chronological list of landmarks in studies of hydrothermal
processes at seafloor spreading centers presented in the Appendix
helps to place the papers in perspective of the development of the
entire field. The papers consolidate previous work and delineate
a research frontier that is advancing rapidly.
The interdisciplinary overview reveals the immense potential
of the study of hydrothermal processes at seafloor spreading
centers for continued progress on both basic and applied levels.
On a basic level the field is at an early stage in developing
understanding of permeability and magmatic heat sources as
controls of hydrothermal convection in oceanic crust; mass and
heat transfer by high-temperature hydrothermal convection, low
temperature hydrothermal convection, and other submarine pro
cesses; the contribution of each of these processes to local and
global geochemical mass balances and budgets and their roles in
geochemical cycles; and the dynamics of biologic adaptation at
active submarine hydrothermal vents. The development of under
standing of hydrothermal processes at seafloor spreading centers
has brought the field to the threshold of deciphering the role
these processes in the evolution of the hydrosphere, lithosphere
and biosphere.
On an applied level, basalt-seawater exchange in hydrothermal
systems is a component to be considered in evaluation of the capa
city of the oceans to assimilate toxic substances. The concentra
tion of polymetallic mineral deposits by hydrothermal processes at
seafloor spreading centers constitutes a resource for the future,
and provides an analog to model ore-forming processes that apply
to the understanding of and exploration for economic hydrothermal
mineral deposits on land. The study of bacterial chemosynthesis
at hydrothermal vents may lead to developments in mariculture,
metal fixation, and medicine.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge those who made the NATO ARI
and this volume possible. The NATO Special Program Panel on
Marine Sciences under the chairmanship of J. D. Burton of
Southampton University offered the opportunity to organize the
ARI. The NATO Scientific Affairs Division provided funding with
PREFACE ix
supplemental support donated by the Centre National Pour
l'Exploitation des Oceans (CNEXO) of France, and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United
States. F. Webster gave guidance and support in his dual capa
cities as member of the NATO Panel and as Assistant Administrator
for NOAA Research and Development. N. A. Ostenso provided
encouragement as Deputy Assistant Administrator for NOAA Research
and Development. E. R. Oxburgh and M. I. Johnston, in their
respective positions as Chairman and Administrator of the Depart
ment of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University, made available an
ideal place to convene the ARI and facilitated local arrangements.
P. M. Vann and L. Schmidt in their respective positions as Asso
ciate Editor and Assistant to the Managing Editor of the Plenum
Publishing Corporation ably handled the production of this
volume. Finally, acknowledgment is extended to the authors who
presented the latest results of their investigations at the ARI,
to other participants whose discussion contributed to vigorous
interaction at the sessions, and to reviewers whose critical
comments have benefited the papers in this volume.
Peter A. Rona
Kurt Bostrom
Lucien Laubier
Kenneth L. Smith, Jr.
